Zed's Not Dead

But he did have a close call last night:

Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik required lifesaving surgery after severing his carotid artery, his agent told The Associated Press on Monday.

Zednik was in stable condition while recovering at a Buffalo hospital after losing a significant amount of blood during Sunday's game at Buffalo, agent David Schatia said. Schatia didn't have further details because he had just arrived in Montreal following a trip oversees.

Zednik was sliced across the right side of the throat by teammate Olli Jokinen's skate in a frightening accident midway through the third period of Buffalo's 5-3 victory....

...Zednik was circling the net behind the play and skating into the corner just when Jokinen was upended by Sabres forward Clarke MacArthur. Jokinen fell headfirst to the ice, and his right leg and skate flew up and struck Zednik directly on the side of the neck.

Clutching his neck, Zednik left a trail of blood as he somehow had the capacity to race three-quarters the length of the ice to the Panthers bench. He nearly fell into the arms of trainer Dave Zenobi, who immediately placed a towel on the player's throat. With the help of defenseman Jassen Cullimore, Zednik was escorted up the tunnel behind the bench and loaded into an ambulance.

That's a frightening injury. You sometimes forget just how sharp those blades are. I remember when Clint Malarchuk suffered a similar injury and the pools of blood on the ice. I forgot how fast he came back from it:

Amazingly, after receiving more than 300 stitches to close the wound, Malarchuk returned to practice four days later, having spent only one night in the hospital. And about a week after that, he was back between the pipes against the Quebec Nordiques. "Doctors told me to take the rest of the year off, but there was no way", Malarchuk said. "The longer you wait, the harder it's going to be. I play for keeps."

Our best wishes go out to Zednik for a similarly speedy recovery, both physically and mentally.