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I apologize for the late posting, but I had an appointment today (and unfortunately tomorrow as well) so I was out all day and therefore unable to post. However, I did keep up with the situation through my iPhone and it seems that Henrik is ok and should be able to play tomorrow. Here's the story from Rangers Rants:
Toward the end of this morning’s practice, Henrik Lundqvist took a Brian Boyle slap shot from the left boards just under his mask with the puck hitting the goalie on the right side, just above where the neck meets the collarbone. Lundqvist threw down his stick, clutched at his throat and immediately skated off the ice to the trainer’s room, with an apologetic and sheepish looking Boyle (Dr. Boyle, coach John Tortorella later joked twice) following him.
Lundqvist said later he felt pain, then couldn’t breathe, then felt dizzy. The important thing, though, is Lundqvist pronounced himself fine, though Tortorella blanched at the notion of naming his starting goalie for tomorrow’s game at Philadelphia a day early.
“I’m fine,” said Lundqvist, who was asked if he felt shock immediately. “More pain. You don’t get shocked when you get hit as a goalie. It’s part of the job.”
Lundqvist said it took him a couple of minutes to starting normal breathing again and he spent about 15 minutes icing his neck, which was red either from a developing welt or from being iced, most likely both. Lundqvist said the issue was that he turned his head from the shot, exposing his neck, rather than allowing himself to be hit flush, as is often the case.
“It happens,” Lundqvist said. “You face a lot of shots in practice. Sometimes they hit you in a bad spot.”
Though Lundqvist has been hit in the mask too many times to count, oftentimes during games of his own doing as he heads the puck into the corner or over the glass, he said he’s never really been unable to breathe like he was today.
But he did recall one incident in Russia when he was playing for the Swedish national team in which he suffered a hairline fracture of his jaw after being hit on the side of his helmet. Actually, that time, Lundqvist said he was back on the ice the next day and didn’t know he had a broken jaw until two weeks later when he saw the doctors for persistent pain.
This time, Lundqvist hopes to be back on the ice the next day as well.
“It’s stiff, I can feel it,” Lundqvist said. “It’ll be fine. I’ll stretch it out.”
Of the two, Boyle looked worse after practice, still upset at over what happened.
“I hammered it hard, I just got it up,” Boyle said. “It was a weird drill where we were coming around, avoiding the player and pounding it. It was still on net. You never want to see that happen.”
Boyle skated after Lundqvist and followed him to the trainer’s room, prompting Tortorella’s “Dr. Boyle” comment (though it was said as a joke, it could also be seen as a jab that Tortorella wasn’t necessarily pleased Boyle left practice on his own).
“He said, ‘I’m all right, go back out,’” Boyle said. “I didn’t want to practice any more. It was at the end of practice.
“He’s fine, thank goodness,” Boyle added. “I’ll be all right, too.”
Tortorella said he didn’t see the play but knew Lundqvist would OK after he saw the goalie throw his stick in frustration.
http://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/rangerrants/comments/lundqvist_ok_after_scare/
and NHL.com:
Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist is breathing easier -- literally -- Wednesday afternoon after being hit in the neck with a slap shot during today's practice.
A Brian Boyle shot hit Lundqvist on the right side of the All-Star goaltender's neck, and he immediately left the ice.
Lundqvist was feeling better not long after, and expects to be in the net when the Rangers travel to Philadelphia for Thursday's game against the Flyers. It's the teams' first meeting since their memorable last day of the season shootout that propelled the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Final and started the Rangers' summer earlier than planned.
"It's a little stiff now, but it will be fine," Lundqvist told the New York Post. "The shot hit me in the throat between my (neck) padding and the extra padding I have at the bottom of my mask, and when it did, I had trouble breathing and then I got really dizzy because blood was blocked going to my brain."
When Lundqvist left the ice, Boyle went with him, and the fourth-line center felt relieved when he learned his teammate would be OK.
"I was shooting well today, but obviously that one didn't go quite where I wanted it too," he told the Post. "I didn't him flush, but at that point, what do you do?"
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=542441&cmpid=rss-News%20in%20English
From the NY Post:
"I have enough padding and protection," said Lundqvist, who revealed that he once broke his jaw while playing for the Swedish National Team when he was hit by a puck during a practice in Russia. "Usually I'm able to move away from [a high shot], but this time I didn't."
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/rangers/rangers_lundqvist_ok_after_taking_j2dSrgpUBhi6rWLhDVJg1L#ixzz14GeExgIA
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