John Tavares suffers terrifying injury after colliding with Corey Perry

Maple Leafs captain John Tavares was stretchered off the ice on Thursday after a terrifying collision with Corey Perry. 

Hockey was the last thing that anyone in Toronto was concerned about on Thursday night. In the opening game of the Maple Leafs-Canadiens playoff series, John Tavares suffered one of the most terrifying injuries witnessed in a hockey game.

As Tavares was falling to the ice, Perry launched himself into the air to avoid a collision. What ended up happening instead was Perry’s knee catching Tavares on the head which then slammed into the ice.

Warning: The video is pretty rough to watch, so scroll past if you don’t want to see it. 

John Tavares injury update: Maple Leafs star leaves after scary collision

Based on how Tavares was reacting after the blow, it initially looked like Perry’s skate blade had caught him in his head or neck area. That wasn’t the case, but knowing that didn’t offer relief for very long.

Tavares struggled to stand back up and eventually folded over limp onto the ice as the medical staff rushed out to assist him.

https://twitter.com/hilitinghockey/status/1395529697862193153?s=21

As he was being stretchered off the ice, Tavares gave a thumbs up to the crowd and to everyone surrounding him, which is a positive sign but it’s still unknown just how serious the injury is.

https://twitter.com/tsn_sports/status/1395531874559275010?s=21

With emotions running high after watching their captain stretchered off, the Leafs retaliated for what they seemingly believe to be a dirty hit. On the ensuing face off Nick Foligno dropped his gloves and fought Corey Perry.

Perry has a reputation for being a dirty player, but every angle of the replay suggests that this was purely an accidental collision and there was no malice involved. That didn’t stop the Leafs from starting a fight the next chance they could to retaliate for the incident.