This one was BAD.
You wanna talk about a Scott Stevens-esque descendent, well look no further than the Albany Devils’ Dan Kelly. Ironically, the dude plays for the New Jersey Devils’ AHL affiliate, and well, the hit he delivered to the Toronto Marlies’ Andreas Johnson on Tuesday night was eerily similar to the ones dealt for so many years to unfortunate NHLers caught crossing the blue line with their head down by the former Devils captain.
The hammering collision looked to have knocked Johnson out instantly, and he spent a good amount of time on the ice before being transported to a nearby hospital. Understandably, the hit, which took place during Game 4 of the teams’ second round Calder Cup playoffs match-up, earned Kelly an instant game misconduct. But then the league came down hard on him Thursday, slapping him with a 10-game suspension that will carry over to next season should his Devils not advance further.
Here’s the whole scary incident in real-time:
Gotta keep your head up at all times, but equally, you just can’t be out there head hunting either. That’s about respecting the game.
The Marlies-Devils series is tied at 2-2, and they face-off for Game 5 Thursday night.
[h/t @HockeyWebCast]