Montreal Canadiens ahead Corey Perry opened about the strike that transpired Toronto Maple Leafs centre John Tavares from Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs matchup on Thursday night.
With under 10 minutes to go in the first phase, Tavares dropped to the ice after he had been struck from the Canadiens’ Ben Chiarot in the blue line.
“He got hit and that I had been coming from this zone,” Perry explained, through NHL.com. “He dropped and I attempted to jump him over and sadly I grabbed my knee on his mind. I really don’t know what else to do that. I understand Johnny pretty nicely. I just hope he’s OK.”
It was a frightening situation. I will reach out to him and speak to him and hope he is OK. [Maple Leafs ahead Nick Foligno] came to me and said,’Let’s just settle this today, let’s not wait’ You have got to do everything you have got to perform.'”
Perry and Foligno fought when play resumed.
“Just dreadful,” Foligno added. “Life comes into play in the stage, and only seeing how he had been in pain, it made you sick to your stomach. You consider him as a family man also. The game sort of takes a back seat whatever the situation when you see someone in that much pain along with also an unfortunate drama like it had been.”
He said the player was likely to stay in the hospital for additional testing.
The Canadiens will come off with a 2-1 success to go up 1-0 in the sequence.
