Pascal Dupuis Escapes Major Injury After Scary Scene Against Dallas Stars

Is Pascal Dupuis lucky or unlucky?

After nearly 10 months off the ice due to a serious knee injury, it looked like the Pittsburgh Penguins winger's return to action would be cut short at three games when he was stretchered off the ice midway through Thursday's contest against the Dallas Stars.

The faithful breathed a sigh of relief when Dupuis skated alone before Friday's practice at Consol Energy Center. 

"He looked fine this morning," head coach Mike Johnston told Sam Kasan of Penguins.com after practice. "He got checked out by the medical staff. He’s been basically cleared by them. They wanted to see him out on the ice and getting his heart rate up."

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That tiny figure is Pascal Dupuis. pic.twitter.com/fg9ldF62o3

— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPG) October 17, 2014"

With the Penguins leading Thursday's game 2-1, Dupuis was cross-checked to the ice in front of the Dallas net by defenseman Alex Goligoski with 6:58 to play in the second period. While he was down, he was hit on the back of the neck by a shot from teammate Kris Letang.

Dupuis got up to one knee before collapsing back to the ice. With both teams looking on with concern, play was stopped for several minutes as Dupuis was treated by medical staff, then taken from the rink on a stretcher. He was able to give the crowd a thumbs-up while being wheeled off.

Coach Mike Johnston reported after the game that Dupuis experienced some numbness in his arm, but the feeling eventually returned.

The Penguins ultimately lost the game 3-2 thanks to a power-play goal from Tyler Seguin with 2.9 seconds left in regulation time. After such a tough finish, Dupuis was a sight for sore eyes after the game—back in the dressing room after a quick trip to the hospital.

"It’s scary when you see that," captain Sidney Crosby said. "You don’t know what’s happening, but he came back after the game, we saw him then, so I knew he was good and glad to hear that obviously."

Thursday's incident could have been much more serious. Calgary Flames forward Daymond Langkow missed more than a year of action with an injury that many thought might have been career-ending after he was hit on the neck by a shot from teammate Ian White in March of 2010.

At age 35, Dupuis is fortunate to have returned to action at 100 percent last week after ACL and MCL surgery to repair his knee back in February. In his first game in nearly 10 months against the Anaheim Ducks last week, Dupuis matched his career best with four points—a goal and three assists.

A regular on Sidney Crosby's right side in 2013-14, Dupuis has been effective in the early going this on a makeshift line with Brandon Sutter and Evgeni Malkin.

If all goes well, he'll be back in his spot Saturday night, when the Penguins take on the New York Islanders. "We won’t know until (Saturday) morning," Johnston said Friday.

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The trainers will be reading everything today and making sure there’s nothing there. He’ll do a skate tomorrow with the team in the game day skate. We’ll make a decision after the skate.

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Dupuis has suffered his share of misfortunes of late, but he and the Penguins should consider themselves very fortunate that Thursday's incident didn't turn out to be much more serious.