Ryan White Absolutely Mauled Matt Martin's Face in Brutal Hockey Fight

Playing the part of exterior decorator, Ryan White dutifully went about the work of reorganizing and adding color to Matt Martin's face during Thursday night's game between the New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers.

White and Martin dropped the gloves early in the first period. They seemed evenly matched, with Martin at first appearing handily on top of things.

It wasn't long before White shook free of his elbow pad, however, and landed a hard, crunchy right to Martin's face. The blow is difficult to pick out in real time, but replays showed the Islanders winger's nose shift in agonizing clarity.

Here's a clip of White's haymaker, uploaded by Vine user Patrick. This is what happens when a large man swings as hard as he can and the punch lands.

Warning: This is video of a graphic injury. You probably don’t want to see this.

Yep. "Right in the schnoz."

No one seems to know exactly why these two chose to throw punches—hockey!—but both men took five-minute seats in the penalty box for the incident. As you'll note, Martin whiled away his time gushing from the face and turning purple.

He would leave the ice to receive treatment looking appreciably worse for the wear.

YouTube

On a positive note, Newsday's Arthur Staple (h/t Josh Sanchez of FanSided) reported that Martin eventually returned to the game with a full face shield. The Islanders went on to win 3-2 via shootout.

As someone who has had his nose broken, I can assure you of the readily obvious: Having the most forward part of your face bashed sideways is not fun. Even worse than the break itself is the bleeding, which is difficult to staunch and requires constant icing and pressure.

Fortunately, there are doctors or team physicians who can (forcibly) rectify this situation—or in the case of Steve Nash, it's a DIY job (warning: video of graphic injury). Nothing fatal, but definitely one of the more unpleasant, non-game-ending injuries.

Shake it off, Martin. It could've been worse. It could've been teeth.

Dan is on Twitter, shuddering.