Did New York Rangers Err in Handling Henrik Lundqvist's Throat Injury?

NEW YORK — There's a fine line between tough and stupid in hockey. 

Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers have spent the past week blurring that line.

According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, Lundqvist will be out for at least a month after taking a wrist shot to the throat during the team's 4-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. Coach Alain Vigneault neither confirmed nor denied that report Friday, although Lundqvist is not accompanying the team for its contest in Nashville on Saturday.

(Update: The team released this statement about Lundqvist's injury: "Henrik Lundqvist suffered a vascular injury on Saturday. We have been conferring with leading medical experts to ensure the best possible care. Henrik will remain sidelined at least three weeks, until he is revaluated [sic] and we have completed the process of conferring with the medical experts."

According to Inside Radiology, a vascular injury can be detected via a CT scan and, if that doesn't reveal anything, an angiogram is performed. If it is not detected, a stroke can occur in the days, weeks or months following the injury.) 

Lundqvist's tough-guy situation is unique, as these situations tend to be. It can't be compared to when Boston's Gregory Campbell spent about a minute killing a penalty on a broken leg in the 2013 conference final or when Ian Laperriere of the Philadelphia Flyers lied about concussion symptoms so he could continue playing in the postseason. 

Someone is at fault for the Rangers to some degree. Someone has to take responsibility.

Consider the scene at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Ryan McDonagh cut in front of Lundqvist and accidentally lifted his throat protector at the exact moment Carolina's Brad Malone unleashed a shot that would have either harmlessly deflected off thick plastic or sailed six feet over the net in almost any other situation.

Instead, with Lundqvist's head tilted back, his eyes forced upward toward the Garden ceiling, the puck crashed into his throat, missing his larynx by literal inches.

What followed was one of the scariest sights at MSG in recent history, right up there with defenseman Marc Staal taking a deflected slap shot in the eye in 2013. Lundqvist collapsed to the ice, hands around his throat, his legs flailing and kicking as he desperately gasped for air. Lundqvist said after the game that it took around a minute or two for him to draw air into his lungs.

Lundqvist was without oxygen to his brain for about a minute, although the team says that time frame was shorter.

Trainers from both the Hurricanes and Rangers came onto the ice to examine Lundqvist. His jaw, neck and presumably everything else were checked for damage. With the Rangers leading 2-0 in the second period of a game against a team they could've defeated with Cam Talbot in net, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Lundqvist would exit the game to an ovation.

Instead, Lundqvist stayed in, which in a tough-guy culture is revered by fans as much as players, and received the loudest applause of the night.

Afterward, though, Lundqvist's description of what he felt while down in his crease made that decision troubling.

"When I get hit, obviously it’s painful, and it’s hard to breathe for a couple of minutes," Lundqvist said that night. "Very light-headed. I got a little worried the first minute or so, but then they told me just to breathe and slowly I started to feel better.

"The first couple of minutes it was more for me to just see is it going to start to feel better after a while. I slowly did. I had some headaches the rest of the game. I guess that’s normal because I couldn’t breathe there for a little bit."

Here's where the stupidity of this situation appears. It's hard to say for sure, but this has all the markings of situation where medical professionals should have overridden the desire of a competitive athlete to remain in a game with those symptoms.

Lundqvist had headaches and bouts of dizziness over the final two periods against Carolina. The team is saying Lundqvist did not suffer a concussion, which may make some sense on the surface. But a blow to the head isn't necessarily required for a concussion to occur.

If there is enough force behind a blow to the neck—say, for instance, a point-blank wrist shot that sends a frozen rubber disc into the neck—that too can cause a concussion.

Let's, for the sake of argument, agree that Lundqvist does not have a concussion and did not play five more periods with one.

Who cares?

He spoke openly about having dizziness and headaches in the aftermath of a potentially life-threatening injury. If it walks like a concussion and quacks like a concussion...

What makes this especially egregious is Vigneault was party to one of the scariest on-ice injuries in NHL history.

Vigneault was coaching the Montreal Canadiens in 2000 when one of his players, Trent McCleary, nearly died after blocking a slap shot by Philadelphia's Chris Therien. McCleary's larynx was fractured, and his lung collapsed. Emergency surgery was performed at the arena to create an airway, which saved McCleary's life and allowed him to reach a hospital in time.

McCleary's career was over.

When asked what he was thinking when he saw Lundqvist writhing on the ice Saturday, Vigneault recalled that incident with perfect clarity.

How could Vigneault immediately flash on that incident and not remove Lundqvist as a precaution? Or at the very least, give Lundqvist the following game against Florida off? If anyone in that building had specific experience with the dangers of a puck to the throat, it's Vigneault, and he chose to do nothing.

When Laperriere had his concussion symptoms in 2010, he hid them from the team, so it's hard to hang blame on the Flyers. In Lundqvist's case, he spoke honestly about having headaches and dizziness during a game, and the New York Rangers did nothing about it—not in the moments he was down on the ice and not afterward. 

Should Lundqvist have known better? Maybe. If he puts faith in the team's medical staff, speaks honestly of his symptoms and he's told he's fine, what can he do? If a team doctor says you are medically capable of playing and you ask out of the lineup, what sort of stigma does that place on you? How will your teammates view you? How will you view yourself? Better suit up against Florida.

It's especially confounding when you consider Lundqvist signed a seven-year, $59.5 million contract last season. It's not as though Lundqvist is a fourth-line plugger, forced to conceal an injury so he can continue just surviving in the league. He could probably arrive at the rink in a track suit, and no one would care.

Are these piping-hot takes on Lundqvist and the Rangers mostly hindsight? Absolutely. Sitting in the press box after the game that night, I wasn't sure what to think. If the team says it's not a concussion, why not let Lundqvist fight through those scary symptoms?

If they are only going to subside as he draws more oxygen into his lungs, what does it matter if he's doing that in the locker room or on the ice? If he can't make the injury worse, then maybe it's OK he plays.

Clearly, I was wrong. And so were the Rangers.

Someone let Lundqvist down this week. If those closest to him didn't recognize the severity of the injury, maybe he needs better people around him.

All statistics via NHL.com and Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.