Taylor Hall Injury: What's It Like To Watch A Player Take A Skate To The Face?

Imagine you're at work, maybe as a construction worker plying your trade along the side of a highway. You're minding your business, just going about your average work day, when suddenly, a car slams into the median that sits between you and the traffic whizzing past. It spins, flips over and comes to a skidding halt 20 feet away from you.

Maybe that's not quite the same as working at a hockey game and seeing a player take a skate to the face during warmups, but from a "holy crap, did that just happen?!" standpoint, there are similarities. That's what Brooke Schrider, a sales rep with the Columbus Blue Jackets, went through on Tuesday night.

Standing just a few rows off the glass while chatting with a client, she saw Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers wipe out and crash towards the boards. As you likely know by now, the chain reaction resulted in Hall taking a skate blade to the forehead, and she provided some color for us: What happens in an arena when there's a horrific injury during warmups?

"They were all taking shots on goal and Hall took a shot and as he came across towards the boards, tripped (looked like over a puck?) and slid right into Ladislav Smid. Smid then went down and they both went into the glass. Smid went in feet first, lucky for him, but Hall went into the boards sideways. As they went into the glass, another Oiler, Potter I believe it was, was skating down the boards and tried to hop over and avoid them, but came down right onto Hall's face.

That's where the video cuts off. What happened after?

"The music was still playing and the Blue Jackets were still going about their business; not sure if they even noticed the injury at first. One of the Oilers medical staff rushed onto the ice into the corner where he was and was tending to him while a couple players watched. Pretty sure the players involved were the ones standing around seeing if he was alright. He got up with the help of a trainer and two players. He was skating on his own but the guys were kinda helping him too since he skated off with his hand still covering his eye.

"A couple of the other guys continued to stretch and shoot, but most were standing by the bench watching and waiting. It was definitely a strange situation and a lot of fans were not even paying attention until they realized he was hurt. Then, everyone wondered what in the hell was going on.

It all happened so fast, but I don't think he was down for very long. Few minutes at most."

That's gotta be the weirdest part of the whole thing. A guy just took a skate blade to the face (!), a wound which needed 30 stitches to close, and it wasn't the focus of the entire building. It wasn't even the attention of everybody on the ice, as the team at the other end barely even realized what had happened.

Warmups didn't stop. Music didn't stop. Just go about your business, right?