Considering hockey is the only sport where super sharp blades are an essential part of the game, you'd think ghastly injuries would happen much more often.
New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist appeared to escape such a fate on Monday when a referee's poor timing nearly ended in disaster.
The Florida Panthers mounted an excellent scoring chance midway through the second period, which resulted in a mass of humanity around Lundqvist's net as players grappled to control the puck. Amid all of that chaos, one referee skated into the crease area to call the play dead. But the play wasn't dead, he had to leap out of the way and almost amputated Lundqvist's arm on the way down:
Okay, maybe amputated is a bit much. But nothing good was going to happen if the referee's skate blade landed on Lundqvist's wrist and not his blocker. The play was reviewed for a possible goal, which just gave everyone a better chance to wonder why the ref was in the net in the first place.