This is so crazy. I never heard about this.
In 2008, the Nashville Predators beat the Detroit Redwings in game 3 of their Stanley Cup Playoffs series. Nashville scored 2 goals in 9 seconds. Jason Arnott scored the game winning goal and his teammate Alexander Radulov skated over and jumped on him, just as Arnott was turned around to face the bench, accidentally slamming his head straight into the boards.
You can see in the video below, Arnott goes straight down to the ice and has a hard time getting back up again. Then, at the end of the clip, you see him barely making it to the bench. He’s clearly dazed and is very wobbly on his skates. He played the next game, but didn’t play in the playoffs again that season.
It was kept under wraps until the end of Nashville’s playoff run, but it was later revealed that Jason Arnott got a concussion from that incedent.
I was watching the Washington Capitols game tonight and they were talking about this game and how Arnott will not celebrate any goals now, because of that. Crazy story.
Here’s the video on YouTube: