Geoffrion injury overshadows game
CANADIENS PROSPECT rushed to hospital to undergo surgery after a crushing hit during the Bulldogs game at the Bell Centre
It wasn’t unlike many crushing bodychecks you see in a hockey game. But as Friday’s Bell Centre contest between the Hamilton Bulldogs and Syracuse Crunch wore on, the news about Blake Geoffrion went from bad to worse.
The Canadiens prospect was in a Montreal hospital late Friday night, undergoing surgery to his head after being thunderously but legally checked by Syracuse defenceman Jean-Philippe Côté, himself a former Habs project.
Information was sketchy, but Bulldogs head coach Sylvain Lefebvre said after his team’s 4-1 loss that Geoffrion’s injury was not lifethreatening and that his parents, in Montreal for the game, were with their son.
Geoffrion was carrying the puck toward the Syracuse zone, along the far boards, when he was lined up and crushed by Côté. The Bulldogs forward fell heavily to the ice; Côté’s skate appeared to strike Geoffrion’s head, which also hit the ice, his helmet still on.
The 24-year-old made it to his feet and skated off, directly to his team’s dressing room, as a melée ensued, Hamilton’s Michael Blunden battling Côté in a short fight.
Geoffrion lost some blood in the incident, ice crews needing to scrape the ice, and he didn’t return to the game.
Late in the contest, on their Twitter account, the Canadiens announced that Geoffrion had been transported to a hospital.
It was after the game, to the media, that Lefebvre detailed the situation as much as he could.
The gravity of the injury was learned after an excellent crowd of 18,582 had left the Bell Centre, having witnessed the first hockey game in the arena in seven months and two days.
It was on April 7 that the Canadiens had defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 in the NHL clubs’ 82nd and final game of the 2011-12 season, Montreal finishing 15th and last in the Eastern Conference in a campaign that gave the word dysfunctional a whole new meaning.
At the final siren that night, the Canadiens sent six players down to the Bulldogs, their senior farm team: goalie Robert Mayer, defenceman Frédéric St-Denis and forwards Louis Leblanc, Geoffrion, Aaron Palushaj and Gabriel Dumont.
That brought us to Friday’s Bulldogs game at the Bell Centre, which since its last hockey game had staged 30 different musical acts, five boxing cards, pro wrestling, an NBA exhibition game, Disney on Ice and about a dozen miscellaneous shows.
Goalie Mayer returned Friday with a 4-2-1 record this season, a 2.37 goals-against average and .921 save percentage. Geoffrion was his team’s leading scorer with four goals and two assists in nine games; Palushaj had five points on three goals and two assists.
Dumont and St-Denis were in Friday’s lineup as well, though Leblanc remained out, sidelined Oct. 20 for four to six weeks with a high ankle sprain.
The doors to the Bell Centre opened an hour before the 6:30 p.m. start, joyful fans streaming in to make up what was a record crowd for the Bulldogs.
The farm team has a special corner in the hearts of hockey-starved Habs fans, the team stocked with players that will someday — in some cases soon — be members of the parent, currently lockedout Canadiens.
No one knows exactly when that will be, of course. The NHL lockout might be inching toward a resolution. Or, it could be in quicksand.
Gary Bettman was hardly the picture of enthusiasm in New York as the Bell Centre’s doors were opening, a sombre Don Fehr following him to a microphone a couple hours later.
If anyone believed the NHL commissioner and the NHLPA executive director were making solid progress in narrowing the gap that separated them, you should remember the River Kwai and the sturdy bridge that spanned it.
But no matter the gloominess hanging over the NHL, Friday’s Bell Centre — notwithstanding Geoffrion’s injury — was positively radiant.
Most obvious was the brightness of the rink itself, thanks to a new $700,000 lighting system that made its game debut. The 16-year-old setup was deemed obsolete, so with its impressive replacement, expect even the dimmest play to look spectacularly bright in person or on high-definition television.
The Canadiens were acknowledged, sort of. A Movember-moustached, CH-jersey’d Youppi! was in the house and a pregame scoreboard tribute to Bulldogs alumni featured Carey Price, Max Pacioretty and David Desharnais to raucous cheers. The clips of departed brothers Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn? Not so popular.
For those who came for the dukes, hulking Habs blueline prospect Jarred Tinordi and Syracuse defenceman Radko Gudas dropped the mitts and had a free-swinging tilt deep into the second period.
With the Canadiens still in a state of suspended animation, the Bulldogs’ visit was a bit of a one-night salve for Montreal hockey fans.
No one expected the subplot that was the injury to Geoffrion, who was traded to the Canadiens from Nashville last February, choosing the No. 57 as a tribute to his grandfather and great-grandfather, Habs icons Bernie Geoffrion and Howie Morenz.
Everyone was holding their breath for the young man late Friday night. That’s not how this game, the first in Montreal in 216 days, was supposed to end.