Marian Hossa Injury: Blackhawks Winger Taken Off Ice On Stretcher (VIDEO)

Marian Hossa is hit in the head by Raffi Torres in a first round NHL playoff game Tuesday, April 17, 2012, in Chicago.

The 2012 playoffs are off to a physical, sometimes dirty, start. That continued on Tuesday night when Blackhawks star Marian Hossa was injured and carted off the ice on a stretcher.

Hossa suffered a blow to the head in an open-ice hit by the Phoenix Coyotes' Raffi Torres. (Scroll down for video.) There was no penalty on the play, even though Torres left his feet, something that has led to suspensions in the past.

There's been no shortage of suspensions in the opening days of the NHL playoffs, which last until June. Some are questioning whether the disciplinary action handed out from NHL exec Brendan Shanahan has been enough.

Hossa is coming off a 29-goal and 77-point season in 81 games. He's been a key part of the Hawks offense all year. The Chicago Blackhawks official Twitter feed has been promoting the hashtag #WinItForHossa tonight since the hit. (Update: Phoenix ended up winning the game 3-2 in overtime.)

Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville called the hit "brutal" after a TV timeout on CNBC, adding, "I can't believe four guys missed it."

Yahoo Sports reports that Hossa left the United Center in an ambulance, citing a tweet from Chicago Tribune reporter Chris Kuc.

TSN's Bob McKenzie noted on Twitter that Torres made contact with Hossa 0.83 seconds after Hossa lost the puck. "In relative terms, that is considered 'late,'" he tweeted.

Watch the hit by Torres on Hossa below and judge for yourself (scroll down for poll).

WATCH:

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It's worth pointing out that Torres has been in trouble with the league before. His repeat offender status could increase the likelihood he is suspended. Watch his hit on Colorado's Jan Hejda below that led to a suspension.

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Comments

[AFgirl]

12:37 PM on 04/22/2012

Player safety HAS to be number 1. It's just not worth it when someone loses their ability to feed themself or wipe their own backside. It's their profession but also a game. Just like Suh in the NFL: people like this should not even be in the game! The late hits or hits to the head are not productive, part of the game and serve no purpose other than to hurt someone. These players get injured enough just playing the game legally.

[mesaboy]

08:22 AM on 04/20/2012

While it is true that Brenden Shanahan is attempting to deal with these acts of violence, there should be an even stiffer penalty. If you as a player give another player a concussion, then your fine/penalty should be that you are out for as long as the player who suffered the brain injury. Especially if it was deliberate. And you should be out of the game without pay. These brain injuries have not only an immediate effect, but as we all know, a much more devastating long term effect that sometimes results in dementia. Maybe the elbows will start to come down.

[varnerchris]

07:02 PM on 04/19/2012

I know this has nothing to do with fighting but its weird how everyone says fighting is part of the sport of hockey but if you were at a bar and you started fighting you would be charged. Why is it okay for hockey players to get frustrated with each other and start fighting. Checks are ok but stupid hits and fighting should be penalized much more than they are.

I swam collegiality and I never took a swing at a rival who always beat me. They need to learn to control themselves and play the actual sport.

[Killermolls44]

12:03 AM on 04/21/2012

Is swimming a contact sport? Lol

[joymij]

05:47 PM on 04/19/2012

If people have a problem with it, especially players, Hossa will get what he deserves from someone much bigger and better at spreading someones face around the ice. Leave it up to the players to deal with it, as they should.

[opprobrious]

09:59 PM on 04/18/2012

The NHL plays lip service to this kind of action and, surprise, it keeps happening.

[The Commish]

05:23 PM on 04/18/2012

The players need to be able to police themselves. This type of thing was an exception 20 years ago, not the rule.

[woolysock]

03:07 PM on 04/18/2012

Last year was bad enough, watching the President's Trophy winning Vancouver Canucks get beat up by the Boston Bruins. This year interest here in Vancouver has faded to almost zero. We have a reasonably classy team that again won the President's Trophy on skill only to have one and then the other Sedin beaten up on the ice. It seems the game changes from something involving finesse in the regular season to an extremely vulgar thugs game that growing numbers of people no longer want to watch. Because the NHL has bigger faster players they should move to Olympic rules and larger European size rinks. If not, the audience will fade away...

[pecosdog]

05:53 PM on 04/18/2012

Vancouver is the same team that put a bounty on the Avs' Steve Moore years ago and broke his neck and gave him brain damage when that coward, Bertucci hit him from behind. Moore had already adhered to the unwritten rule and had fought with a Canuck over the previous hit, it should have been over after that, but the Canucks to it to the end and actually tried to kill Moore. Now the canucks are fighting the lawsuit on behalf of the young man whose career was ended and was almost killed. The hll with the canucks.

[clarke90]

07:46 PM on 04/18/2012

"actually tried to kill Moore" Very rational. Especially because the impact with the ice caused the injury and not the punch to the back of the head. But you obviously are a republican because i say so.

[woolysock]

08:09 PM on 04/18/2012

Yes that was another nasty chapter in hockey history. Bertuzzi was retaliating for a devastating hit on Markus Naslund, the Canucks captain at the time and the team's best player. Subsequently Bertuzzi was traded. He now plays for Detroit ;-)

[WorkInCanada]

02:46 PM on 04/18/2012

Heard on the radio yesterday that hockey school enrollments are down this season. If the NHL doesn't get their act together, they are going to see the league and the sport die a slow death (like a lot of the concussed players). What parent would put their kid into this sport? OMG...some have even mentioned that it could be considered child abuse/neglect to enroll your kids in hockey today.
It may already be too late to save the sport - to bring it back to it's old glory. Many young people today never knew what hockey was like before it became ultimate fighting on skates.

[DevRock]

02:56 PM on 04/18/2012

I played all the way through high school. Seeing what hockey has become, I won't steer my son towards hockey or football.

[WorkInCanada]

05:56 PM on 04/18/2012

Isn't that just a sad commentary on what's happened with the sport. Thank you for your honesty. Unless boys and young men today are 250lb and 6'3" they really can be in harms way. I suppose even those big guys get hurt now, too. With knowing what we are starting to know now about the long term effects of concussions, let alone possible neck and back injuries, makes your decision even wiser. Whoodda thunk that Canadians would actually be moving away from hockey, ever? Very sad...

[GeorgeGee]

06:52 AM on 04/19/2012

Bigger, stronger and faster, Today's Pro athlete is a well oiled machine. Strip Patrick Willis and/or Calvin Johnson down to their shorts and you will see two NFL men who are built like Greek Gods. Way over 6', nearing 230 - 250 pounds, no body fat, pure fast twitch muscle fiber and can reach speeds of Olympic track athletes. Hockey players are sometimes even bigger and flying on skates with less head and neck protection.

This wasn't the case 20 years ago. Pro athletes were mostly wimpy back then "compared" to the physical freaks playing today. In football and hockey there are literally colissions happening that are more vicious and extreme than many auto accidents.

There WILL come a day, and it will be sooner than not, where a hit on an unsuspecting player will cause an immediate and complete fracture of a players spine causing INSTANT death on the field or on the ice. It's not a matter of if, but when. We have stretched the laws of physics so far that they must now meet the laws of probability.

And when it happens.... what next? I don't know the answer to that.

[HossHumard]

02:40 PM on 04/18/2012

Wonder if Duncan Keith felt a little deja vu when he saw that hit...pretty much the same move he pulled on Sedin late in the regular season....hey Quenneville, not so funny when it's your star getting taken out by a dirty hit, is it?

I am puzzled at the abuse directed towards the refs though...why aren't you holding the players responsible...they're the ones showing no respect whatsoever for their fellow players. The officials can't see everything, especially stuff that happens away from the play....they get most stuff, but they're never going to catch everything.

[WorkInCanada]

02:40 PM on 04/18/2012

I don't get the controversy here. Wasn't that a legal hit?

I don't agree with the brutality in hockey today....can't watch it anymore...it's too gruesome. There should be Violence Warnings during the airing of games.
That being said, I don't see how this wasn't a legal hit.

Aren't they allowed to check the cr.ap out of each other? Isn't that why it's such a brutal sport?

[Shwizer]

03:35 PM on 04/18/2012

He didn't have the puck and he left the ice when he hit him both no-no's and also he hit him in the head. Rafi will be suspened for this hit

[clarke90]

05:06 PM on 04/18/2012

He had the puck close enough to the hit the it was clean in that sense. The whole leaving his feet thing will be a touchy issue because it is after the contact that his foot leave the ice. I am sure he will get a suspension, but more for the fact that it was a star player and not the fact that this was illegal.

[TonyOnly]

02:24 PM on 04/18/2012

We have guys like Cherry, Milbury and Nilan telling us if we don't like all the suspensions and deliberate injuries, we're a bunch of sissies. And not real hockey fans.

Since when has the Boston philosophy become the standard on how hockey should be played? What about the multiple Cup winning style of teams of the Canadiens, Oilers, Islanders, and Red Wings? They don't count?

Because, according to some, taking out the other team's best players is a legitimate way to win. They say it's not cheating. "The fans love it."

The NFL thinks it's cheating. They gave Payton a full year suspension for the bounties, in an attempt to protect the integrity of their game.

But it's become so rampant in the NHL, coaches don't have to encoursage their players to use the tactic. Players target and take out opposing players as "part of the game."

It may be an effective way to win. But it's not legitimate. It's not a professional way for a major league sport to conduct it's business in today's world.

[savman]

02:03 PM on 04/18/2012

I live in Vancouver and people mock the Sadin 'sisters', they are arguably the best players on the ice and play for the game and would never level cheap shots to any opponent. But now both have been recipients of cheap head shots and now we face elimination. Way to go NHL - you have lost all credibility for keeping the goon mentality out of the game.

[mutant26]

01:44 PM on 04/18/2012

should be a 3 strike rule. 3rd strike you lose your contract, the team pays a huge fine and you are banned from the NHL forever. This guy is a clown who deserves that much. Repeat offender, and a dirty player. 25 games minimum and his name does not go on the cup should they win this year. An absolute and utter disgrace. I am wondering what kind of apology he could give that would suffice.

[TonyOnly]

01:43 PM on 04/18/2012

The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American history."

Who said 'Give me Liberty , or give me Death'?"
Little Hodiaki, a bright foreign exchange student from Japan, said: 'Patrick Henry, 1775'.
'Very good!'

Who said, 'Government of the People, by the People, for the People?'
Again, little Hodiaki responded, 'Abraham Lincoln, 1863'.
'Excellent!' said the teacher continuing, 'let's try one a bit more difficult...'

Who said, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?'
Once again, Hodiaki's was the only hand in the air and he said: 'John F. Kennedy, 1961'.

The teacher snapped at the class, 'Class, you should be ashamed of yourselves, little Hodiaki isn't from this country and he knows more about our history than you do.'

She heard a loud whisper: 'To heck with the Japanese.'
'Who said that? I want to know now!' she angrily demanded.
Hodiaki put his hand up, 'General MacArthur, 1945.'

At that point, a student in the back said, 'I'm gonna puke.'
The teacher glared and asked, 'Enough! Who said that?'
Hodiaki said, 'George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister,1991.'

With almost mob hysteria someone said, 'You little s***. If you say anything else, I'll deck you.'
The teacher fainted.

As the class gathered around the teacher on the floor, someone said, 'Oh geez.... We're in big trouble!'
Hodiaki said quietly, 'The Vancouver Canucks 2012.'

[Hounds]

01:32 PM on 04/18/2012

The NHL is a joke, the officiating is a joke, and the only way things will change, is the death of a player. Congrats NHL, you have reached Bush League status.

[savman]

02:02 PM on 04/18/2012

Agreed.

[DevRock]

02:14 PM on 04/18/2012

The thing is, players ARE dying. In the past two or three years, there have been several suicides and overdoses. What did they all have in common? They were all "goons."