Hall on Larsen Hit, Cunningham FaceTimes Teammates & More

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Vancouver Canucks’ defenseman Philip Larsen was stretchered out of Tuesday’s game against the New Jersey Devils after taking a big hit from Taylor Hall behind the Canucks’ net. The hit caused Larsen to fall back sharply onto the ice as he took a pass along the boards and wasn’t able to get his head up after receiving the puck on his stick. While the hit didn’t look malicious by Hall, it still caused a large scrum behind the Canucks’ net which caused some controversy of its own given the fact that it occurred right over Larsen’s unconscious body with multiple skates and sticks hitting his head in the process.

Hall is a former teammate of Larsen, and regardless of the outcome, he’s stated that he has no regrets on the play he made. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t regret the outcome, however. It simply means that he made the play that he thought was best suited for the situation, and in the fast-paced game of hockey, unfortunately, sometimes things don’t go entirely according to plan.

I’m looking to make contact there, but I never want to see a guy laying on the ice like that. I only know how to play the game one way and you’ve got to play it hard. I feel terrible. He’s a former teammate of mine. I would have loved to make a hit there and continue the play. I hope he’s all right.

It makes me feel a little bit better that everyone was saying it was a clean hit and the referees agreed. In that sense, I don’t have any regrets with what I did. I try to keep all my extremities in close, and I just wanted to make contact chest to chest. Sometimes it doesn’t work out like that.

– Taylor Hall

 

Following the game, Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins gave a brief update on Larsen’s condition.

“I haven’t had a late update, but from what I’ve been told he’s moving his extremities and he’s awake and responding,”

Craig Cunningham FaceTimes Teammates

In one of the more scary hockey moments in recent memory, Tuscon Roadrunner – the AHL affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes – captain Craig Cunningham suffered a medical emergency prior to a game. The situation resulted in a collective unity from the hockey world, wishing Cunningham the best in his road to recovery. Just two weeks later, however, and it looks like the 26-year-old is making strides as he recently talked with teammates through FaceTime.

Cunningham’s teammates in Tuscon, Brandon Burlon, and Christian Fisher, recently got a chance to speak with Cunningham, who is still currently in the hospital, through FaceTime.

“He’s awake, he’s alert, had a good little chat with him and tried to boost his spirits a little bit,” Burlon said.

It’s never easy to see a teammate go down the way Cunningham did, especially given the fact that he’s still in the hospital without a definitive reason as to what happened in the first place. Being the true leader that he is, however, Cunningham did his part to boost the team’s morale and to keep a light-hearted attitude when chatting with his teammates.

“It was nice to see him smile. He was cracking jokes just as if he were here the next day,” Fisher said of his captain. “It was pretty funny. He said he wanted us to come pick him up and take him to the rink. He was joking around. Stuff like that.”

Odds & Ends

– In just 25 games with his new team, P.K. Subban has matched his goal total from the entire 2015-16 season when he played with the Montreal Canadiens. Subban was traded to the Predators in the offseason in one of the biggest blockbusters in recent memory, and though it was an emotional move for Subban, he’s seemingly found his stride wearing the yellow and blue Predators’ uniform.

In 68 games with Montreal last season, Subban finished the year with six goals and 51 points – very impressive totals from a blueliner all the same. This year with the Predators, Subban has tallied seven goals and 17 points in just 25 games and looks to surpass his career-high of 15 goals which he put up in the 2014-15 season while playing for Montreal.