Alexis Lafreniere scored a highlight reel goal for the New York Rangers, but in the process, his skate blade nearly cut Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky's throat.
The incident occurred in Game 3 when Lafreniere toe-dragged the puck and dangled around two Panthers defensemen, Dmitry Kulikov and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, tucking the puck past Bobrovsky in what was a highlight reel play.
In the clip below, you can see Lafreniere's skate come up and clip Bobrovsky in the chin/neck area. Thankfully, it was the heel of his boot that made contact and not the blade, which was inches away from connecting with Bobrovsky's throat.
Bobrovsky went down following the boot to the face, which happened with speed and forward momentum, but would ultimately be fine and remain in the game.
In light of the tragic death of Adam Johnson last year, a lot has been made of the dangers of not wearing a neck guard. A lot of goalies opt not to wear them to keep their range of motion high for their head movement. In this instance, Bobrovsky was very lucky to have escaped a very serious, potentially even life-threatening, injury.
