Winnipeg Jets center Morgan Barron had his face clipped by a skate and needed more than 75 stitches as a result during Tuesday's Game 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights. Somehow, Barron actually returned to the ice less than a period after sustaining the injury.
Barron's gruesome injury occurred during a chaotic scene in front of the Golden Knights' net in the first period. During a battle for a loose puck, Vegas goaltender Laurent Brossoit was attempting to scramble back into the crease and inadvertently cut Barron on the face with one of his skates.
Warning: the video of the injury below is graphic
"I was trying to figure out if the puck went in because it was pretty close," Barron said regarding the play, via TSN. "I saw the skate coming. It was an unlucky play. The first thought was that I could see out of the (right) eye was the main thing."
Barron was immediately escorted to the Jets' locker room after he was cut. Upon his return, Barron wore a full cage helmet for the remainder of the game
"Looks like he got attacked by a shark," teammate Adam Lowry added. "It's a scary thing. We're all so worried about the puck crossing the line, and all of the sudden we see a trail of blood all the way from the crease to the bench."
Barron ended up logging 10:44 of ice time, registering three shots-on-goal and dishing out five hits -- all despite suffering a scary injury.
The Jets produced a dominant effort throughout Game 2, as they received second-period goals from forwards Kyle Connor and Pierre-Luc Dubois en route to a 5-1 to take a 1-0 lead in the opening round series.