Detroit Red Wings' Brendan Perlini cut in face by skate, receives stitches after scary play

Tommy McArdle

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Detroit Red Wings' Brendan Perlini cut in face by skate, receives stitches after scary play image

Detroit Red Wings forward Brendan Perlini narrowly escaped serious injury in Buffalo on Tuesday when he took a skate to the face in the first period.

Perlini collided with Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju just over four minutes into the game after he dumped the puck in the neutral zone. As both players tumbled to the ice, Jokiharju's left skate came upward directly into Perlini's face.

Red Wings trainers helped Perlini off the ice with a towel over his face after a timeout, and he ultimately needed stitches to repair a laceration to his nose. The Detroit Free Press' Helene St. James also reported that Perlini, who declined to give a full interview after the game, suffered a bruised right orbital bone in the incident as well.

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Fortunately for Perlini, his eyes appeared unaffected by the scary incident. Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said after the game that Perlini will continue traveling with the team on its road trip (Detroit next plays in New Jersey on Thursday). The coach did not say whether he expects Perlini to suit up against the Devils.

"We were all scared when it first happened, when we first saw it, that it had gone near his eye," Blashill said via news release. "That's the thing you're most worried about. It's just an unfortunate situation where the skate came up and he was falling and it caught him in the face. Super scary. At that point, I think both teams just worried about his well-being. Thankfully, he's going to be all right." 

"It was really scary," Detroit forward Dylan Larkin said. "He's a great player, he's just starting to hit his stride with us. To see that, from the bench we got a pretty good look, it's scary sight anytime a guy gets a skate like that up high. Seemed like it was kind of slow motion, too. It came across and got him. It obviously wasn't intentional. It was just a scary play. He's doing all right. I just spoke with him back there, he's feeling better. He's a tough guy, we're happy he's all right."

Perlini scored his first goal of the year on Sunday against the Boston Bruins.

Tommy McArdle