Geoffrion Hit

Friday was a busy night in the AHL.  Lots of scoring, which has been extremely present so far this year in both the AHL and ECHL, as well as a lot of the rough stuff.  The Syracuse - Hamilton game was no exception.  And there's nothing quite like being the main show in town when you are playing the game in Montreal in front of almost 20,000.

Blake Geoffrion might have been playing their regularly had it not been for the lockout.  He was traded to Montreal last season, a place he was almost destined to be.  His great-grandfather, grandfather and father all played for Montreal and last year he did too.  Now the question is asked if he will ever play again.

The other party involved in the unfortunate play was Syracuse defenseman Jean-Philippe Cote.  Cote would be considered a bit of a rugged player with a solid AHL past.  Oddly enough, five of the seven seasons he has played in the AHL were with Hamilton and the only NHL action he has seen was with Montreal.  If there was ever a game to show yourself this was the one.

Geoffrion received a short outlet pass and started up the boards.  What he didn't notice was Cote sizing him up for a classic hip check.  When he does notice it is a bit too late and because he tried to hold up the hit sent him flying awkwardly into the air.




It is hard to see much after the scrum but we do see Geoffrion eventually get up and skate off the ice by himself, apparently bleeding heavily.  It's the part afterwards that gets scary. 

After deciding he needed to go to the hospital, Geoffrion apparently started convulsing.  Tests revealed that he actually fractured his skull on the play.  Emergency surgery was required to alleviate the pressure the fracture was causing on his brain. 

The last replay shows it the best.  As he took the hit the momentum of his body torques so that his feet are moving up and around while his upper body is moving down.  It just so happened that a part of his head with little protection took the worst of the hit to the ice.  Might as well have landed on concrete.  I have hope that he will return at some point and continue to play.  Take a hit, land on your head, fracture your skull, skate off to the bench.  Hockey.