While the Pittsburgh Penguins suffered their third straight loss of this young 2023-24 season, they also had to finish the game a man down.
About half way through the contest, Penguins defenseman John Ludvig suffered a scary looking injury after throwing a huge hit at center ice.
Ludvig, who was playing in his NHL debut, hit the ice and laid motionless for a couple of moments.
After some time, Ludvig was helped off the ice and did not return to the game.
Following the loss to the Dallas Stars, head coach Mike Sullivan was only able to say Ludvig was still being evaluated.
While injuries like this are commonplace in the NHL, players and coaches still feel sick when they see one happen.
“I felt terrible for him,” Lars Eller said. “I hope he’s okay under the circumstances. I’ve seen that a couple times and it sucks every time.”
Up until the injury took place, the Penguins seemed to be carrying the pace of play and generating chances.
Once Ludvig left the game, the Penguins lacked the same kind of punch and ended up losing 4-1.
“It’s tough to see that happen,” Sidney Crosby said. “He looked like he was in a bad spot. Just a weird play. He goes to make a hit, it looks like he took the guys helmet in the jaw.”
The Penguins had hoped they could carry their momentum after going down a man, but nothing gave.
“When you see a guy go down like that, you want to try and get the win for them,” Crosby said. “You want to play hard. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that.”
Sullivan says there are no immediate updates on Ludvig, but elaborated on the scene.
“It’s a scary moment when you see a play like that,” Sullivan said. “It appeared that he almost got knocked out on the hit. Those are scary to watch.”
After some time laying on the ice, Ludvig was able to lean up and was helpe off the ice by teammates and it was a scary scene.
Penguins goalie Alex Nedeljkovic did say that Ludvig was on his feet and in a better state than initially thought.
“Saw him a little bit in the back,” Nedeljkovic said. “He was walking, he was talking to some of the staff. It was good to see that he was moving around.”
It’s unknown how long Ludvig’s absence will last, but everyone can agree it’s an extremely unfortunate way to end your NHL debut.
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