Pontus Holmberg was sent into the boards by Peyton Krebs in what was already going to be an awkward enough collision as it was. But the resulting injury was severely increased by the fact that the penalty box gate wasn’t properly latched. 
@Toronto Maple Leafs
34 Comments
Same thing happened to me. But broke my wrist
I knew something crazy was gonna happen eventually because of those players opening the doors
I love Hockey but the NHL as of now has not looked into soften the boards the players hit them at a fast rate of speed and there is no give when they hit them so many injuries and being out long term the players need a better commissioner to look into this
Holmberg is a hardworking guy and it’d take a lot to keep him down. I wish him a swift recovery. Hate to see things like this happen
When money means more to your sports league than anything else
Why do these coaches and players always want someone suspended or fired. Soft ass Canadian energy
It was a freak accident…the door was unlatched because the penalty clock was under 5 seconds. When the clock hits zero, the door man pulls the door and lets the player back on the ice. It was a bang-bang freak accident.
Penalty box official may lose his job after this.
In most of the working world, if a person is hurt due to an employee’s negligence, the employee loses his job. Just sayin
Tampa just can't seem to keep up with Buffalo this year..
Ouch!
One rather uneventful day I'm strolling the deep depths of the massive bank building I unfortunately Worked at mid 80's in ' lovely' downtown Buffalo*, NY &..
Passed an Engineering Portal ( Door that swings INTO the Hallway ) just as some Tech Gremlin BURST forth which almost.. woke..me..UP:/
* GO SABRES & melt all the SnowFLAKEs here ;)!
Broke my collar bone this way. Ref opened it mid game. No shoulder pads either.
There have been more then 120,000 NHL games played in history & that was the 1st time someone got hit into a door cracked open…. Simply a freak accident 🤷 Hope he isn't too banged up tho looks like it hurt pretty dam bad
Didn't see that when I was watching live…. neither did the commentators.
mid 1980s i was maybe 12 years old and it was common for outside ice rink in Quebec to be cheap on boards.Some rinks didnt even had boards.
One of the zone corner was like a door with a latch to let the zamboni on at the end of the night.And that evening the door was completely removed.And yes as i was coming around the corner another kid bumped into me and i hit the board literally in the same fashion as Max Pacioretty.Being young and not that fast probably saved my life.Oh and puffy winter clothing that acted as a bumper hahahaha.
Class from the Buffalo fans…booing the stoppage on that play, booing through Pontus walking off the ice and down the tunnel with a likely season-ending injury. Pure class.
If the nhl says not to watch the play watch the clock then ok don't fire the guy because he was following NHL policy. But NHL can change this. Put a count down in the headset so they can watch play, make those doors easier to open so they Dont manually open the latch 5 seconds before the play ends. Don't open the doors if there is a player who could reasonably be injured if the door opens. What if there was a board battle at the door? They wouldn't open the door then. Same thing.
Praying for buffalos downfall after this crap.
It is unfortunate but it is hockey. They are not playing ping-pong dressed in bubble wrap.
The leading edge of the door frame for any door that can be opened during play should be reengineered to be padded. If they shifted the frame over about 2-4 inches and then filled the gap with a rigid (but still compressible) foam with a thinner piece of the board plastic on the outside (for pucks), it could all "fold in" on an impact like this, and then return to the original form.
The box guy is doing his job and watching the clock about to expire. Wasn’t looking at the play since that isn’t his job. TB fanboys and Cooper don’t seem educated enough on the sport.
Penalty box attendant shouldn’t be allowed to work in the nhl no more fr he cost a player playing time
I don’t know if the door was unlatched with a couple seconds on the penalty. But, this looks to be random chance.
Probably broke his arm or shoulder
This should've been an email
Hope he's alright. That was pretty brutal.
Thats why there should be a rule saying if you're in the you shouldn't get out until play stops
It's a freak accident basically… Doesn't happen often.
It's also like being rung into the stances like Chara did to one of the Canadiens' players. Names escape me. Lol but hockey is such a fast paced sport for now even more so
Ouch! Hope Holmberg will be Ok. Glad to see him getting real opportunities in Tampa instead of being pigeonholed in Toronto.
I love the indifference of that Sabers player lmao unreal scum never liked that team but this is next level
From a legal standpoint, Holmberg has a case against the League for misconduct causing injury. I wouldn't be surprised in this day and age if the League doesn't institute a lock-tight rule to keep all doors latched until specifically required to be opened to avoid 'legal repercussions, er – 'Player Injury'…
I call bullshit on this. In every arena in this league, the penalty box attendant is instructed to have the door ready to open 3 to 4 seconds prior to the penalty expiring so the player can get on the ice immediately. It's unfortunate but not the attendants fault. They can not have foresight into where a player will land during a hit. No one complains when a player is jammed up against the glass between the benchs and is injured. They just say it's part of the game. Tampa does nothing but bitch and cry, it's their MO. When players are hit by deflected pucks, is it the fault of the player deflecting the shot? No. Grow up and Man up, it's an unfortunate part of the game.
It's probably standard practice for the gate keeper to hold the latch up with the door closed to make it a quicker exit for the player. That may change now moving forward. Doesn't look like the gate keeper was looking at Holmberg either. He looked to be looking up ice in the same direction as the Buffalo player. I suppose moving forward the gate keeper will need to keep the latch down and to check action coming into that direction. Which begs the question what if time is up? Is the gate keeper compelled to open the door pronto even if he sees a player barrelling into the boards?