Terrible moment NHL star Morgan Barron required 75 stitches after stabbing himself in the face in the Winnipeg Jets playoff game… before GOING ON as his team won 5-1!
- Morgan Barron’s shock injury almost overshadowed the Jets v Knights playoffs
- But after being sliced by a blade and taking 75 stitches, Barron kept playing
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A scary scene played out in Las Vegas Tuesday night when Winnipeg Jets forward Morgan Barron got a skate in the face during a scrum in front of the net and immediately ran off the ice.
But since this was the NHL playoffs, Barron was back on the ice less than a full period later – after suffering more than 75 stitches in the locker room.
As players fell to the ground as Golden Knights goaltender Laurent Brossoit tried to keep a rebound off the net after nine minutes of play, Chandler Stephenson pinched Barron into Brossoit’s skate, the Barron on the side of his face near his eye caught.
But midway through the second half, Barron returned to the game – his first appearance of the playoffs – with a large bandage covering the wound, although the blood and part of the laceration were still visible. His team celebrated a 5-1 win over the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
Jets coach Rick Bowness said of Barron’s return to action: “He looked at me. ‘I’m ready.’ I said, ‘Do you need a skate or something?’ And he says, ‘No, I’m ready to go.’ And of course he went right out and bumped into someone.
Winnipeg Jets forward Morgan Barron got a skate in his face in Tuesday’s playoff game
Barron appeared to be shoved by the Golden Knights’ Chandler Stephenson (right).
Barron had 75 stitches and made an incredible return as the Jets defeated the Knights 5-1
“This is Winnipeg Jets hockey that we’re all a part of. Morgan is a perfect example of this. Give him lots of credit. That takes a lot of guts to get 55 stitches, whatever it was, and that was a pretty tough cut.
Barron said he was able to come back because the skate blade “missed something important.”
He joked afterwards that his first thought when it happened was, “Did the puck go in – it was sitting pretty close.
“They did a great job stitching me up and obviously it missed my eye. I was glad it didn’t put me in a really bad position but they did a great job of fixing me up. It’s actually not bad.
“With the cage, it’s pretty hard for anything to happen. You will be pumped up with adrenaline. Of course, I was really looking forward to my first playoff game and just kept going from there.
It brought back memories of hockey’s most horrifying injury in 1989, when the Buffalo Sabers’ Clink Malarchuk clashed with the St. Louis Blues’ Steve Tuttle and teammate Uwe Krupp.
Tuttle’s blade sliced open Malarchuk’s throat, severing an artery. Blood spilled onto the ice causing some fans to faint. The trainer had to clamp the artery and it took 300 stitches to seal the wound.
So Barron can be relieved to avoid something that could easily have been so much worse. Teammate Adam Lowry said Barron’s return gave the team a big boost during the game.
Clint Malarchuk had his throat cut by a stray skate in an NHL game and required 300 stitches
Barron caught his face on the blade of Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Laurent Brossoit (39)
Blood had to be cleaned from the ice after the incident while Barron was being treated
He returned with a cage in his face and played his part in an important win for his team
“You assume a stick but see the replay and hear about it in the break and hear the number of stitches he got. I thought they said 15, not 50-plus.
“It looked like he was attacked by a shark, to be honest,” Lowry said. “It’s a scary thing.
We’re all so worried about the puck crossing the line and then all of a sudden we see a trail of blood basically from the crease to the bench. You don’t know what happened.
“To sit on the table, get stitches and basically miss an hour of action and come back speaks volumes to his heart. It’s hard to come back when you’ve been sitting for so long.
Barron played nearly 11 minutes and hit three shots in the Jets’ 5-1 excitement in the opening game of their first-round series against the Western Conference No. 1.
Barron, 24, played 70 games in his first full season with the Jets. He had eight goals and 13 assists – both career highs.