In last night’s game between the Buffalo Sabres and Florida Panthers, Richard Zednik was accidentally cut across the neck by teammate’s Oli Jokinen’s skate… cutting his carotid artery and causing a significant amount of bleeding. Zednik barely made it off the ice to the bench, and then was rushed by ambulance to a local hospital, where he received life-saving surgery. Here is a video clip of what happened:

After the injury took place, Colin Campbell (who was at the game watching his son play) talked with Gary Bettman and they decided to let the game continue. What were they thinking? A teammate just had a hockey player’s worst nightmare occur, sustaining a life-threatening injury, and all Bettman and Campbell could think about doing was making the two teams finish the hockey game? Even Oli Jokinen said “We shouldn’t have finished the game”. We at FB didn’t get to see the game, but from what we’ve read, the remainder of the game was very “solemn” and no one really seemed to care about winning. The game could have easily been called off and re-scheduled for a later time when all players, coaches and FANS knew the status of Zednik and were not all in a state of shock. We think this was terrible judgment on the part of Gary Bettman, and really aren’t surprised by it… just add it to the long, long list of terrible decisions that Bettman has made. However, we are very happy to report that Richard Zednik is currently in stable condition and it appears as though he will be okay.

On a much lighter note, we’d like to apologize for the lack of updates to the site lately. Travel and other commitments have been dominating our time… but we promise to get back on the ball and have all the latest, breaking hockey and Bettman news coverage for you. Thanks for your patience, and as always, for your support!