Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Marian Gaborik’s hit forces Frans Nielsen to leave Rangers-Islanders game

New York Rangers v New York Islanders

at the Nassau Coliseum on March 31, 2011 in Uniondale, New York.

Bruce Bennett

New York Rangers sniper Marian Gaborik usually finds himself on the wrong end of injury reports, but tonight he delivered a hit that forced another player out of a game. Gaborik received a two-minute boarding penalty (and created a scuffle that inspired some matching roughing minors) after checking New York Islanders Frans Nielsen from behind.

Eddie Olczyk and Jeremy Roenick partially blamed Nielsen for the impact of the hit during a Versus intermission report, saying that he put himself in danger by turning his back at an awkward time. Roenick went far enough to say that the injury didn’t look that bad, judging from his own experiences, but we’ll have to wait and see if JR was correct. Nielsen reportedly won’t return to a Rangers-Islanders game that only really means anything to the Rangers.

There’s no word on how severe the injury actually is and it’s tough to say if Gaborik is at risk of facing any discipline from the league. If Nielsen’s injury is even somewhat serious, then the Islanders would probably be wise to shut him down for the season, since they only have draft positioning to (not?) fight for at this point.