The Boston Bruins lost defenseman John-Michael Liles early in the first period of their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday afternoon after he awkwardly fell head first into the boards.
The play happened just a few minutes into their game when he tripped over the stick of Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop. He needed the assistance of teammates to leave the ice and head to the locker room and did not return.
The Bruins later announced that Liles was out for the remainder of the game with an upper body injury.
Liles has mostly been a third-pairing defenseman for the Bruins this season playing alongside Collin Miller. In 21 games entering play on Sunday he had scored no goals and recorded five assists while playing a little more than 16 minutes per game.
The injury left the Bruins down a defenseman for the rest of the game, and then had to play a portion of the game without Torey Krug after he spent some time in the penalty box for fighting Nikita Kucherov.
This is the play that injured Liles.
John-Michael Liles went head first into the boards after tripping over Ben Bishop’s stick. pic.twitter.com/qIo3oadOn6
— Marina Maher (@marinakmaher) November 27, 2016