The Ottawa Senators are expecting Scott Sabourin to be released from a Boston hospital on Sunday, one day after he had a scary collision with Bruins forward David Backes and had to leave the TD Garden ice on a stretcher.
Sabourin gave the crowd a thumbs up as he was wheeled off the ice, and the other update the team announced on Sunday was that the 27-year-old suffered a fractured nose.
“Obviously you’re at a loss for words and it was pretty emotional on the ice at the time,” said Senators defenseman Dylan DeMelo afterward, via the Ottawa Citizen. “It’s just scary. Sabby has meant so much to our group. He plays hard, he plays the right way and he gives us energy on that fourth line. To see him go down like that, in the condition he was in, was very scary and very sad and we hope that he’s doing well right now. We hope he gets a speedy recovery … Anytime a guy is laying motionless in a puddle of blood, it’s pretty scary.”
Sabourin did provide an update from the hospital via his Instagram account:
Backes, meanwhile, was shaken up physically and emotionally following the collision and had to leave the game to due to an upper-body injury. According to Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy, the veteran is doubtful “for the next couple of games.”
MORE: Sabourin stretchered off, Backes shaken up by scary hit
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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.