Watch: Toronto Maple Leafs Player Carted off Ice After Taking Knee to His Face

The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered a scare during their playoff game against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. Team captain John Tavares was taken off the ice on a stretcher after taking a knee to his face. As he was being carted off, Tavares gave a thumbs up and was taken to a local hospital. On Friday morning, the Maple Leafs released a statement saying that Tavares was discharged from the hospital.

“He was thoroughly examined and assessed by the neurosurgical team at St. Michael’s Hospital and the club’s medical director,” the team said in the statement. “He was kept overnight for observation and is now resting at home under the care and supervision of team physicians. Tavares will be out indefinitely.”

Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe spoke to reporters after the Maple Leafs’ 2-1 loss to the Canadiens and said the loss to Tavares hurts. “It’s a big loss for us, but we’ve got lots of depth. Good teams overcome these types of things. That’s going to be on us,” he said.”I’ve experienced a lot of different things, a lot of tough injuries like that in my time. In an empty building like that, it’s probably the most uncomfortable situation I’ve been a part of on the ice. It was really tough to get through.”

The incident happened in the first period when Tavares fell to the ice after a hit by Ben Chiarot. As Tavares was falling his was hit in the head by a diving Corey Perry. Tavares tried to stand up, but he couldn’t, losing his balance all falling backward. After the game, Perry said he tried to jump over Tavares but that he is knee inadvertently hit his head.

“I don’t know what else to do there,” Perry said. “I tried to jump. I know Johnny pretty well, and I just hope he’s OK. He then added: “I honestly felt sick to my stomach when I saw it. “When I saw him, with the way he is, it’s a scary situation. I’ll reach out to him and talk to him and hopefully he’s OK.”