from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,

Barely a night goes by in the NHL’s situation room without a close call.

Like an instance where a player is sent flying and has his skate graze by an opponent. Or a moment where a boot glances off a goaltender’s mask rather than somewhere much worse during a scramble in the crease. Or even the occasional time where someone takes a skate blade directly to an unprotected part of the face and escapes serious injury.

That’s why it was so unnerving to see Ilya Mikheyev have an artery and tendons severed in his right wrist during a game in New Jersey on Friday night. It was a frightening scene, first and foremost, but it also wasn’t a total surprise that something like that might happen.

Not for the folks who closely track and log games at the league. And not for the men who play them.

As Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares put it: “We’re wearing blades on our feet.”

Five of Mikheyev’s Toronto teammates were fitted for protective Kevlar sleeves within hours of seeing the rookie winger suffer an injury that could cost him the rest of the season — and was just a couple millimetres from potentially turning catastrophic.

NHL players currently have seven league-approved options to choose between when it comes to cut-resistant gear that protects their Achilles tendons or the wrist and sleeve area.

continued with more topics which were discussed on Saturday Headlines...