Roman Josi has played more than a thousand NHL games, won a Norris Trophy and captained the Nashville Predators for the better part of a decade. None of that was much help to him at the Bell Centre on Thursday, when the blade came off one of his skates mid-shift and left him with a very long way to travel.
What followed was captured in full by the broadcast. Josi dropped to his knees and began working his way back toward the bench, propelling himself with his stick and one functioning skate while play carried on around him. Both TSN and the NHL’s own account posted the footage, the league describing it as “a bit of a journey.”
The internet enjoyed it enormously.
“Losing a skate blade mid-game and somehow making it a scenic tour,” one fan wrote.
“Josi out there playing on one blade like it’s a beer league Sunday morning. Respect,” another said.
“Losing a blade at NHL speed is nightmare fuel. Man was basically a Roomba with a hockey stick out there,” a third added.
What happens when an NHL player loses a skate blade?
Play carried on around him, which is the entire problem. His team is effectively a man short until he’s off the ice, he can’t get there standing up, and nobody is coming to help. Crawling tends to be the fastest route available, which is why it keeps happening and why it never looks any better.
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Josi got the last laugh regardless. He finished the night with two assists, including the one that mattered, setting up Ryan O’Reilly with a one-timer from the blue line that O’Reilly tipped home with 3:16 left to break a tie. Nashville won 5-2, with Steven Stamkos also picking up two assists and Juuse Saros making 32 saves.
Montreal had the better of long stretches and came away with nothing.
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