Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere is pretty lucky to have escaped a serious injury after a skate blade caught him on the face during his team’s matchup against the LA Kings.

Gostisbehere, who was one of the most exciting rookies last season, was skating in his defensive zone when Kyle Clifford fell to the ice. Clifford’s skate swung up and caught Gostisbehere across his right cheek.

Gostisbehere is really, really lucky that Clifford’s skate didn’t catch him up higher and didn’t cause a deeper, more severe cut.

After the game, Gostisbehere spoke with the Courier-Post about how lucky he was to avoid a bad injury.

“I just looked up and something hit me. I checked real quick and realized I was leaking a bit. God was with me on that one. I’ll thank Him for that.”

It’s actually pretty amazing incidents like this one don’t happen more often in hockey.

About David Rogers

Editor for The Comeback and Contributing Editor for Awful Announcing. Lover of hockey, soccer and all things pop culture.