It’s not that rare to see hockey players leave a game with an injury, but it’s rarer to see that happen to the head coach. That’s what happened to New York Islanders’ head coach Jack Capuano in the third period of their second-round series opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday night, though. A puck traveling through the neutral zone took a deflection and went into the Islanders’ bench, where it hit Capuano in the face:
Jack Capuano took a deflected puck to the face, left the bench with a towel on his face pic.twitter.com/SgIp2PH8aC
— The Cauldron (ICYMI) (@CauldronICYMI) April 28, 2016
uh oh pic.twitter.com/WJ8M5VGgyw
— nope (@myregularface) April 28, 2016
Capuano left the game, while assistant coach/assistant general manager Doug Weight took over with the help of fellow assistant Greg Cronin, and fellow assistant coach Bob Corkum came down from his position in the booth:
#Isles assistant Bob Corkum just raced down from the booth to join Weight and Cronin on the bench with Capuano still in the dressing room.
— Arthur Staple (@StapeNewsday) April 28, 2016
The arena’s decision to play Queen’s “We Will Rock You” afterwards took some criticism, too:
https://twitter.com/barstooltweets/status/725495969660436480
Amelie Arena abruptly cuts off "We Will Rock You" after "blood on your face, you big disgrace" as Capuano leaves bench with bloody face.
— Nick Bove (@NickBoveOnAir) April 28, 2016
The Islanders were leading 4-2 when Capuano was hurt. The Lightning scored inside the final three minutes to make it 4-3, but then Capuano returned to the bench, albeit with what looks like a broken nose:
broken nose? no problem pic.twitter.com/EnT6CTMMLS
— nope (@myregularface) April 28, 2016
Despite some further pressure from the Lightning, the Islanders scored an empty-netter in the final minute and hung on for a 5-3 win. Here’s hoping Capuano’s all right going forward.