Lars Eller suffered a broken nose, a concussion and some shattered teeth during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Senators, but the 24-year-old forward couldn’t tell you how it happened.
In one of the scarier hits of the postseason, Eller was crushed by Ottawa defenseman Eric Gryba at center ice. The Canadiens forward went down and was instantly surrounded by a pool of blood, but he doesn’t remember anything about the gruesome incident.
“I’ve seen the replay, which is the closest I’m going to come to remembering it,” Eller told the Montreal Gazette. “Maybe it’s a good thing that I don’t remember. It was a shocking incident for everybody watching. I haven’t really thought much about it since. It’s in the past.”
Making the vicious hit easier to forget is the fact that Eller has experienced a quick recovery with no setbacks, and he is ready to return to the ice.
“I feel great, completely healed,” Eller said. “I did some more testing in Brossard [in mid- to late May] to make sure everything was back to normal, to make sure there were no symptoms related to the concussion. There haven’t been any.”
Eller had a breakout year for the Habs during the lockout-shortened season, putting up a career-best 34 points in 46 games, but his season came to a halt after the hit in Game 1.
Check out the nasty hit that knocked Eller out of the playoffs in the video below.
