But that's exactly what appeared to happen with 7:32 left in the first period of Wednesday's 2-1 win over the Panthers. David Krejci was hit by Florida forward Rostislav Olesz and crashed awkwardly into the boards.
Krejci stayed down for several moments while the trainers attended to him and left the ice briefly, but he returned a few minutes later. Krejci finished the game and stated afterward that he felt confident he had avoided any serious injury.
"It wasn't my shoulder, it was like my whole arm got tweaked going for position and it felt a little uncomfortable for a few seconds so I stayed on the ice," Krejci said. "I didn't want to risk anything, but it got a little better. It's sore obviously, but I don't think it's anything major."
Krejci didn't actually make it all the way to the locker room, getting a quick check from the medical staff in the runway before returning to the bench.
"I was in the hallway, just had the doctors look at it to see what it is exactly and that's about it," Krejci said.
Bruins coach Claude Julien was equally relieved not to have another of his key players lost to injury.
"When he first went down, the last thing you want to see is him not come back," Julien said. "We're already minus one pretty good centerman, so you certainly don't want to lose that second one. But he came back and he finished the game and he seems to be OK. There's no doubt that these next five days will be good for him and probably for a lot of the other players too that are playing a little banged up."
Krejci set up what proved the winning goal in the second period with a faceoff win back to Milan Lucic for a one-timer to make it a 2-0 game. Krejci has now gone 16 games without a goal, but he does have eight assists in his last nine games and expects bigger things after the club returns from the All-Star break.
"I feel a little better now," Krejci said. "I don't know what it is, but my last few years the end of the season is always better. I believe this is going to be a good half of the season for me and I just don't want to talk about it. … You just have to go out there and prove it. The second half is going to be better."
