The Minnesota Wild beat the visiting Nashville Predators, 5-3, on New Year's Eve. The Wild took the lead late in the second period and held on for their 23rd win of the season. More important than the result is how one play in the second period could affect both teams going forward.
Just a few minutes into the second period rookie Zachary L'Heureux took out Wild captain Jared Spurgeon with a slew foot. Spurgeon had both his legs taken out from under him and awkwardly crashed into the boards. Spurgeon eventually needed help getting off the ice and was ruled out with a lower-body injury.
Meanwhile, L'Heureux was given a five-minute match penalty and sent to the locker room after taking a few punches from Yakov Trenin.
The slew foot is one of the most dangerous plays in hockey and you can tell how serious the situation was based on the somber tones from the FanDuel Sports Network North announcers, Anthony LaPanta and Ryan Carter as they discussed the play, ejection and next matchup between the teams.
"So it'll be four-on-four for two minutes," said LaPanta. "Then the Wild will get a three-minute power play. And L'Heureux's done for the night and should be more than tonight if... with a hit like that. It's just a careless hit."
"It's about as dirty a play as you're going to see in the National Hockey League," explained Carter, who played in the league from 2006 to 2017. "There's an unwritten rule with the slew foot. It's how guys get seriously hurt. And he's out of the game right now, L'Heureux, but we play Nashville one more time this year, Anthony..."
Minnesota, who currently has the third most points in the Western Conference, will visit Nashville on January 18th. it's unclear if either L'Heureux or Spurgeon will be available.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Predators’ Rookie Takes out Stars' Captain Jared Spurgeon With Dirty Slew Foot Play.
