Clint Malarchuk defends player who accidentally sliced Adam Johnson's neck

The sports community continues to mourn the untimely passing of former Pittsburgh Penguins forward Adam Johnson. His tragic demise occurred following a devastating incident on the ice during a game in the Elite Ice Hockey League. Johnson sustained fatal injuries when accidentally struck by a falling opponent, causing severe damage to his neck that tragically proved too severe. 

And there are few people on Earth who know what Johnson's family is going through right now than former NHL goaltender Clint Malarchuk, who endured one of the most infamous on-ice injuries in sports history. His neck was slashed by St. Louis Blues player Steve Tuttle as he crashed into the net, severing his carotid artery and partially cutting his jugular vein. 

The goaltender immediately began to bleed out onto the ice, and he would have died had it not been for the quick work of  athletic trainer, Jim Pizzutelli. Thankfully, Malarchuk is alive and well to talk about the horrifying ordeal today, and he's not happy with anyone who believes that Matt Petgrave somehow intentionally caused the tragedy.

"There's no way I watched it real close just to see the incident," he said during an appearance on 'The Cam & Strick Podcast". I wanted to know how it happened. I wasn't watching to see if the guy did it on purpose, not a chance, no way. And when I saw him clip, it really kind of pisses me off that people are actually saying, I guess he's kind of a dirty player. Well, so what? I like dirty players, right? But I don't know a player that would do something like that.

"He got clipped and spun around. It's a fast game, you know? Doesn't take much for a guy to flip around like that." 

You can listen to Malarchuk's full comments below: 

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