Kero knocked out cold after huge hit from Connolly.

Oh boy this is a very scary hit, and frankly I am just hoping that Dallas Stars forward Tanner Kero is going to be ok.

On Saturday night Kero and the Stars faced off against the Chicago Blackhawks in one of the few National Hockey League games that wasn't postponed due to what appears to be a league wide outbreak of Covid and unfortunately things turned ugly just a few short minutes into the game.

Less than 3 minutes had been taken off the game clock when Chicago Blackhawks forward Brett Connolly stepped into Kero and delivered a devastating hit that laid out the Stars forward. It did not appear to be a predatory hit on the part of Connolly, but the reality is that Kero was not looking up the ice, he never touched the puck, and never saw Connolly coming. That in my estimation made the impact considerably worse for Kero, who seemingly turned into the hit making it all the more devastating on himself.

Connolly received a 5 minute major for interference and was ejected from the game following the hit.

It appears as though Kero was out cold from the moment that Connolly made contact with him, which unfortunately left Kero entirely unable to protect himself on the way down. Kero's arms were locked into place at his side and he fell straight down to the ice, smacking his head onto the ice and then into the boards as well as his momentum carried him backwards after the hit. I have to admit, I am a little worried about the way Kero's head went into the boards considering the fact that we saw very little movement from him before the stretcher was called out to help him off the ice.

Connolly appeared to be visibly upset at the fact that he had caused serious injury to Kero, once again leading me to believe that there was no real malice on his part when he delivered the body check but the problem here for the Blackhawks forward will be that Kero never touched the puck. As a result he should have pulled up and not delivered the hit as intended and I suspect that he will be getting a call from the NHL's Department of Player Safety as a result

Unsurprisingly Connolly was booed out of the Americans Airlines Arena.

The good news is that Kero is responsive and he has been taken to hospital for medical treatment.

I'm also happy to report that players from both teams appeared genuinely concerned about Kero's well being.