Stretcher comes out for Connor Murphy who appears badly injured.

We have a very scary incident to report.

On Saturday night, during the game between the Ottawa Senators and the Chicago Blackhawks, Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy appeared to suffer a very serious injury when he was on the receiving end of a hit from behind courtesy of Ottawa Senators forward Parker Kelly.

Murphy and Kelly were both chasing down the puck in the Blackhawks' zone and it appeared as though Kelly was thinking hit the whole way as he glided towards Murphy along the boards. As Kelly went in to deliver his body check however, Murphy turned his body at the last possible second and made himself considerably more vulnerable as the contact was made.

The awkward impact caused Murphy to go face first into the boards and it was pretty clear from his body language that he was hurt right away. Murphy appeared to collapse in on himself, unable to support his own weight, and was immediately down in a heap on the ice as if he had been knocked unconscious by the blow.

The trainers from both teams were out on the ice in moments following the impact and they signaled for a stretcher to be brought out onto the ice just a few moments later, with Murphy seemingly not moving the entire time. This resulted in a significant delay in the game and although the trainers were with Murphy for a very long time he never appeared to move at all while being tended to. 

There was some good news as he was stretchered off the ice however, Murphy did manage to give a display that showed he was relatively ok, giving both his teammates and the fans in attendance a little bit of a thumbs up as he was taken off the ice by the medical staff.

As a result of the hit Kelly was given a 5 minute major for boarding and was additionally awarded with a game misconduct on the night. You have to believe that there's a good chance that this incident will be reviewed by the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety, although what may come of that is anyone's guess at this point.