Richard Zednik: Lucky to be alive

Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik will never be confused with a Hall of Famer. He's managed just 30 goals once, and has never had more than 50 points in a 12-season career with five teams.

He is very fortunate, though, to be alive and perhaps one day continue his career.



Less than a week after nearly having his cartoid artery severed by a teammate's skate, Zednik left a Buffalo, N.Y. hospital and will continue his recovery in Florida.

"One week happened so much. Everything just went so well," Zednik said. "You look at it like that, and I was lucky. They saved my life. After surgery, they were amazing."

Zednik lost five pints of blood, leaving a gruesome trail up ice as he skated toward the bench, eerily similar to what happened to Buffalo Sabres goaltender Clint Malarchuk 20 years ago.

Not for the faint of heart, but that can be seen here.



Amazing that something like this doesn't happen more often, no?

THREE STARS OF THE NIGHT, FEB. 16

1. Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens: The goaltender of the future for the Habs made 34 saves for his first NHL shutout in a 1-0 victory against the slumping Philadelphia Flyers. Price was picked fifth overall by Montreal in the 2005 NHL draft.

2. Rick DiPietro, New York Islanders: Talk about your easy nights. DiPietro needed to make just nine saves and came within 1:17 of a shutout, but settled for a 4-1 win over the Atlanta Thrashers.

3. Sean Avery, New York Rangers: Avery needed just 10 seconds to open the scoring and added a second goal in the Rangers' 5-1 rout of the Sabres. It was the Rangers' quickest goal to start a game at Madison Square Garden, beating Phil Esposito's goal 12 seconds in on March 1, 1978.