{"id":716121,"date":"2026-06-05T05:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/716121\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T05:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:45:11","slug":"vegas-golden-knights-d-brayden-mcnabb-taken-to-hospital-after-getting-struck-in-face-by-puck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/716121\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegas Golden Knights D Brayden McNabb taken to hospital after getting struck in face by puck"},"content":{"rendered":"

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> defenceman Brayden McNabb<\/a> took a puck to the face that knocked him out of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

A slap shot from Carolina\u2019s Nikolaj Ehlers<\/a> hit McNabb square in the face just past the midway point of the first period. McNabb dropped his stick, went down to the ice and grabbed his nose as he skated immediately off and down the tunnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a scary play,\u2019 forward Brett Howden<\/a> said. \u201dYou never want to see that. Just hope he\u2019s doing all right. We haven\u2019t seen him yet but hope he\u2019s doing OK.”<\/p>\n

McNabb did not return, and Vegas went the rest of the way with just five defensemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou lose a guy like Nabber who logs heavy minutes, such a good teammate, plays the game so hard, it\u2019s tough,\u201d captain Mark Stone<\/a> said. \u201dThey battled as hard as they could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach John Tortorella said \u201cthey played well\u201d and had no update when asked about McNabb\u2019s condition after the Hurricanes\u2019 overtime victory that tied the series.<\/p>\n

McNabb was coming off the first three-assist performance of his NHL career in Game 1. He is one of three original Golden Knights players who have been around for the franchise\u2019s entire nine-year existence and are in the final for a third time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you see that happen to a teammate, especially to a guy like Nabber who is a huge part of this team, a leader, it\u2019s tough,\u201d fellow D-man Noah Hanifin<\/a> said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to see that happen to any guy on the ice. We\u2019re just hoping for the best for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights had their optimum, healthy lineup back for the series opener when Jeremy Lauzon<\/a> returned from his injury. That did not last long.<\/p>\n

Either Ben Hutton<\/a>, a left-handed shooter, or Kaedan Korczak<\/a>, who was playing in place of Lauzon, figures to play in Game 3 on Saturday if McNabb is unavailable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Vegas Golden Knights defenceman Brayden McNabb took a puck to the face that knocked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[712,259366,49,48,82,92858],"class_list":["post-716121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-apple-news","tag-brayden-mcnabb-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8475188","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-vegas-golden-knights-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-54"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}