John Carlson reveals gruesome injury details after taking slapshot to head
Washington Capitals defenceman John Carlson is nearing a return to the lineup following a three-month absence after taking a slapshot to the head.
Carlson suffered the injury in the third period of Washington's game on December 23rd against the Winnipeg Jets, with the shot that hit him coming from one of his former teammates, Brendan Dillon. He left the game with the help of Alexander Ovechkin and Dylan Strome, but eventually left the arena on a stretcher and headed to hospital.
On Friday, Carlson shared the gruesome details of his injury to Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic, saying that he suffered a small skull fracture, as well as a severed temporal artery. He went on to describe how he was feeling during the incident.
"There's always close calls. There's always a lot of, 'Oh man, that could have hurt or that could have been bad' times. This was bad. It's a one-in-a-million thing — and it happened to me."
He went on to add, "It was bleeding so much. The only way I could describe it is, just survival."
It remains unclear as to when Carlson will return to the Capitals' lineup, but there's a chance it could be on Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks, horrific injury.
Source: The Athletic
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mikko Rantanen | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Jake Debrusk | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Dylan Guenther | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Jack Eichel | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Brock Nelson | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Clayton Keller | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Anthony Cirelli | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Jonathan Drouin | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Roman Josi | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Kirill Marchenko | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Kyle Palmieri | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Leon Draisaitl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matt Duchene | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Samuel Girard | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Claude Giroux | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Oliver Kylington | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 21 | 17 | 4 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 20 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 30 | |
Devils | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 30 | |
Hurricanes | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 29 | |
Golden Knights | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 27 | |
Flames | 21 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 19 | 13 | 6 | - | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||