Florida Panthers goalie James Reimer was assisted off the ice midway through the second period Tuesday in a game against his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, after being run over by Brian Boyle.
Boyle was chasing Panthers defenceman Jason Demers in Florida’s zone and as Reimer left his crease to cover the puck Boyle’s left elbow made contact with Reimer’s head and the netminder went down.
Colton Sceviour dropped the gloves with Boyle in response and the two men were assessed fighting majors. Boyle also received two minutes for slashing for a separate incident on the shift, but the forward avoided a penalty specifically for making contact with Reimer.
Boyle insisted the contact was unintentional.
“What I did see was he was kind of going for the puck, he looked like he was going to come out and kind of fumbled it,” Boyle said after the game. “I don’t know if he lunged out a little bit, but it totally…Incidental contact. I obviously wasn’t trying to hit the goaltender. We’ve talked about that. We actually talked about that this morning. It’s unfortunate because it’s a vulnerable position and there’s a lot of variables like that in the game.”
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Panthers interim head coach Tom Rowe did not have an update on Reimer’s health after the game and was unaware if he had undergone concussion protocol.
“Seeing him lying on the ice isn’t a good feeling,” Boyle added. “Obviously, I was disappointed to see that. Hopefully he’s okay. Credit to Sceviour, he did what he had to do, but, again, I think it’s pretty well understood that I’m not looking for something like that. I’m just trying to skate. If I change my direction I’m probably going to fly into the boards. I wouldn’t say I’m the quickest guy anyways to stop on a dime like that. It happened really fast…I hope that he’s okay.”
Reimer, drafted 99th overall by the Maple Leafs in 2006, remained on the ice for several moments but eventually made his way back to his skates. Maple Leafs centre Tyler Bozak gave his former teammate a tap on the pads as Reimer made his way off the ice.
He was replaced by Reto Berra.
The play resulted in some flashbacks to when Reimer went down in a similar situation in 2011, when he was still on the Maple Leafs.
Reimer started the 2011–12 season 4-0-1 when he was run over by Brian Gionta, then of the Montreal Canadiens, and ended up missing 19 games. Reimer wasn’t quite the same when he came back and only ended up playing 34 games that season.
The 29-year-old is 16-15-5 with a 2.58 goals-against average and .917 save percentage in 36 appearances with the Panthers this season.
