Ryan Smyth is at home recovering from a vicious head shot he received during a Senior AAA hockey game in Alberta on Sunday.
The player responsible for the hit, 33-year-old Kyle Sheen, feels terrible that Smyth was injured and insisted that he was not targeting the former Edmonton Oilers star.
“It was a gut-wrenching feeling to seeing him laying there. I’ve laid out a thousand hits over the last 16 years and not once have I injured somebody like that,” Sheen told CBC Radio in Edmonton. “I respect him as a hockey player. I think he’s done wonders for the hockey community. I don’t want to see him hurt. I want him to have a speedy recovery and join this league again.”
It appears as though Sheen’s skates came off the ice as he was making contact with Smyth but Sheen doesn’t think referring to the play as a “flying elbow” is accurate. He received a match penalty for the play.
“It wasn’t a flying elbow. I didn’t have my elbow up. I didn’t jump. For people to say that I was targeting Ryan Smyth is false and untrue,” Sheen said. “My intent was to finish a clean hit with a guy that was cutting across the middle, trying to score a goal.”
Smyth was transported to a local hospital but thankfully was discharged later that day.
“To turn around and see him laying there, you could see the blood from the cut on his face on his visor. It was not a good feeling in my stomach. It made me feel sick,” Sheen explained. “To sit and watch it, it doesn’t look good on the fact that he scores on the play. Personally, I don’t like the hit. My shoulder makes contact with his head and that was not my intention at all.
“If you look at the video, I’ve committed to the hit. By the time he releases his backhand, I’m within a stick’s length from him.”
Sheen also said he has received multiple threats on social media including from one person who told him to “die painfully of cancer.” The elevator mechanic added that he has reached out to Smyth and left him a voicemail.
[relatedlinks]