Detroit Red Wings forward Jacob de la Rose is spending the night in hospital after leaving Tuesday’s game against the New York Rangers with an accelerated heart rate.
Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill told reporters post-game that de la Rose went to the hospital (accompanied by assistant athletic trainer Russ Baumann) for precautionary reasons, and will return to Detroit for further tests.
“We hope everything is fine,” said Blashill, who was informed of the situation during the second period (quotes via NHL.com). “He’ll spend the night here, go home and see a specialist and make sure everything is good. We want to be extra cautious with it.”
De la Rose exited Tuesday’s game — a win over the Rangers in New York — shortly after setting up teammate Andreas Athanasiou for a second-period goal.
“I think he probably felt it and went to the training staff and the training staff checked him and it was accelerated and they couldn’t get it to slow down in time,” Blashill continued. “And so, at that point in time you get him to the hospital to make sure. I think it’s all precautionary right now, but he’ll go back and see a specialist to make sure.”
This isn’t the first time de la Rose has experienced a heart issue. The 23-year-old was not cleared to open the regular season while with the Montreal Canadiens after experiencing what the team called a “cardiac episode.”
Blashill cautioned that he couldn’t say for sure whether this was the same issue as the one de la Rose experienced in October.
“I can’t say it’s the exact same,” Blashill said. “I know that was the issue he had there. Was it caused by the same reasons? Was it exactly the same? I can’t say. Both were, from my understanding, accelerated heart rates.”
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