[UPDATE: Connolly has been suspended four games by the NHL Department of Player Safety.]
In what has become a scary trend over the past couple of weeks another NHL player was taken off the ice on a stretcher on Saturday night.
This time it was Dallas Stars forward Tanner Kero after he was on the receiving end of a big hit from Chicago Blackhawks forward Brett Connolly.
It is the third time in the past two weeks that a player has had to leave a game on a stretcher after a hit.
You can see the play in the video posted above.
The incident happened in the first period. The Stars were attempting to move the puck out of their own defensive zone and played it off the glass. Kero never had an opportunity to make a play on the puck when he was hit by Connolly. He remained down on the ice for several minutes before being taken off on a stretcher.
The Stars announced that Kero is alert and conscious and that he is being transported to a local Dallas hospital for precautionary reasons.
Connolly was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for interference. It is entirely possible, if not likely, that he will also have a hearing for a suspension with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.