Nearly halfway through the second period of Game 1 against the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils' Brenden Dillon got tangled up with William Carrier.
The 6′4″, 225-pound defenseman tumbled to the ice along with Carrier. The Hurricanes' forward quickly got back to his skates as Dillon grabbed his hockey stick and slowly returned to his feet.
After two attempts to stay upright, New Jersey's hulking defenseman found himself back on the ice, and the whistle blew.
Ondrej Palat skated over to his teammate as a trainer came onto the ice to attend to the 34-year-old. After initially getting help from the trainer and Nathan Bastian, Dillon eventually skated off the ice on his own.
"From where we were sitting up top at the arena and coming down, (we are) thinking, was it a concussion?" Devils' general manager Tom Fitzgerald said. "When he skated off, at first, I thought maybe it was his knee, but when I came down and saw him with the doctors, it was eye-opening to see what happened to him, and how quickly he was normal and wanted to play."
At the time, the announcers were sure it was a lower-body injury, but nothing was publicly confirmed. The only thing that was known was that he did not return for the remainder of the playoff series.
When Dillon met with the media for his end-of-season availability, he revealed it was a neck injury.
"It was a scary incident on the ice," Dillon said. "I have never had any concussion, neck, back, really anything bad, ever in my career. I suffered a neck injury on the play. I actually felt great, had my helmet and skates on, ready to go for the third (period)."
The Devils' training staff and doctors insisted the veteran remain off the ice, a decision Dillon did not agree with at the time.
"A couple of broken sticks," he said. "Some choice words. When you are emotional and want to be in the fight at the best time of the year, it is hard to pull back."
Looking back, Dillon knows the training staff made the right call.
"It was the right decision not to go back out," he continued. "I am really appreciative and credit to our staff and coaches."
Dillon completed his first year of a three-year contract worth $12,000,000 with an annual average value of $4,000,000. After being cleared of a concussion, the defenseman is optimistic he will be able to start his second season in New Jersey on time.
"It seems very optimistic that I will be good to go, able to be myself, work on things, get better this summer," he said. "I have been on the phone a lot over the past 7-10 days with players around the league who have had similar injuries, with doctors and surgeons. The resounding answer has been yes – I will be good to go for September and October."
"He is going through a process right now of gathering information on the surgery, and you know who he needs to talk to," Fitzgerald said. "He is probably overwhelmed with information right now and probably confused versus, you know, less is more. Whatever he decides to do with his neck. We do know it is a quicker recovery, and he will be ready for training camp."
Dillon led all defensemen with 191 hits and was instrumental on the penalty kill, leading all skaters in shorthanded ice time. He was an important voice in the locker room and a key addition to the blue line along with Brett Pesce and Johnathan Kovacevic.
"The future is bright, especially on the backend," Dillon said. "I think for the things we wanted to accomplish this year defensively, we made some great strides."
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