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Video: ‘These hits...we’ve got to get out of the game,’ says Red Wings coach

Detroit Red Wings v Colorado Avalanche

at Pepsi Center on October 17, 2013 in Denver, Colorado.

Doug Pensinger

It’s another incident that will likely require further discipline handed down from NHL senior vice-president of player safety Brendan Shanahan.

Early in the first period of Thursday’s game between Colorado and Detroit, Avalanche forward Cody McLeod drove Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall from behind, face first into the boards.

Kronwall lay motionless for a short time, before getting stretchered off the ice.

“Tough situation for him, anytime you get hit like that, you’re out cold,” Wings head coach Mike Babcock told the Detroit Free Press. “You’re scared to say the least.

“These hits are things we’ve got to get out of the game.”

McLeod was given a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct. The Red Wings updated Kronwall’s condition later in the first period, saying via Twitter that the blue liner had a concussion and cuts to his ear, but was moving all his extremities.

Added Red Wings defenseman Jonathan Ericsson: “He was out, he didn’t really know what happened there.

“He was out of it for a little bit. Then he was asking some questions. It was a little scary but we found out early he was fine and he was going to recover fine.”

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