KHL player suffers a broken jaw after he blocks a shot with his face

BarDown Staff

Mikelis Redlihs , Twitter/khl_eng

The start of the 2017-18 NHL regular season is still over a month away, but the KHL regular season is already underway.

Dinamo Riga opened up their season against Avangard Omsk and it was not the start Dinamo R was hoping for. Not only did they lose the game 3-1, but they also lost winger Mikelis Redlihs for an undisclosed amount of time.

In the first period, Redlihs put his body on the line for his team and ended up blocking a shot with his face.

Mikelis Redlihs leaves the game after getting hit by a puck in a face. #AVGvsDRG pic.twitter.com/S8HwhNGYxy
— KHL (@khl_eng) August 22, 2017

The 33-year-old Latvian forward stayed down for a few moments and had to be helped off the ice.

As you can probably imagine, his face was quite swollen once he got up.

Ouch... #AVGvsDRG pic.twitter.com/LOInU0cgXK
— KHL (@khl_eng) August 22, 2017

The team is not sure how much time he is going to miss, but they did confirm that he suffered a broken jaw on the play.

DINAMO RĪGA uzbrucējs Miķelis Rēdlihs spēlē ar Omskas AVANGARD ir lauzis žokli un hokejists atgriezīsies Rīgā.
— Dinamo Riga (@hcDINAMORIGA) August 22, 2017

That definitely could have ended a lot worse, but at least his teammates know he’ll do anything for his team.

(H/T Twitter/khl_eng)