# Has a Travis Roy injury ever happened in the NHL

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-travis-roy-injury-ever-happened-in-the-nhl/637461>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [October 11, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-travis-roy-injury-ever-happened-in-the-nhl/637461 "2012-10-11T21:32:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-travis-roy-injury-ever-happened-in-the-nhl/637461/1 "2012-10-11T21:32:39Z")

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For non hockey fans, Travis was a college hockey player who broke his neck after going headfirst into the boards. (On his 1st shift as a Freshman!)

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**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-travis-roy-injury-ever-happened-in-the-nhl/637461/2 "2012-10-13T20:14:12Z")

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I’ve seen some really scary things at NHL games but never a broken neck sort of thing like Roy. Among the scary things I remember, Paul Ranheim breaking his ankle and seeing his foot pointing backwards. Todd Elik taking a slapshot to the forehead and the resulting pool of blood when he landed face first on the ice. Normand Leveille had a aneurysm during a game, many people thought it was due to a head injury. But the scariest thing that I know of in an NHL game was Clint Malarchuk getting his neck nicked by a skate blade.

FTR, a kid I went to high school with was injured in a similar accident to Travis Roy.

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**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-travis-roy-injury-ever-happened-in-the-nhl/637461/3 "2012-10-13T23:14:39Z")

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IIRC, Gordie Howe’s career nearly ended due to a head injury in his rookie year. Of course, that’s not the same as Travis Roy but it easily could have been.

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-travis-roy-injury-ever-happened-in-the-nhl/637461/4 "2012-10-14T00:35:22Z")

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Bill Masterson died when he fell and hit his head on the ice – after that, players started wearing helmets, although it wasn’t manditory yet.

> [@Ike\_Witt](#):
>
> But the scariest thing that I know of in an NHL game was Clint Malarchuk getting his neck nicked by a skate blade.
> 
> FTR, a kid I went to high school with was injured in a similar accident to Travis Roy.

It wasn’t just “nicked” – he had his jugular slashed wide open. He literally came within an 8th of an inch of dying.