It was still a nice moment! 
Continuing in that vein, Travis Roy, a highly-regarded freshman hockey player for Boston University, was slammed into the boards 11 seconds into the first game of the 1995 season, broke his neck, and has been a quadriplegic since.
Thanks Elvis, that’s who I was thinking of.
Doesn’t really fit, as it wasn’t at the professional level, but still pretty tragic.