Posted - 02/24/2010 : 10:07:47 Assuming most prob saw this but maybe not since it was the late game and some of you may not have been up depending on time zones? Anyway, it was 6 mins into the Norway / Slovakia game last night and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen nailed Lubos Bartecko with an elbow. It's not a great video of the actual hit but for those who don't like the sight of blood, i recommend you not watch. Bartecko's helmet comes off and his head hits the ice pretty hard. Blood is dripping from a bad cut on the back of his head which required stitches. Tollefsen was immediately ejected and Bartecko was taken off on a stretcher after a lengthy delay.
Now, while the hit was bad, watch closely and you'll see that Bartecko's helmut comes off BEFORE he hits the ice. It looks as though the backchecking Norwegian player (not Tollefsen) bumps into him as he's going to the ice (after the initial elbow) and the helmut pops off. For the love of god, these players HAVE TO start strapping those helmuts on better! I'm not in any way saying the original hit was clean, but the damage surely would have been less had he had the helmut done up tighter? If it was in fact done up tight, then they have to mandate a better clip for the helmuts as far too often we see these things come off!
