Lalonde: Luff 'seriously injured' on Slafkovsky hit

Montreal Canadiens rookie Juraj Slafkovsky was ejected from his team's 3-2 overtime win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday after a hit from behind on Matt Luff.

Slafkovsky, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 draft, shoved Luff head-first into the boards as the Red Wings forward bobbled the puck in the neutral zone late in the third period.

Luff did not return to the game and Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said post-game he was "seriously injured" on the hit.

“As far as the hit, the right call was made. It’s unfortunate,” Lalonde said. “It’s the exact hit you want to try to avoid, because of exactly what happened. A player got seriously injured. It is what it is. The right call was made. And we move on.”

“I don’t know completely the exact (timetable) with it, but probably very similar to where Filip Zadina is,” Lalonde added. “We won’t be seeing (Luff) anytime soon, unfortunately.”

Zadina was ruled out for six-to-weeks earlier on Tuesday due to an injury sustained blocking a shot over the weekend. 

“It was a bad hit and I think Slafkovsky knew it right away,” Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said. “But you can’t hit someone like that and it’s just scary to see a teammate, anyone, go into the boards like that. We’re really hoping he’s all right.”

Slafkovsky was assessed a major and game misconduct, picking up 15 penalty minutes to bring his season total to 19 through 10 games. The 18-year-old forward has three goals in those 10 games this season.

Luff, 25, has one goal in seven games this season, his first with the Red Wings after spending last year with the Nashville Predators.