Toronto Maple Leafs forward drops gloves to protect a teammate and suffers brutal hand injury for his troubles
After being sent down to the minors, Kyle Clifford has been skating in the American Hockey League with the Toronto Marlies. The former NHL veteran skated in eight games with he Marlies this year and has one goal and one assist. Clifford is well known for his physical play and his ability to drop the gloves when he needs to.
Clifford showed a perfect example of this the yesterday against the Belleville Senators. Senators forward Ridly Greig took a big run at Marlies forward Mach Johnstone and Clifford immediately stood up for his teammate.
Clifford has been standing up and fighting for his teammates his entire career. He took exception to a big hit and made it known that he was not tolerating that kind of play. It was later announced that Clifford did injure his hand on the play.
Reports say he dislocated something in his hand. This will be an injury where Clifford will miss an extended period of time. However, you have to love having a guy like this on your hockey team. Let's hope the colonel can heal quickly and get back to protecting his teammates and adding a physical presence on the ice.
| POLL | ||
Who wins the Atlantic Division? | ||
| Boston Bruins | 130 | 73.4 % |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 37 | 20.9 % |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 7 | 4 % |
| Other | 3 | 1.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
