Sean Kuraly probably wasn’t the most jovial person to be around this Christmas.
The veteran Blue Jackets center’s holiday season took quite a turn two days before Dec. 25 when he suffered a scary injury against Toronto at Nationwide Arena. As Kuraly was being hit behind the net, his stick wedged between the boards and his midsection, leading to a scary sight in Nationwide Arena as Kuraly first doubled over in pain and then needed attention from paramedics in the tunnel behind the CBJ bench.
Doctors quickly determined that no serious internal damage had been done to Kuraly, but that didn’t make the following few days any less painful.
“I was on the couch,” he said with a chuckle when asked how his Christmas went. “I had family there to take care of me.”
He was able to laugh a little bit as he chatted with the media yesterday, but in the moment, it was no laughing matter. Kuraly said that while his stick blade was up against the boards, the impact of the hit from Toronto’s Jake McCabe caused the butt end of his stick to jam under his ribs and into his midsection.
Kuraly first tried to play the puck then realized he was in duress, telling the referee, “I think something is wrong,” and appearing to be in more and more pain as he skated the 150 feet to the Blue Jackets bench. After Kuraly went into the tunnel to the dressing room, the CBJ bench frantically called for assistance from paramedics, as Kuraly said he got lightheaded from the pain and was having trouble catching his breath.
While the game was halted and the teams went to the rooms for intermission with less than 20 seconds remaining in the period, Kuraly was quickly evaluated by medical professionals. His internal organs – the heart, spleen and lungs – were deemed to be OK, though he said it took about 10 minutes to get back to breathing normally, and he went to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center for a CT scan to make sure there was no internal bleeding.
Quickly, Kuraly – as well as CBJ fans – found out he would be fine, but the freak nature of his injury did lead to some nervous moments at first.
“Yeah, it was a bit of a scare, obviously, and we found out pretty quickly it wasn’t anything serious,” said Kuraly, who added he’s never seen anything similar happen in a hockey game. “But right off the bat, a bit of a scare. Luckily, I was in great care, and all the immediate precautions went smoothly. I’m lucky to be in good shape.”
Adding to the scary nature of the injury was the fact that because of the holiday season, much of his family – including his parents and his brothers – was in Nationwide Arena. The good news was that because of the rapid nature of his evaluation, he knew pretty quickly that he wasn’t in significant duress, and he had help getting the news out.
Kuraly credited the CBJ communications department as well as team relations specialist Aaron Johnson as well as a few others for helping. One of his teammates was able to grab his phone so he could communicate with loved ones, while Johnny Gaudreau’s wife Meredith helped Kuraly’s mother Jane navigate her way back to the CBJ locker room area.
“There was a lot of concerned people, and I obviously appreciate that, and we tried to inform them as quickly as possible,” Kuraly said. “Everyone was down here, and the process went super smoothly. It puts you at ease to know if something does go wrong it would be run very smoothly.”
He’s missed the last two games thanks to a painful contusion in his midsection, but the CBJ alternate captain is officially listed as day to day and hopes to be back with the team as soon as possible.
“I’m just trying to get through some discomfort and pain in my lung and my abdominal area,” he said. “There’s a bit of a contusion, so just trying to work through some of that and being able to move like I can. I hope to get back as soon as I can.”
