Maple Leafs lose key defenseman after awkward collision vs. Devils

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost one of their best defenseman because of an awkward collision at the beginning of the second period against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night. And it doesn't look too good.

In the opening minute of the middle frame, during a scrum in front of Toronto netminder Anthony Stolarz, defenseman Chris Tanev was going to try and make sure the puck wasn't close to crossing the goal line. As he came in behind Devils forward Dawson Mercer, who was jamming away at the pads of Stolarz to try and poke the puck past him, Tanev looked to hit his own head hard against the head of Mercer.

An incredibly awkward collision. Initial fears was that it was the butt of a stick, or someone's shoulder clipping him on his chin, but it was a head-on-head collision instead and with the momentum to carry him through, Tanev took the brunt of it. The Leafs defenseman immediately went down to the ice clutching his head with both hands.

With Tanev down on the ice, face down and all the crowd could see is his No. 8 sweater parallel with the ice, Scotiabank Arena went silent. Eventually, Tanev made his way to the Leafs' locker room and has not been seen for the rest of the second period.

No official word from the Maple Leafs about whether or not Tanev will return to the game, but with a head injury like that for the 35-year-old blueliner, it's better to play safe than sorry. Especially in a regular season game against the New Jersey Devils in October -- there's no reason to risk anything.

At the time of writing, in the final moments of the second period, the Devils are up by a score of 4-2 after Jack Hughes scored his second goal of the game and sixth of the season.

Update on Chris Tanev's injury

In the middle of the third period, the Maple Leafs made it official that Tanev was not going to return to action on Tuesday night. But then it also got a little worse.

Head coach Craig Berube said that it is entirely possible that the veteran blueliner can miss a decent amount of time.