New Jersey Devils defenseman Brenden Dillon’s 1,000th career game was cut short on Monday, Dec. 1.
He was shaken up and needed help getting off the ice after a fight in the second period.
The incident happened soon after Devils television announcers did a segment on the career of Dillon, who reached the milestone despite going undrafted. The announcers noted his physical play and showed a couple of his fights.
As play resumed, a scrum broke out in front of Devils goalie Jake Allen. Columbus’ Dmitri Voronkov and Dillon squared off. Dillon’s helmet came off, and Voronkov tied up the defenseman and threw a couple punches, knocking him down.
Dillon was down for a while, was wobbly when getting up and was helped off the ice by teammates. Another Devils player served his fighting major.
The Devils lost another defenseman soon after when Jonas Siegenthaler received a game misconduct for not having his jersey tied down during a fight.
Dillon came back to the bench in the second period and skated three shifts before intermission. He didn’t come out for the third period and the Devils played the rest of the game down two defensemen.
Dillon has 42 goals, 179 assists and 949 penalty minutes in 1,000 career games with Dallas, San Jose, Washington, Winnipeg and New Jersey.