Eaves says Armstrong called to check on him
Ottawa Senators fourth-line forward Patrick Eaves wasn't in the lineup for Game 4 in Pittsburgh, but he did address the calamitous hit that left him briefly unconscious on the ice in Game 3.
Eaves
Eaves was trying to carry the puck out from behind the Penguins' net when he was drilled by Pittsburgh forward Colby Armstrong. After blacking out briefly, Eaves was taken off the ice on a stretcher as a precaution. The next day, he said, Armstrong called to make sure he was OK.
"I'm good friends with Ryan Malone on the team, and I know Colby and my brother [Ben] knows Colby from playing with him," Eaves said. "He called me [Monday] and we talked, and I really appreciate the gesture that he made. It says a lot about him as a person.
"It was just a tough hit. I wish we would have scored on the play, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way."
As for the notion his highly publicized laying out has sparked renewed debate about the role of blows to the head and what the league might do to reduce them, Eaves said he thought the whole thing was slightly overblown.
"I just think it was a hard hockey play. It was just a tough play," said Eaves, a product of Boston College who was drafted 29th overall by the Senators in 2003. "When you don't see guys coming and they're in your blind spot there, that's the kind of thing that happens. I think people are trying to blow it out of proportion and trying to change the rules. I think every situation is different, so I don't think one rule can cover every hit like that."
His timetable for returning to the team is unknown. Oleg Saprykin took his place in the lineup.
"I feel a lot better than [Monday]. It's just kind of a day to day thing now," Eaves said.
Scott Burnside is the NHL writer for ESPN.com.
