With a nasty cut twisting from the middle of his cheek to his nostril, Shayne Gostisbehere was feeling fortunate.
The Philadelphia Flyers defender escaped with a certainly pronounced but thankfully superficial facial wound after being sliced across the cheek by the skate of Los Angeles Kings forward Kyle Clifford on Saturday night.
"I kind of fell first and he just hit me," Gostisbehere said, according to CSN Philly's Tim Panaccio. "I kind of got lucky. It didn't get me too bad. No stitches, just a scrape. I was just thankful it wasn't worse.
"I'll take this any day for whatever could have happened."
It's the first of what will likely be many seemingly unavoidable incidents of a similar nature this season. Hopefully all others can share in Gostisbehere's fortune.
Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.