Coyotes center Brad Richardson knew immediately.
The pain was excruciating, like nothing he’d experienced. It almost felt like his right leg was missing, but there it was twisted on the ice.
“My leg’s broke,” Richardson told then-captain Shane Doan, who was on the ice at the time. “Get the ambulance. Get the stretcher as quick as you can. I just want to get out of here.”
Nearly a year later, Richardson is back competing with the Coyotes after that gruesome injury interrupted his season and put his career on hold.
His leg isn’t the same, as it now includes a metal rod, but that isn’t the only change.