Playoff chaos as a 9-goal scorer appears to suffer a scary injury
Brett Howden left John Tortorella holding his breath Wednesday night in Denver after sliding into the end boards legs-first during Game 1 against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Vegas Knights forward was visibly in pain on the ice. The clip racked up 26,100 views within minutes.
You could see him grab at his lower body before slowly trying to push himself up off the boards. It looked nasty.
The eye test on this one was rough. Howden hit the wall awkwardly and stayed down longer than anyone in a Vegas sweater wanted to see.
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The timing could not be worse for Tortorella. Howden has been Vegas' hottest playoff scorer with 9 goals and 11 points in 13 postseason games.
He is also a +6 in the playoffs and already owns 3 shorthanded goals this spring. Losing him reshapes the bottom six and the penalty kill.
Tortorella's PK loses its most dangerous shorthanded weapon
That 3 shorthanded goals number is not a fluke. Howden has turned into one of the most aggressive PK forwards in the league this postseason.
Vegas already split four matchups with Colorado in the regular season, going 1-1-1 against the Avalanche. The Knights cannot afford to give Nathan MacKinnon extra room.
And that is exactly what happens when you lose a shorthanded threat who can flip the ice on a single read.
Tortorella took over Vegas behind the bench back in March. His group has played sharp hockey, riding a W3 streak into the second round after dispatching Anaheim in six games.
The Knights finished the regular season 39-26-17 with 95 points. They are the underdog here. Colorado came in at 121 points and a plus-99 goal differential.
Lose Howden and that gap gets wider.
His regular-season numbers, 12 goals and 22 points in 58 games, looked modest. Then the playoffs flipped a switch. He is averaging nearly a point per game when the lights got brighter.
Now Tortorella has to figure out his replacement on if he's unable to play next game.
The bench boss does not bluff on these calls. He moves fast and he moves loud.
Vegas heads into Game 2 on Friday still in Denver. Whether Howden walks back into the locker room with that group is the question hanging over this series.
A leg-first crash into the dasher rarely ends with a same-night return. It usually ends with a long quiet walk down the tunnel.
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LIVE
MAY 20, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Dylan Coghlan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nic Dowd | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ross Colton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ben Hutton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Saad | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Colton Sissons | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Devon Toews | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Ahcan | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Brent Burns | - | - | - | |
| Jack Drury | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||