Ducks’ Adam Henrique returns after taking puck to the face

TORONTO — All things considered, Ducks forward Adam Henrique was a fortunate man.

Henrique took a puck in the face, via a shot from the point from Toronto defenseman Mark Giordano, just 11 seconds into their 7-0 loss on Tuesday night.

He immediately left the ice and went back to the dressing room for treatment and returned to play the final two periods.

“It’s better than it looked,” Henrique said in the hallway outside the dressing room after the game.

He didn’t know how many stitches he required, in all, but said there were six just on the outside of his face. Presumably, there were many more on the inside of his mouth.

“Anytime those guys get hit up high like that, you hold your breath,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “Unbelievable that he comes back. He’s got half a million stitches in his mouth and everywhere and he comes back and plays.”

Said Ducks forward Troy Terry: “It’s just a scary play in hockey. Especially someone that we all care for so much. I know he’s hurting. But I’m glad he’s OK and at least there’s no structural damage. And he’s a warrior. To see him come back, it was just a testament to who he is on this team.”

Goaltender John Gibson left the game midway through the second period. But Eakins said it was too early to know the severity of the injury. The Ducks’ No. 2 goaltender, Anthony Stolarz, is not on the trip, dealing with a lower-body injury.

Against Toronto, the Ducks had to play with 10 forwards until Henrique returned because Max Jones was a late scratch (upper-body injury) after pregame warmups. They started with 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

“It just seized up in warmups – nothing that had been lingering,” Eakins said. “He (Jones) couldn’t get it to settle down, so we had to pull him at the last second. I had to go pull (Nathan) Beaulieu out of the weight room. He was in a fairly intense workout, so we grabbed him quickly and got him dressed.”

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There was one other change for the Ducks on the back end from Monday’s game. Urho Vaakanainen sat out against Toronto, and Colton White took his place, playing in his first game since Dec. 6 against Carolina.

Part of the change was performance-based and some of it is physically related.

“He (Vaakanainen) is banged up and I think it’s hurt his game a little bit,” Eakins said. “So it’s a bit of both.”

The analytics from Monday night’s game were in agreement.

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