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Larsen is out cold and Markstromand Granlund try and protect him, but legs and sticks hit him. Just awful. pic.twitter.com/7P3pB6CmSO — Wyatt Arndt (@TheStanchion) December 7, 2016

From a Vancouver perspective, it looked horrible. Luca Sbisa made a poorly-thought-out pass, turning a breakout into a suicide mission, from the half boards to behind his own net.

When Larsen went to retrieve the puck, Hall lined him up, creeping down the backside, knowing Larsen couldn’t see him. The hit from one angle appears to be through the chest with Hall letting up, and from another the head looks to be the principal point of contact.

Early reports were encouraging. Larsen was awake, responding and moving his limbs.

“(After the hit), he wasn’t moving. I’ve never seen anyone like that on the ice,” Luca Sbisa said. “I don’t even know how he’s doing. … It was just scary. To be honest, I couldn’t really focus the rest of the period.”

Larsen was expected to spend the night in a local hospital. Coach Willie Desjardins didn’t call it a dirty hit but did say he had a problem with it.

“You always have a problem with a hit when one of your guys gets hit hard. It doesn’t matter if it’s a clean hit. You have a problem when a guy gets hit that hard. I think all coaches would.”

The NHL is so all over the place with its decisions on suspensions, no one can be sure what happens next.

For Canucks fans, the first thing they will think when they see it is Raffi Torres on Brent Seabrook. Back in 2011, that was one of the few hits Torres got the benefit of the doubt, avoiding suspension.

When Larsen left on a stretcher, the game didn’t seem to matter anymore. The Canucks played like it. Things went from tied to 3-1 New Jersey without much push back at all from Vancouver.