Red Wings’ training camp starts with scary collision between Jerome Verrier and Darren Helm

By Jesse O’Brien –

TRAVERSE CITY — Less than 20 minutes into the Detroit Red Wings’ 2015 training camp, first-year head coach Jeff Blashill already had a scary situation on his hands.

Camp invitee Jerome Verrier was carried off the ice on a stretcher following a vicious collision with veteran Darren Helm during drills Friday morning, sending both men to the hospital for observation.

Helm will go through concussion protocol and Blashill initially listed him as day-to-day before clarifying, “it’s probably going to be a bit longer than that.”

Verrier, a 21-year-old undrafted wing from Quebec, suffered a broken right leg. Helm left the ice without assistance, but did not return to practice.

“I heard it, and I turned around and saw them go down, it was a little scary,” Johan Franzen said. “And the kid, he was in so much pain I was feeling a little sick for a while — I hope they can recover fast.”

The collision occurred during drills for the first on-ice session of the day.

“We weren’t able to give heads up to either guy soon enough and obviously the drill got messed up a little bit,” Blashill said.

Helm was slated to play left wing on the first line alongside Tomas Tatar and Brad Richards for Team Delvecchio in camp this week.

“It was not something you want to see, never been through something like that,” Richards said. “It was pretty loud and not a good scene on the ice. I’m not sure what’s going to happen there, but hopefully they get better quick.”