At least Yahoo!'s optimistic

Day-to-day? That's a little generous, no?

In all seriousness, though, it's great to see that Richard Zednik is going to be okay. What happened on the ice Sunday night is one of, if not the, scariest thing that can happen during a hockey game. It's easy to forget that players are basically wearing knives on their feet and one little slip up could be fatal. Puts everything in perspective.

And in a historical perspective, it appears that Zednik's injury was actually worse than the one Clint Malarchuk infamously sustained in 1989.

From The Buffalo News' website:

The Clint Malarchuk comparisons can stop. Richard Zednik's injury was much more life- threatening.

"Clint actually cut his external jugular vein, which is quite different from your common carotid artery," Dr. Leslie J. Bisson said. "Your common carotid artery, when that's lacerated, it can very quickly become a fatal injury."

The four doctors who treated Zednik used words today such as "profusely," "devastating," "hanging by a thread" and "lucky" to describe the sliced carotid artery injury suffered by Zednik on Sunday.

The physicians who treated the Florida Panthers hockey player met with the media this afternoon. They described a scene that likely would have been fatal if not for a sequence of fortunate events.

Zednik, struck in the throat by the skate of teammate Olli Jokinen, was fortunate the blade cut only the carotid artery, barely missing the internal jugular vein and a web of nerves in the neck.

Still, the blow could have been deadly if:

*Zednik hadn't skated immediately to the bench, a 100-foot journey that left a wide trail of blood. That allowed trainers and doctors to reach him quicker.

*Bisson, the Sabres team doctor, hadn't been positioned next to the bench. He was able to hop out of the stands and meet Zednik near his bench. Bisson immediately put pressure on the gushing artery, slowing the bleeding.

*The artery had been completely severed. It wasn't, allowing Drs. Sonya Noor and Richard Curl to quickly find the injury and reattach it cleanly. If the artery had torn fully, it would have retracted and moved out of place.

"We all were very lucky last night, not just Richard," Noor said in Buffalo General Hospital.

The Roost's thoughts and prayers continue to stay with Zednik and his family throughout the recovery process.