Anton Blidh delivers late hit on Roman Josi (Video)

Boston Bruins forward Anton Blidh delivered a crushing late hit on Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi during their Thursday game at Bridgestone Arena.

The play happened at the 15:31 mark of the first period between the two teams. Josi left the game after the hit with an upper-body injury and Blidh received a five-minute major for interference.

Predators coach Peter Laviolette ripped the play after the game, a 2-1 win by Nashville.

“I thought it was late and dirty,” he said according to The Tennessean.

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Losing Josi for any period of time would create even more concern for Nashville from an injury perspective. The Predators were without defenseman P.K. Subban (upper-body injury), forward James Neal (upper-body injury) and forward Colin Wilson (lower-body injury) for this game. Subban has been out since Dec. 15 and the team placed him on injured reserve Jan. 1, saying he would miss the next two-to-three weeks from that point.

The 26-year-old Josi has had a down season with 22 points in 42 games played after a career-high 61 points in 81 games last season.

“He’s a No. 1 guy, obviously playing 26, 27 (minutes), even more than that every game, so it’s a big loss for us having him and P.K. out,” Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm said, also according to The Tennessean. “But I thought we managed it really well tonight. We had guys stepping up, playing big minutes.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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