Penguins goalie Brent Johnson lands one-punch knockout of Rick DiPietro Wednesday night.
The hits keep coming for the Islanders.
After a fight with Penguins goalie Brent Johnson on Wednesday night, Isles goalie Rick DiPietro is out four to six weeks, the team said Friday. The made-for-You Tube fight happened when Johnson skated the length of the ice and landed a left hook to drop DePietro with a single blow in the fight with merely seconds left in the game.
The fight wasn't the only thing that DiPietro lost. The Penguins skated off the ice with a 3-0 win.
Initial x-rays failed to show any damager, but a follow-up CT scan showed that DiPietro had facial fractures and knee swelling, the team said.
"It's frustrating, it's unfortunate and every other emotion you can throw in there," DiPietro told reporters Friday. "I'm sick of losing, our team's sick of losing. You never go into a fight expecting you're going to get smashed in the face that hard, or with these kind of consequences, but it happens and you move on."
DiPietro told reporters that he must take it easy for awhile, and would leave it up to the team to tell him when he could return.
"Right now it's soft foods and hang out," he said. "Those are my favorite things: to work out and eat and play hockey. I can't do any of them so it's not really the best of injuries."
The injury is the latest blow in a frustrating career for the 29-year-old who signed a groundbreaking 15-year-old contract with the Islanders in 2006. He hasn't played a full season since 2007 and has played only 13 games over the past two seasons due to knee injuries.
The Islanders are in last place, and DiPietro ranks 41 out of 42 with a .890 save percentange.
Three days after the fight, DiPietro was still trying to piece together what happened.
"I didn't realize at the time that his arms were so long or that he could throw such a hard left punch, but I found both of those out pretty quickly," he told reporters. "It's a tough game and it's a physical sport. Unfortunately my face paid the price."