Connor Murphy was taken off the ice on a stretcher during the first period of the Chicago Blackhawks’ game against the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Center in Ottawa on Saturday.

The defender was placed under concussion protocol on Monday.

“‘Murph’ is a good buddy,” said Blackhawks defenseman Jake McCabe noted. “We’ve seen too many stretchers this year. It’s scary. It’s definitely hard to regroup so quickly after that. I’m just happy he’s doing well and can get a win too.”

Murphy was able to return to Chicago with the Blackhawks, coach Derek King said after a Victory 6-3.

King said he saw Murphy on Monday.

“It happens in the game. It’s unfortunate that it happened to him and he’s going to recover,” King said. “We just have to make sure that when he’s ready to come back he’s 100 per cent and there’s no harm done.”

Murphy was trying to play the puck off the right wing boards in the offensive zone when he was hit in the glass by the Senators forward Parker-Kellywho received a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct at 2:40 of the period.

“I can’t comment on the blow per se,” Chicago captain said Jonathan Toews noted. “I think any time someone gets on the ice like that, there’s definitely a liability on the guy who throws our guy into the boards. I don’t know. I think we’re on point in the league where there’s that level of respect and the understanding that you don’t want to be in that situation. You want to play physically, you want to hit hard, but if there’s a potential for something like that to happen, you gotta be smarter about it.”

The game was delayed about seven minutes while Murphy was treated on the ice. After being evaluated, he remained at the arena under the supervision of Blackhawks medical staff.

“You never want to see that”, the Ottawa defender Thomas Chabot noted. “I mean, it doesn’t matter [who it is], there are a lot of competitive guys in the game and things are happening. But I mean, every time you see that, nobody likes to see that. It’s very unfortunate. I mean, I hope I heard he was still there, even after the second period, so you want to wish Murphy the best. It’s an unfortunate situation and nobody wants to see that in our game and I hope he’s doing pretty well and recovering very quickly.”

The Blackhawks were all on the ice when Murphy left, then gathered in front of the bench before play resumed.

“I said, ‘Hey, listen. These kinds of things happen in our work and there’s nothing we can do about it,’” King said. “Obviously we don’t want to see a player injured like that, but we have to focus on the task ahead of us.”

Ottawa scored a shorthanded goal 38 seconds into play and led 2-0 at the end of the first period.

“It’s hard not to be shaken up,” Toews said. “For a second your focus is taken away from the game and it’s kind of hard to regroup and care about the game when your thoughts are with your teammate, and you really don’t know if he’s okay. Obviously it felt like to a rather serious situation when [Murphy] was put on the stretcher, so we’re glad he’s okay.”

Murphy leads the NHL with 150 blocked shots and has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 57 games this season. He missed three games from Dec. 4-7 while on NHL concussion protocol.

“It’s really tough when you see your teammate go down, especially a guy like Murphy,” the Chicago defenseman said. Caleb Jones noted. “He’s a heart and soul guy. It’s hard to bounce back. I think we just needed to get our feet under us after the first one, and we just came back in the second one and said: “You know what, let’s earn this one for [Murphy].'”

NHL.com Independent Correspondent Callum Fraser and NHL.com Writer Tracey Myers contributed to this report