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Adam Johnson – who originally is from a small town in Minnesota – was playing for the UK’s Nottingham Panthers in a match against the Sheffield Steelers when he met his unfortunate demise.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Panthers organization said that they were "truly devastated" to announce that Johnson had died following the "freak accident."
Many people from family members and active professional hockey players reacted to the news on social media or spoke to the media about it after the reports came out.
Kari Johnson, his mother, said in a Facebook post that she had "lost half of my heart" when she learned of the passing of her son
"Obviously (it’s) so sad of course for him and his family and everything. It’s hard to think about that. You’re thinking about him and his family, that’s a tragedy," Blackhawks Rookie Sensation Connor Bedard said to the media about the passing of Johnson. “The hockey community is so tight and such a small world. ... I don’t know him, a few guys here know him, but you want to do what you can to support anyway.”
According to initial reports Johnson died from a freak accident when a blade from an opposing player's skate slashed an important vein in his throat, leaving him to bleed out and die a painful death that has been considered a freak thing that almost never happens in the sport of Hockey.
A few days later, a video of what actually happened and it appeared that the Sheffield player intentionally left his feet, picked up his skates, and kicked the American in the neck leading him to die on the ice.
The player who hit Johnson is none other than Matt Pergrave, a player who has built a reputation as a dirty player during his professional career.
During his time in the Elite Ice Hockey League – or EIHL for short – Pergrave has racked up the most penalty minutes during the 2022-2023 season while also getting ejected from multiple games due to his reckless and dangerous play.
Recently, another video has surfaced on X of Pergrave doing a similar move in a game years earlier in an effort to severely injure a player.
The first incident apparently took place during Petgrave's first season in the Ontario Hockey League – sometime between 2009-2010 – when he played for the Niagara IceDogs. Both players involved appear to walk away from the collision without an injury but it looked eerily similar to the type of move made by Pergrave when he hit Johnson.
“Did this kid make a very unorthodox move? Do I think he was trying to make contact of some sort? Absolutely,” former NHL player Sean Avery said earlier this week about the clips of Pergrave. “Do I think he woke up and said 'I'm going to murder somebody today?' No.”
Many notable media outlets like The Daily Mail since called the incident an unfortunate accident and have suggested that Petgrave should not be held accountable.
Some sources think that the trip was accidental but a kung-fu style kick to a players neck while you have blades on the bottom of your feet that are sharp enough to cut open another man’s neck has to raise some eyebrows. Especially when the player in question has an extensive history of dirty play and there's documented evidence of him making this play.
Even if he was falling, Pergrave made a decision to lift his skates as “protection” and it resulted in him using a weapon to kill a man. It could be “accidental,” but manslaughter is still considered a crime.
According to The Athletic, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week that there is in fact an ongoing investigation and it “remains ongoing” and will likely “take some time.”
An inquest into the 29-year-old American’s death was opened and adjourned until January 26, 2024 after a brief hearing at Sheffield’s Medico-Legal Centre on Friday, November 3.