Hitception: Sebastian Aho Levels Sebastian Aho

The NHL playoffs are underway, and on the first night of opening round games, we had what had to have been an NHL first when Sebastian Aho crushed Sebastian Aho with an open-ice check.

How is that possible? The explanation is far simpler than trying to understand a Christopher Nolan film, it's just that there are two Sebastian Ahos.

One of them plays for the Carolina Hurricanes while the other plays for the New York Islanders. Those two teams are in the midst of a first-round series that pits the two (who are unrelated, the Isles' is Swedish, while the Cane's hails from Finland) against each other.

Better yet, the Islanders' Sebastian Aho is a D-man, while the Hurricanes' is a forward so they were destined to come together.

And come together they did.

Aho-On-Aho Violence

With the Canes killing a penalty, their Sebastian Aho carried the puck into the Islanders zone. He used his body to protect the puck and tried to power his way into the slot. In his way was his Islanders counterpart. The Canes' Aho dropped his shoulder and planted it straight into Isles' Aho's solar plexus, sending him sprawling to the ice.

Again, this has to be first, right? I mean, maybe back in the day there was a Joe Smith who played for the Toronto Arenas and a Joe Smith who played for the Montreal Maroons and they came together.

I don't remember it happening with more modern same-name pairs like the two Artem Anisimovs or two Nicklas Bäckströms.

This isn't the first time these fellas with the same name have had a run in this season. During the regular season, Aho of the Hurricanes scored a pair of goals against the Islanders in one game. Both of which were at his counterpart's expense in some way.

The Hurricanes wound up winning this one 2-1 to take a 1-0 series lead.

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