Two hockey players, Mitch Callahan and Christian Ehrhoff, recently shared their bloody injuries on Twitter – demonstrating the damage a little hockey puck can do.
Words of warning: the following includes pics which are graphic, depicting real injuries sustained by the aforementioned players. If you are sensitive to this material, I suggest you stop reading now.
Hockey can be a brutal, gory sport – one in which players skate around on sharp blades, aggressively body-check one another, are armed with a stick, and vie for a vulcanized rubber puck.
A standard ice hockey puck is black, one inch thick, three inches in diameter, and weighs approximately six ounces. To reduce bouncing during gameplay, pucks are frozen beforehand. In play, a puck can reach speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.
Record-wise, Zdeno Chára managed to produce a slapshot which was clocked at 108.8 miles per hour. Alexander Ryazantsev of Traktor Chelyabinsk also managed to set a world record during a Kontinental Hockey League’s Skill Competition with a slapshot of 114.1 mph.
Now ponder for a moment one of those vulcanized, frozen hockey pucks hurdling towards you. While hockey players are donned in protective gear, fast-flying pucks are still very dangerous.
Because of the built-up velocity of traveling on the ice, the physically brutal interaction between players and the surrounding plexiglass, and sticks flailing about while the puck is in play, injuries at hockey games are not uncommon – and teeth are often the first casualty.
Common or not, the following tweets of the injuries sustained because of a rouge puck are still startling and eww-hiss inspiring. Seriously, stop scrolling now if you are hemophobic and can’t stand blood.
Mitch Callahan recently took a puck to the mouth – losing approximately 10 teeth in the process. Mitchell “Mitch” Callahan is an American professional ice hockey player, who is currently playing for the Grand Rapids Griffins of the American Hockey League (AHL).
Callahan, 22, the Griffins second-leading goal scorer, was hit in the mouth late in the first period of the Griffins’ 6-1 victory last Thursday against Iowa. Several teeth were gathered off the ice, and after he posted the photo he was taken to the hospital, reports MLive.
Ouch pic.twitter.com/8DfILryNg7
— Mitch Callahan (@Mcally15) April 3, 2014
Christian Ehrhoff is a German-born professional ice hockey player. Ehrhoff, 31, currently plays for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL) where he is an alternate captain and defenseman.
He took a puck to the ear during the third period of Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Ehrhoff suffered a nasty cut on his ear that required 40 stitches.
https://twitter.com/TheRealHoff10/status/453021372898234368
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention another gladiator on ice. Earlier in March, NHL player Daniel Alfredsson lost at least two teeth during a Red Wings game. But he collected them from the ice and KEPT playing. Notably, during his career, Alfredsson managed to launch a puck at 101.3 mph.
[Photo Credit: Matt Boulton]
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