Sami Salo has suffered his 39th official injury of his career, but this is one he will never forget. In blocking a shot Salo suffered a lower body injury - namely a ruptured testicle.
Nick Fotiu suffered the same injury. He described the pain as "There is no way to describe it. Pain? Forget about it. You could … not … believe … the pain. @#*&, it was bad. Bad, bad pain." (Stick Tap to Kukla)
Salo and Fotiu are amongst those hockey players that took the coach's demands to bust their balls a little to literally. They'd also agree that is the worst possible injury in hockey.
Or is it? Here's a few more real bad injuries I can think of:
- Bill Masterton and Don Sanderson dying after hitting their head on the ice.
- Clint Malarchuk and Richard Zednik having their necks sliced, nearly perishing on live TV.
- Borje Salming having his face stepped on by a skate, requiring 250 stitches to repair him.
- Trent McCleary taking a puck to the throat.
- The career ending attacks on Ace Bailey and Steve Moore.
- Mark Howe impaling himself on the old, immovable goalie nets.
- Gordie Howe fracturing his skull while trying to bodycheck Teeder Kennedy.
- Howie Morenz breaking his leg and dying weeks later.
- Pat Peake shattering his heel on a needless icing call.
- Wayne Cashman needing 50 stitches in his tongue.
7 comments:
Lou Fontinato,career ending broken neck may be one to add to the list.
I always thought Trent Mcleary's was the worst.
Kurtis Foster have his leg basically explode when he was checked into the end boards in San Jose 2 years ago. This is one of many reasons there should be no touch icing in the NHL.
Donald Audette's injury back in 2001 was pretty scary.
I was at the game where Fotiu got injured. The only game he ever played for the Oilers - it may have even been his first shift - he was on the forecheck and when the defenceman wound up to shoot the puck up ice, he turned around to go back into his zone. The shot was timed perfectly and rose up right into his crotch from behind where the cup doesn't protect. He went down like a ton of bricks but I don't remember him staying down for too long. Tough SOB that guy!
A friend of mine took a puck to the forehead as a netminder. It would have been OK only it struck the bolt securing his faceguard, and the pads behind the bolt had slipped out of place. It drove the bolt into his brain like a bullet. He was in a coma for weeks, and had fairly extensive frontal lobe damage.
Bryan Berards's ruptured eyeball in 2000.
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