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| Hockey player Adam Johnson. (Page 2/4) |
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Doug85GT
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OCT 31, 12:14 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by IMSA GT:
Apparently this is not that uncommon. I've seen several players over the years get their throats slashed by the opponents skate.
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That usually happens when a player is laying on the ice and another player runs into them. This incident is very different in that the guy essentially did a karate side kick into the victim's neck.
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Patrick
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OCT 31, 12:21 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by IMSA GT:
Apparently this is not that uncommon. I've seen several players over the years get their throats slashed by the opponents skate.
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Where?
In the National Hockey League (founded in 1917), there have been two players in league history that have had their throats cut by skates. Both survived.
Hockey players always close to razor’s edge of injury
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After a 20-minute period of hockey, the sheet of ice looks like the face of a 100-year-old man. The playing surface is an intricate pattern of grooved cuts with deep indentations.
If the edge of a skate blade, propelled by the weight and force of prime-conditioned athletes, can slice through hard ice with ease, imagine how fast it can move through human skin and muscle tissue. Hockey players know all too well, living with the knowledge they play a sport a razor’s edge away from a potentially horrific accident.
There never has been a fatality in the NHL because of a cut by a skate — somehow Clint Malarchuk survived having his jugular vein severed 20 years ago when he was a goalie for Buffalo — but gruesome injuries are an almost annual occurrence.
“To be honest, I’m amazed there haven’t been more incidents like mine,” Malarchuk said by phone from his home in Nevada. “I still cringe whenever I see a skate come up. They’re going to cut whatever’s in their way.”
On Feb. 10, 2008, Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik had an external carotid artery sliced by a skate from teammate Olli Jokinen, who had been upended. Zednik’s artery was not severed, but he lost five units of blood and needed emergency surgery. He eventually made a full recovery.
Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson was in net for the Panthers when it happened, and he’ll never forget it.
“You saw the blood coming down on the ice from the neck and you knew it was bad. We finished the game, but it was tough. It was kind of a slow-motion game after that,” said Anderson, who will start tonight against his former team at Bank Atlantic Center.
In a playoff game last spring against Detroit, Chicago forward Adam Burish had his throat cut by the skate of teammate Ben Eager. Cuts to other body parts from skates — often to calves and thighs — happen routinely. Carolina goalie Cam Ward has been sidelined since Nov. 8 after a skate from Columbus’ Rick Nash sliced his leg. Former Avs goalie Jose Theodore sliced through the thigh of Anaheim’s Corey Perry in 2008, causing surgery and a six-week absence. Hall of Famer Dave Andreychuk — on the ice when Malarchuk suffered his injury — once suffered a gash in his back from a skate.
“I really didn’t even know I was cut or hurt until I got into the dressing room, and my pants were full of blood,” Andreychuk recalled. “It was such a fine cut that I really didn’t even feel it at first.”
Quick thinking by staff
Malarchuk certainly felt his wound, and wondered how he would survive getting off the ice when on March 22, 1989, he had the jugular vein along the left side of his neck severed by the skate blade of St. Louis Blues forward Steve Tuttle. As blood gushed onto the ice, Malarchuk was convinced he would soon die. And he would have if not for the heroic actions of the Sabres’ trainer, Jim Pizzutelli, a former U.S. Army medic.
Tuttle was knocked into the net by Sabres defender and former Avs player Uwe Krupp, and the Blues forward’s left skate diagonally passed through Malarchuk’s exposed jugular. Pizzutelli immediately raced to the ice and applied pressure with his fingers to the wound.
“I remember thinking, ‘God, you’re choking me, let go!’ ” Malarchuk said. “But he saved my life doing that. I was lucky because the play happened down by our player entrance, so it wasn’t far to the dressing room. The only thing I remember after that was another doctor coming in and leaning right over me on a table, with his chest right in my face, and applying a lot harder pressure to the cut area.”
Said Andreychuk: “I was only five feet away when it happened, and I remember we both looked at each other in the eyes right after it happened. Then you saw the blood. I remember seeing people throw up (in the stands). It was traumatic for all of us. We ended up playing the game out and we lost, and nobody cared. The game should have been stopped.”
Trauma runs deep
Malarchuk eventually recovered, and he played seven more years of pro hockey. But the emotional wounds took far longer to heal. Malarchuk grew up with an abusive father, and the throat injury created an added emotional trauma he tried masking with alcohol and prescription pills.
Last year, at home in Nevada, Malarchuk — then the goalie coach with Columbus — grabbed a gun after a day of “drinking and self-medicating.” He doesn’t call it a suicide attempt because he wasn’t in a clear state of mind, but he put a bullet through his face. He survived and maintains he’s now clean of drugs and alcohol with the help of a therapist. He’s no longer coaching hockey.
“I was like a lot of guys. I thought I could just get back out there (on the ice) and everything was fine. I dealt with the physical part, but didn’t deal with the emotional stuff at all,” Malarchuk said.
His therapist helped turned his life around, he said.
“Things started to click, and I really started to reflect back on my life. Now, I feel like I’m ready to help others.”
As for the issue of skate danger, Malarchuk said, “They haven’t gotten any less sharp, and I just hope nothing as serious ever happens as what happened to me.”
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IMSA GT
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OCT 31, 01:40 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Patrick:
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I guess I should have said "This has happened before" rather than use the "not uncommon" comment. I was actually thinking about the 2 you posted plus I've seen it happen here 3 times with our non-pro leagues.
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Patrick
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NOV 14, 07:08 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Patrick:
As much as I didn't want to, I watched the video up to the point of impact. Yes, I agree, it looks bad as hell. It almost looks like a martial arts side kick! But man oh man... I cannot believe that anyone would ever do that on purpose while playing hockey. And no, it's not because I'm a hockey fan, or a Canadian, or a left wing commie pinko pantywaist boy. No relatively normal human being would purposely do that to another human being while wearing skates... especially in front of thousands of witnesses.
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It appears the player in question has been arrested and charged with manslaughter.
Geez, if it can be shown that there was intent to make contact with his skate, then the guy deserves to rot in prison for awhile. What an ugly look for hockey. 
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blackrams
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NOV 15, 05:13 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by Patrick:
It appears the player in question has been arrested and charged with manslaughter.
Geez, if it can be shown that there was intent to make contact with his skate, then the guy deserves to rot in prison for awhile. What an ugly look for hockey. |
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It's an ugly professional sport where fans go just to watch the fights. I would hope it's not nearly as violent when it's just recreational but.........................
Nope, not a fan.
Based on everything I read about the accused: Yeah, he's a thug. As to his intent, the judge or jury will decide.
Rams
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Patrick
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NOV 15, 03:33 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by blackrams:
It's an ugly professional sport where fans go just to watch the fights.
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And that just goes to prove you know dick all about hockey.
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OldGuyinaGT
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NOV 15, 06:19 PM
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I did read where Matt Petgrave is being charged with manslaughter for his fatal kick to the neck of Adam Johnson. If Petgrave did have intent, then such a charge is certainly appropriate. They should probably also add assault with a deadly weapon. I didn't see any videos (don't want to watch it) but if they're charging him there must be at least some substance to it. Many sports have equipment that can be used as weapons. Hell, many everyday items can become deadly weapons.
But I have to add some comments here. Like Patrick, I play recreational hockey (I used to play more serious hockey, but I got old). Anyone whose played at any level will likely bristle at the notion that hockey is some kind of blood sport. It is not. No one plays to engage in such idiocy. No actual fans go looking to see fights; if they did, the vast majority of games at any level would leave them very disappointed. Leagues that permit body checking (most rec leagues don't for safety/liability reasons) involve violent body contact, often at speed. So does football. It's part of the game. But to impugn an entire sport based on isolated instances is both ignorant and reactionary. Do you also think people watch NASCAR hoping to see wrecks?
Hockey is a great game; like any activity, it isn't everyone's cup of tea. But if you' re going to voice an opinion, make it an educated one.
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blackrams
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NOV 15, 06:33 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Patrick:
And that just goes to prove you know dick all about hockey. |
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Well, I'll leave knowing that to you. I'm not in to that sort of thing.
Rams
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Wichita
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NOV 15, 06:39 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by blackrams:
It's an ugly professional sport where fans go just to watch the fights. I would hope it's not nearly as violent when it's just recreational but.........................
Nope, not a fan.
Based on everything I read about the accused: Yeah, he's a thug. As to his intent, the judge or jury will decide.
Rams
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I'm with you there. It's boring and difficult to watch. It's fasinating that it actually has fans and professional leagues as the players are the least athletic of all the sports. Even baseball players have a leg up. If you did a comparison, hockey ranks the lowest in intensity, power, agility, coordination, reaction time, speed or strategy. This is ranked by College of Sports Medicine MET scores and by (CGI) complexity game index.
People waste their time on uninteresting things like hockey, but for each their own.
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Patrick
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NOV 15, 08:19 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by Wichita:
I'm with you there. It's boring and difficult to watch. It's fasinating that it actually has fans and professional leagues as the players are the least athletic of all the sports. Even baseball players have a leg up. If you did a comparison, hockey ranks the lowest in intensity, power, agility, coordination, reaction time, speed or strategy. This is ranked by College of Sports Medicine MET scores and by (CGI) complexity game index.
People waste their time on uninteresting things like hockey, but for each their own.
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LOL... gawd you're pathetic. Do you just make up this bullsh!t off the top of your head or what? 
As usual, you don't have a freakin' clue what you're talking about. Couldn't you find a brain-dead meme to post, as you do in P&R? Thanks for the laugh though! 
For anyone who doesn't waste their time in P&R (good on ya), there are compelling reasons why Wichita has earned this well-deserved nickname there...
 [This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 11-15-2023).]
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