In the spirit of the Stanley Cup playoffs, I thought I’d a few hockey related posts might be appropriate. Here is the first. I know it’s not football, but bear with me here.

My hockey fanship was already firmly in place on March 22, 1989, but it was about to be cemented forever. That evening, when watching the news with my Dad, we saw a story about Buffalo Saber Goaltender Clint Malarchuk. The anchor warned that the footage we were about to see was gruesome and that people with weak stomachs should not watch the segment. Of course, this made me have to see it. The footage showed a Blues wing and Saber defenseman colliding skate first with Malarchuk who was down to cover the puck. The skate blade slit Malarchuk’s throat and blood poured onto the ice. I watched in horror as they showed the clip again and again. Miraculously, the Saber’s trainer reached into Malarchuk’s neck and pinched his vein closed while they waited for the ambulance. This saved his life. Malarchuk remained conscious through the ordeal and left the ice on While they waited, fans in the stands fainted, two had heart attacks, and countless (including some teammates) vomited.  He was rushed to the hospital where he received 300 stitches.

Thanks to the power of Youtube, you can view the accident. Watch at your own risk. It is horrific.

Then the game continued. That’s right. They kept playing. With a five foot pool of blood on the ice. Two weeks later Malarchuk came back to the team. I believe he resumed playing the next season. He played in the NHL for three more seasons before obsessive compulsive disorder brought on by the incident sidelined his career. How could this man, who nearly died on the ice, come back and continue to play? Somehow he did it, but I don’t know how. It seems like this would be an extreme test of conquering ones mental demons.

Goaltenders have always been my favorite (especially Olaf Kolzig and Grant Fuhr), but since the accident I have always looked up to Malarchuk for his athletic ability and how he handled the emergency. Not surprisingly the NHL changed it’s requirements on neck protection for goalies after this incident.

Thinking back on it today, I decided to google it to see if could find out what became of Malachuk after he retired. It seems he had stints as a goaltending coach for the Florida Panters and the Columbus Blue Jackets and he is also a horse dentist. I was surprised though to find a custom made action figure depicting the accident. I’m late in the game as Deadspin covered this last year. The fan-made figure was made using a McFarlane Toys goaltender action figure and was for sale on e-bay.  Part of me thinks it is pretty disgusting to profit (albeit in a small way) off of this man’s tragedy, but the other half thinks it’s an amazing piece of craftmanship in tribute to a part of hockey and NHL history.