The Manly Man Award

Every now and then, stories come across that you can't really describe as anything other than "Manly". I'm not a huge proponent of Hockey. As a matter of fact, I go out of my way to make fun of it at times. Not to the level of soccer mind you, but yeah...

So this story about a Chicago Blackhawks defenseman named Duncan Keith taking a puck to the mouth, getting 7 teeth knocked out and coming back a short bit later to assist on a goal comes across my reader this morning and my first reaction was to cringe.

Then I read the story.

I've always known hockey players are either the toughest bastards, dumbest bastards or a combination of both in sport today. It's pretty much the anti-soccer. Soccer guy gets kicked in the shin and he flails around on the ground like he just stepped on a land mine. Hockey guy gets his neck slashed open and is already questioning how soon he can get back out there to play. I've always known not to piss off a hockey player. Soccer guy however, open season.

Anyway, back to the Manly part of this post. Duncan Keith took a puck to the mouth. He lost 7 teeth. He went to the bench, got nova-caned up and went back out to the ice. Obviously, losing teeth is nothing like getting your neck slashed open, but that shit still hurts. The part that makes this the most interesting would be some of the quotes that came out of it:

Duncan Keith:

I took one breath and it felt like my whole mouth was missing, so I knew there were some teeth gone. I saw a couple fall out, and I had one in the back of my throat. I could feel it and coughed it out. A bunch of them disintegrated, it felt like.

He furthers this by saying:

I had seven needles in my mouth. It's all frozen right now. Just a bunch of needles in my jaw, gums to freeze it up. Might need some more soon, because it's starting to wear off. I can feel it.

He later goes on to say:

I just wanted to get out there as quick as I can, and the trainers and dentists and doctors did a good job," Keith said. "Honestly, I was fine. You get hit in the teeth, obviously it hurts the gums, but it's not like you got your jaw smashed in or anything like that.

"It's tougher talking, but it's not as bad as you think it is.

No sir, trust me. It's exactly as bad as I think it is and I want none of it. You get a Manly Man Award.

The humorous part of this comes from his teammate, Patrick Sharp.

He'll have a great smile in a couple of weeks. "He's spitting out teeth in the locker room and comes back and assists on the Bolland goal. He created the whole play, taking the big hit to set it up. And he's skating around before the power play, telling us what to do, but he's mumbling. I don't think anyone understood what he was talking about. But he's one of our leaders.

So kudos to Mr. Keith. You made me respect Hockey for at least a short while. Even though I don't like the sport much, I do like the toughness of it's players.