Sidney Crosby Got His Teeth Knocked Out. Is He Now a Little Tougher?

Last night, Sidney Crosby took a deflected slapshot in the mouth. Seeing the replay on video – which I have several times. Why? I don’t really know – is pretty vivid. You can actually see several of his teeth fly out after initial contact.

Many Crosby detractors who dislike the NHL’s leading scorer for his griping dialogue with referees during games may have found irony in what happened. When you think about it, it is kind of funny when you consider how much he complains, but at the same time, you gotta feel for the guy.

There is no real analogy to accurately describe what a slapshot to the face feels like. A slapshot to the face feels a lot like a slapshot to the face. It’s a 6 ounce puck made of vulcanized rubber traveling at anywhere between 80-100 mph. Now I’m no scientist so I don’t know how to calculate the force of that. Nor am I a dental surgeon so I can’t speculate on the implications that a trauma of that magnitude can have on the teeth, jaw, lips, pain threshold, and overall ego, but I can say with absolute certainty, that it probably hurt quite a bit.

In the past Crosby has been criticized for being ‘soft’ – easy to agitate, aggravate, and entice into awkward and embarrassing peewee skirmishes, as he throws wild punches with his gloves on, but I have to admit, he took that shot to the face pretty well.

I don’t know what you would expect someone to do once a 100 mph puck hits you in the mouth. I imagine that my idol – the most interesting man in the world from the Dos Equis commercials – would possibly catch the puck in between his lips, or maybe even take the shot on the chin, and then spit out his teeth as if he was playing bass for KISS.

Sidney Crosby didn’t quite invoke the image of hockey’s ultimate tough guy - an honour held by Rich Trochett who fractured his jaw in a game in 1992, stayed on his feet, put one of those funny jaw masks on his helmet and came back to score two goals - but he didn’t overdramatize the incident like many would have expected. He did flail his head back - I would imagine from the force of the shot – and throw off his gloves into separate corners of the rink, but he stayed on the ice for only a short time, covered his bleeding mouth with a towel, and calmly skated off with little help. To me, that composed reaction is fairly commendable after a slapshot to the face. Is he a little tougher for getting his teeth knocked and getting back up without a stretcher? Yes. Yes he is.

Now, if he wants to fight with gloves still intact and his fists twice the size, albeit much softer, that’s ok. So Sid, you keep those Reeboks on and just swing away, buddy, you swing away.