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Zednik Serves As Reminder

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 12, 2008

Updated: 02/11/2008 11:25 pm

TAMPA - The trail of blood Florida's Richard Zednik left on the Buffalo ice Sunday night served as a chilling reminder of just how dangerous it can be to play hockey at any level.

Zednik was struck in the neck by the skate blade of teammate Olli Jokinen during the third period Sunday that required emergency surgery to repair a severed carotid artery. Zednik remained in stable condition in the intensive care unit Monday at Buffalo General Hospital.

The incident also brought back a chilling memory for former Lightning captain Dave Andreychuk, who was a first-hand witness to one of the most gruesome moments in NHL history.

On March 22, 1989, during a game in Buffalo between the Sabres and St. Louis, Buffalo goaltender Clint Malarchuk had his jugular vein cut by the skate blade of Blues' forward Steve Tuttle during the run of play. As players and officials gathered in the corner during a scrum, Andreychuk came skating into the zone and was the first on the ice to realize the danger surrounding Malarchuk as a pool of blood started to quickly form on the ice.

"If you go back and look at the video, I was about 5 feet away and he locked into me with his eyes,' said Andreychuk, who said he hadn't seen the footage of Zednik's accident. "I tell people even today, that is was like Monty Python, where with every pump and every beat of his heart there was blood coming out and it just kept coming. He just looked at me and just kept asking me for help. It was a very scary moment for everybody there."

As the scene played out in front of him, Andreychuk said his first instinct was to take off his jersey to try to help stop the blood. But by the time he started to take off his jersey, Buffalo trainer Jim Pizzutelli was already sprinting across the ice with a towel to come to Malarchuk's aid.

"All I can remember was Pizzutelli came over with the towel and he was squeezing so hard to try to stop the blood that Clint kept saying, 'You're choking me,'" Andreychuk said.

It is sort of an unwritten rule in hockey that the dangers involved are not discussed in locker rooms on a regular basis. Even in a game in which players wield sticks and essentially skate on razor blades, the risks are just unspoken.

"It's one of those things you can't think about and don't want to talk about," said Lightning center Chris Gratton, who was with Tampa Bay in 1996 when Aaron Gavey took a skate to the face that required 120 stitches and three hours of plastic surgery. "Hockey players in general are pretty tough, but it's just almost like a code. You don't talk about it."

But to realize just how sharp the skate blades can be, Gratton offers up this analogy.

"Take a knife out your drawer," he said. "Especially when you put a 200-pound player wearing those skates and create that kind of force."

Even when skates aren't in play, they can be a weapon. During the preseason, Lightning defenseman Dan Boyle had a skate fall about 2 feet from above his locker stall and land on his left wrist. The accident severed three tendons in his wrist and forced him out of the lineup for four months and required two surgeries.

"Even people that know and play hockey, and fans, they have no idea how sharp those things are, they are as sharp as a knife," Boyle said. "To me, it's surprising that stuff doesn't happen more often."

Maybe it's a testament to how skilled and agile players are that more blade-related injuries don't occur. But it doesn't take much to realize just how dangerous things can be on the ice.

Andreychuk recalled a time when he was face down on the ice and had a player skate over his back. It wasn't until he got back to the locker room and took off his blood-soaked jersey that he realized he was severely cut as teammates scurried away upon seeing the gash on his back.

"It's just amazing it doesn't happen more often," he said. "You see guys jumping over everybody with their skates and you don't even think about it. But when it does make contact, all it takes is one misstep and you realize the danger."

Richard Zednik's scary incident Sunday night is a reminder of how dangerous skate blades can be on the ice. Here's some of the more gruesome incidents that have occurred in the NHL

•2001 - Montreal forward Donald Audette attempts to sweep check a puck away from New York Rangers forward Radek Dvorak, who accidentally skates over Audette's forearm. Audette required four hours of surgery after severing tendons and though he returned to play, he was never quite the same.

•1986 - Toronto defenseman Borje Salming accidentally has his face stepped on by Detroit forward Gerard Gallant, after Salming was knocked down in front of his own net. The wound required more than 250 stitches to close.

•1989 - Buffalo goaltender Clint Malarchuk gets run into by St. Louis' Steve Tuttle, leaving Malarchuk with a severed jugular vein in his neck. Malarchuk leaves a pool of blood in the crease and required emergency surgery and 300 stitches to save his life.

•1996 - Tampa Bay's Aaron Gavey gets hit in the face by the skate of teammate Michel Petit during a game in Buffalo. Gavey is taken to the hospital, where he undergoes three hours of plastic surgery and takes 120 stitches to his face.

•Saturday - During a game between Philadelphia and the New York Rangers, linesman Pat Dapuzzo gets hit in the face when Flyers winger Steve Downie got upended along the boards. Dapuzzo suffered broken bones in his face, a concussion and needed more than 40 stitches.

•Sunday - Florida winger Richard Zednik gets hit in the neck by the skate of teammate Olli Jokinen during the third period of a game in Buffalo. Zednik left a trail of blood on his way to the bench and was taken to the hospital for emergency surgery. Zednik remains in stable condition in the intensive care unit at Buffalo General Hospital.

Reporter Erik Erlendsson can be reached at (813) 259-7835 or eerlendsson@tampatrib.com.

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