Islanders vs. Rangers: Hockey reporters are tougher than other reporters

Hockey is a brutal sport. Every aspect of it is more dangerous than what you see in other sports. Instead of soft grass, hockey players play on unforgiving ice. Instead of sneakers, they wear giant knives on their feet. And instead of a ball, they use a solid disk of frozen rubber which routinely travels close to 100 miles per hour.

Hockey is so dangerous that you can get hurt just being in the general area in which it is being played, as MSG's reporter John Giannone found out the hard way. Giannone took a puck to the face in the waning moments of the second period, and proceeded to bleed profusely.

Lucky for Giannone though, hanging around some of the toughest athletes in the world has apparently rubbed off on him. He continued reporting on his own injury while the medical staff treated him and blood ran into his mouth.

It's okay - I heard somewhere that you can swallow a pint of blood before you get sick.

That's a professional, folks.

(via ramblin223 and Awful Announcing)

UPDATE: via Deadspin, we may have a puck-hitting-reporter conspiracy on our hands folks:

This tweet was apparently sent AN HOUR BEFORE Giannone was hit.

Man, this is just like that Twilight Zone episode where everyone had to give that one guy everything he wanted or else pucks would fly out of nowhere and hit them in the face. Do you remember that one?