Hockey is a pretty dangerous sport for one’s extremities — or a beard in a case earlier this week — but it’s not every day you see someone lose their teeth on the ice.
That was likely the case for Chris Tanev, a Vancouver Canucks defenseman who took a nasty puck to the face early in Saturday night’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Ouch. Puck gets deflected into Tanev's face. pic.twitter.com/OhVS9LbudH
— Flintor (@TheFlintor) January 7, 2018
Tanev went down hard after taking a puck to the mouth, and while he was bleeding, he’ll thankfully be OK after getting some repairs. Unfortunately, it looks like a few of his teeth were knocked out by the impact.
Not only that, good teammate Michael Del Zotto was seemingly caught picking up Tanev’s missing teeth in the delay getting the Canucks’ defenseman off the ice.
Like a good D-partner, Del Zotto grabs a few teeth Tanev left on the ice. pic.twitter.com/vClfkNoPF3
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 7, 2018
The teeth thankfully don’t look to be all bloody and gross, but it’s still an undesirable job if I’ve ever seen one. Thank you for being such a good teammate, Del Zotto.