Zednik's Lucky, But Malarchuk Even Luckier

I read about Richard Zednik this morning, and I knew that unless his head had been lopped off, I wouldn't be shocked by the ensuing video.

Zednik, a Florida Panthers forward, had his neck slashed by a teammate's skate in a freak accident during yesterday's game against Buffalo. He's now in stable condition in a local hospital. Apparently it was pretty scary for a moment, and I can imagine. Only it will never trump another skate incident I saw, also involving Buffalo.

Most of you know where I'm going with this.

Clint Malarchuk, a Sabres goalie, was involved in a collision on March 22, 1989 against the St. Louis Blues. What happened as a result was Malarchuk having his jugular vein severed by a skate. The injury remains, easily, the most gruesome I've seen in sports, mainly for the amount of blood that poured out of his neck. You'd have thought he was going to be drained dry, right there on the ice. And I had the fortune of knowing, ahead of seeing the video on the news that night, that: a) he didn't die; and b) it was going to be gory -- very gory. The poor folks who had to see it happen, live, I feel sorry for.

So when I watched Zednik clutch a towel to his neck as he skated toward the Panthers bench, I was hardly shocked. Which is a good thing -- for me AND for him.

Malarchuk credits swift on-ice attention from the Sabres medical staff for literally saving his life. It's the same type of ready-at-the-drop-of-a-hat mentality that team doctors have to occasionally tap into -- the kind that was credited for saving Lions LB Reggie Brown at the Silverdome, and Red Wings D Jiri Fischer at Joe Louis Arena a couple years ago. It couldn't, unfortunately, do anything for Lions WR Chuck Hughes in 1971, when he dropped dead of a heart attack.

Most of the time, we think of trainers and doctors as the folks who tape the ankles, inject the cortisone shots, and apply minor first aid during a game. But these are medical professionals, first and foremost. And they have to be ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. After watching Malarchuk's horrifying injury, I can absolutely see where anything less than the swiftest, best response would have likely resulted in his death.

Thank goodness that Zednik wasn't more seriously hurt. Hockey skates are frightening things when their blades are anywhere other than on the ice. I also recall Toronto's Borje Salming having his face turned into a Frankenstein mask, stitches running from his eyes to his jaw in a crooked road fashion, after a scramble in front of the net ended up with a skate blade slicing his face like a jigsaw.

I'm posting Malarchuk's injury here, and don't say I didn't warn you. He doesn't just bleed here, folks -- he empties.