'It's a bit of a badge of honor': Gap-toothed smiles are spreading around Bruins

Ryan Donato, in relative terms, thought he was in the clear. The tooth he lost on the bottom row last month in Providence, one of five Chiclets knocked out by the puck Dan Vladar accidentally blockered into his face, was nowhere in sight.

What Donato didn’t know was that the root of the tooth, still buried within his gums, was also damaged by the puck. It had to come out.

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For that job, a dentist uses a hammer and a screwdriver. When Donato saw those tools come out, he could not believe they were going in his mouth.

Donato spent five hours in the dentist’s chair having the root extracted and his four other teeth replaced. He said it was the most pain he’s ever experienced, including the femur he broke as a teenager.

This has not been a kind stretch for the Bruins and their teeth. On Nov. 21, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson had one of his teeth rattled loose by a deflected puck. Three nights later, Jonathan Drouin bashed the shaft of his stick into David Backes’s chin, just about parallel with his bottom row of teeth. Fortunately for Backes, those chompers are already fakes.

“They’re still in there,” Backes said. “Those have been hit before and had to be replaced. Maybe them being numb was an asset for me tonight.”

David Krejci was the latest victim. At the end of Thursday’s second period against the Islanders, Thomas Hickey belted Krejci so hard that two teeth flew out of his mouth. Ex-teammate Johnny Boychuk spotted one of the teeth, picked it up with a bare hand, and skated it over to trainer Don DelNegro.

“It’s nice of him,” Krejci said. “But obviously I didn’t use that one.”

Video: Boychuk collects Krejci’s teeth

Fortunately for Krejci, Hickey walloped out falsies. By now, the 32-year-old cannot recall how many teeth he has lost.

“I’ve been in the dental office many times,” said Krejci, who occupied the chair of Dr. Edwin Riley, the Bruins team dentist, on Friday. “The doctor said yesterday, ‘The first time you were here, it was 10 years ago.’ It’s been a long time. But I’ve been many times since.”

A tooth lost or otherwise compromised is usually a sign that a player is doing something right. When Drouin fed Backes his stick, he was tagged with a four-minute high-sticking double minor. John Moore scored the game-winning goal on the power play, which made Backes’s mouth hurt a little less.

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In Donato’s case, he ate a puck because he was doing what the Bruins assigned him to Providence to do: going to the dirty areas. During practice, Donato passed the puck to Mark McNeill and raced to the net.

“He’s got a rocket of a shot,” Donato said. “He tried to go short side high. I was going right to that post from the corner. Vladdy just bumped it right off his blocker straight into my mouth. Lost five teeth, 25 stitches, but it could have been a lot worse.”

Losing teeth is a workplace hazard. Considering the speed of the game, the absence of protection around the mouth, and the regular arrivals of high sticks and pucks, teeth are always at risk. It’s like the job of building houses. A carpenter cannot help but occasionally rap his or her thumb with a hammer.

The curious thing about teeth, though, is how teammates, coaches, and the toothless themselves shrug off such losses — or sometimes even laugh at them. Perhaps it’s because a grin with holes poked through makes its wearer look like a cartoon character. But the chirpers who keep their mouths closed when teammates sprain their knees do not stay quiet when teeth tumble to the ice.

“We laugh at guys for everything,” said Brad Marchand, one of the few fortunate enough to have all his teeth intact. “I think it’s just because of the appearance after. You get them fixed pretty quickly. They’re not really a bad injury. They may hurt a little bit, but it’s not like breaking a bone or anything like that. Little easier to laugh at. You might want to wait a day or two, but for the most part, we all have good relationships too. We know we don’t mean it. It’s all in good fun.”

Teammates are not only the ones to lob bombs. Opponents are quick to jump all over rivals freshly made to look like jackasses. . . er, jack-o-lanterns. It’s why Krejci hustled off the ice immediately after Hickey’s hit, head down and lips pursed. Krejci was in no mood to hear the Islanders give him the business.

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“You know how it is,” Krejci said. “You get hit, you skate by the bench and you’ve got no teeth, the other team’s going to let you know. I just made sure that won’t happen.”

It helped that Krejci lost his tooth at the conclusion of a period. He had all of second intermission to recover.

But Krejci did not miss a shift. This is not extraordinary. Players regularly put off visits to the dentist until after the game has concluded. Of all the injuries hockey players suffer, losing teeth and playing through the subsequent discomfort captures the brutality but also the toughness of the sport.

“It’s a bit of a badge of honor, probably,” Bruce Cassidy said. “It’s happened a lot here in a row. You see those grins without teeth sometimes, it goes back to Bobby Clarke. I don’t know who started it. I’m sure there’s guys before him. Maybe Maurice Richard? Did he have no teeth too? I think that’s just the way it is. A bit of hockey culture.”

Some other Bruins with tooth-rattling tales:

Noel Acciari, no lost teeth

“Nothing [knocking on wood]. Even when I broke my jaw in Providence. My teeth all kind of shifted a bit then. But nothing.”

David Backes, six lost teeth

“It’s almost like you took a bite of sand. It’s never just a clean little break. It almost crumbles in there. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that nightmare, but I have, with your teeth and you’re chewing and your teeth are coming. . . it’s pretty accurate. I don’t know what it is. But it’s not appetizing.”

Brandon Carlo, one chipped tooth

“I had a mouthguard in. I bit down so hard when I was hitting the boards that I pulled on it and cracked it. I didn’t even know it was broken. I’m on the bench and I take my mouthguard out. I take a breath in, and it felt like a little eggshell went right down my throat. And it was gone. I wasn’t going to search for that one. I literally hit my shoulder my boards and I was biting down so hard that it just somehow broke through the mouthguard. Still doesn’t make sense to me.”

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Bruce Cassidy, one lost tooth

“I had my front tooth knocked out with a stick. It was in the semifinals one year. We won that game, so we had a few days off after that. Listen, they hurt. Stick, puck. To me, it’s your eyes you worry about. You can fix your teeth. Your eyes are your eyes. You can’t fix those.”

Jake DeBrusk, six lost teeth

“It was brutal. I remember the first time I got high-sticked where I lost jibs, it was in Edmonton, my hometown, playing junior. I thought it was really cool at first. ‘Ah, blood and everything.’ The adrenaline’s going. After the game, I couldn’t even breathe in the air because of the nerves. It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I had to put in tape and stuff. Then I got them fixed up, broke them again, and lost them completely. It happens. I’m hopefully going to lose some more, because it means I’m going to the right areas and getting penalties. It’s a cool thing, I guess, in a way. Kind of badass. Haven’t lost one here, knock on wood, but we’ll take the four.”

On if he drew penalties each time: “Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Bleeding, all was shed, my gloves were off. The chipped ones, there was one I actually didn’t know what happened. I don’t know if it was a puck or a stick. It was right on the wall. I tried to stop on the forecheck. I kind of got hit. I didn’t even know what was going on. I kept skating, and I felt my bottom teeth with my tongue, just naturally, while I was skating. It was super jagged. I almost cut my tongue. So I’m like, ‘What the heck?’ I started spitting out some stuff, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I lost teeth.’ There it is. Those are my bottom ones. Yeah, it’s one of those things where I’d rather lose teeth than lose an arm. But I guess it looks tough.”

On the nerves hurting more than the teeth: “The nerves are the ones that hurt the most. Especially after. The adrenaline’s coming in and you feel it’s cool or tough. You kind of roll with it. Then once those breaths start coming in, it’s always the air. It feels super cold. Then you try and drink some water, you try and dodge it to the side. Nerves are pretty intense.”

Danton Heinen, two lost teeth

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“This is fake [pointing to a top tooth]. This one [pointing to a gap on the bottom], I broke down and they couldn’t fix it, so I’ve got to get an implant at some point. No rush.”

On how it happened: “Same play. I was on the bench, actually. Guy on my own team tried to hit a guy, and his stick came over the bench. It just went right across. It was junior and I was wearing a visor. I wasn’t cut too bad. I was cut a little bit, so I waited until after to get stitched up. We kept the teeth. The nerves were showing and it was cold, so we threw a mouthguard over top.”

On the normalcy of losing teeth: “It’s part of the game. There’s pros and cons to any profession. We’re fully aware it can happen. You’ve got to take your chances. But it does suck, spending hours in the dentist’s chair. You don’t want it to happen. But there’s nothing you can do about it afterward, right?”

Sean Kuraly, two chipped teeth

“In warmups, Jimmy Hayes got me by accident. Right on the backswing. I don’t know what happened to [the pieces of teeth Hayes’s stick knocked out].”

Brad Marchand, zero lost teeth

“Oh my God [knocking on wood]. Don’t even. I don’t even think I can talk about that. That stuff happens. I’ve had some very close calls, lower in the teeth and in the gums, just above it in the cheeks and stuff like that. I’m sure now that we’re talking about it, it’s going to happen next game.”

David Pastrnak, two chipped teeth

“Couple times. First time, I lost it in Providence. I fixed it. Then I came up here, lost it one time, fixed it. Then the last time, I lost it again in Washington. Since then, it always hurt more and more every time I fixed it. So I just decided not to.”

On if sticks or pucks got him: “Good question. I know the last one was a stick. Maybe in Providence, it was a puck. Brooks Orpik. He got a piece of me for a couple years now.”

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On getting fake teeth sometime: “At some point I will. I was pretty close to fixing it last year. Then I kind of freaked out. I got used to it. It’s a little weird now.”

Pasta’s missing a few chiclets after last night’s game…😬 pic.twitter.com/E2RlNYWOpa

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 4, 2016

Chris Wagner, half a lost tooth

“It was in Norfolk. I was behind the net, the puck changed sides, and someone came around with a stick. I was so shocked. I was right out of college. That was it. It fell out a couple times, but it’s stayed in.”

On making half a tooth: “It looked like a fang, pretty much. So they just made half a fake one to glue it in. Now it’s good. I’d be eating apples and stuff before and it would fall out, but the right dentist has it locked in.”

(Top photo of Donato after a hit to the face during a game in October: Anthony Nesmith/CSM via ZUMA Wire)

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