We’ve all seen Washington Capitals’ enforcer Matt Hendricks go at it on the ice, so a bruised eye, missing tooth, and a little blood aren’t out of the norm for this guy. This injury however, is a little bit more extreme. On Saturday morning, the Capitals hit the ice for practice in Pittsburgh to prepare for their game against the Penguins on Sunday. During a drill, Hendricks and some other teammates were out at the blueline working on face-offs, while another group of teammates were taking shots at the net. Alex Ovechkin, who if you don’t already know, has a shot that could take down a building, fired a puck at the net that went wide. The puck rolled around the boards, apparently picking up speed as it went, and hit Hendricks right in the ear. He said, “It felt like somebody came up and hit me in the head with a baseball bat.”
It’s hard to imagine how a puck that wasn’t directly fired at his head could do this much damage, but it somehow ended up splitting his ear open, thus requiring a medical team to stitch it back together. Ouch!
In standard hockey player fashion, Hendricks sucked it up and played in the game on Sunday, less than 24 hours after the incident. He was provided with a custom-made helmet to protect his ear from further injury. Ironically, he hit a career-high that game of 16 minutes and 32 seconds of ice time, as he was moved up to the top checking line with Troy Brouwer and Brooks Laich. And you wanna talk tough?? Check out the elbow he received right to the head during the same game from Zbynek Michalek (who somehow managed to escape suspension).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR9CbEJPTxU[/youtube]
This dude is indestructible.
via dumpnchase
