January 14, 2004
Hockey And Dentistry
Joe LaPointe of the New York Times takes us on a tour of a piece of the NHL most fans are just passingly familiar with -- dentistry, or "spitting chicklets" as it's better known:
The loss of a tooth is a serious event for anyone, at any age, even the baby teeth of childhood that are put under pillows for the tooth fairy and saved in scrapbooks by parents. Bobby Holik of the Rangers said he does not like it when television sports highlights shows present these hockey accidents for laughs.
"People go, `Wow-wow-wow!' " Holik said. "I'll tell you what: if you are on the receiving end of it, it's no wow-wow. It's a tough part of the game and it's no fun. Unfortunately, media outlets love glamorizing that. Only people who have never had anything like that happen to them enjoy watching it."
Holik said he knows this from observation but not experience; he still has all his teeth after 14 seasons in the league. "Knock on wood," he said, rapping his knuckles against a shelf in his locker at Madison Square Garden.
But the story wouldn't be complete without a reference to former New Jersey Devil Ken Daneyko.
When he played, Daneyko used false teeth on dental bridges, which he took out during games. Sometimes he would pull pranks in restaurants by slipping his teeth into his teammates' soup.
What I want to know is who Daneyko managed to victimize. He's been in the league a while -- was it Bruce Driver? Kirk Mueller? Brendan Shanahan? I'm betting he's done it to a ton of Devils rookies -- so I'd bet that both Colin White and Brian Rafalski were probably victimized in recent seasons. Probably Mike Rupp too.
One more passage that's just begging to be shared with a larger audience:
Both Dr. Spencer and Dr. Yustin spoke of one of their favorite patients, Matthew Barnaby of the Rangers, who used to play for both the Penguins and the Sabres. Dr. Yustin said that Barnaby "is a really good friend of mine, so I can say this: He is absolutely terrified of the chair."
Matt Barnaby, fraidy cat. What a wonderful world we live in.
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Oh hell, anyone who's ever had to suffer through watching Barnaby pick fights for which he was hopelessly outmatched then drop to the ice quicker than Michael Spinks already knew he was a 'fraidy cat.
Posted by:
at January 14, 2004 02:34 PM
I used to go to Devil games with a friend and we used to yell "Hey Daneyko, nice tooth!" on more than one occasion. It was always popular with the fans...
Posted by:
at January 14, 2004 02:54 PM
My friend has the video of the 1994 Adams Division Semis where Brad May scored the OT goal to win the game 6-5 for the Sabres to sweep a very good Bruin team. In that game, during the 3 Stars, an 18 year old Matt Barnaby is stadning in the tunnel (called up from Rochester) cheering for May...he's got a pair of Z. Cavaricci's on, white and black "pimp" shirt (you know, silk and baggy) and looks like a mall thug. Oh yeah, with Mullet and missing teeth. That's my favorite Barnaby moment...he's like the guy that breaks your mailbox every Halloween.
Posted by:
at January 15, 2004 10:31 AM
I did a search in the search engines on "sports hockey blog" and I found your web blog.
I am a Halifax Mooseheads Fan living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and thus my interest in searching for a hockey blog on the WWW as I thought about creating a blog on the Halifax Mooseheads hockey team. Anyways I read your whole blog to see if you had any information on how to operate a blog to see if I can understand the technology of operating a blog and from what I see I am somewhat hesitant at the present time. It may be too much for this old Halifax Mooseheads fan.
It was good reading though.
I will be back again.
Take care
Steve , A Halifax Mooseheads Hockey Fan
Posted by:
at February 11, 2004 12:34 AM
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