NHL's Faces of Battle

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Jun 6, 2013

NHL's Faces of Battle

Patrice Bergeron

Hockey players are usually not a very pretty sight, especially during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Boston Bruins center greeted the media after Game 3 of the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals sporting a gash on his beak. Here's a look at some of the NHL's other notable battered mugs through the years.

Sidney Crosby

Sid The Kid was only 18 when the Chicago Blackhawks helped him develop a taste for blood. In March 2013, a puck to the face broke Crosby's jaw and shattered several teeth.

Teemu Selanne

The famous Flying Finn sports the official eyewear of the National Hockey League.

Darcy Tucker

Not known for his particularly genteel style of play, the former Toronto Maple Leafs winger took his share of lumps during his 11 years in the league.

John LeClair

The big, physical winger, a key member of the Flyers' fearsome Legion of Doom Line of the mid-90s always relished the rough-and-tumble in corners and in front of the net during his 16-year career. Here he shows the effects of a stick the face, courtesy of New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur.

Darryl Sydor

Looking like a cast member of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Dallas Stars' defenseman survived (barely) a powwow with the boards, courtesy of the New York Rangers in a 1997 game.

Mats Sundin

It's amazing how much carnage a little rubber puck can do. The Maple Leafs captain needed 15 stitches after he got nailed in the noggin during a November 2000 game.

Robyn Regehr

The Calgary Flames blueliner caught some rubber courtesy of the St. Louis Blues in a November 2006 game.

Bobby Clarke

The NHL has never been the factory showroom for Hollywood smiles. The captain of Philadelphia's notorious Broadstreet Bullies had a mouth for war and enjoyed dropping his bridgework in people's drinks at bars, just to break the ice.

Matthew Barnaby

Matthew Barnaby, a winger who often led with his face during his 14 seasons in the league, sported a silver chopper with a Buffalo Sabres logo on it during a 1997 Eastern Conference playoff series against the Flyers.

Theo Fleury

The pint-sized pot-stirrer who mixed things up in the NHL for 15 seasons (1988-2003) often got as good as he gave and had the mug to prove it.

Bob Probert

He who lives by the fist, looks like it. Probert, a pugnacious presence from 1985 to 2002, had a little cosmetic surgery performed on his puss by Darren Langdon of the Rangers in 1997.

Wayne Primeau

It was only the second month of the 2005 season and the face of this hardnosed forward already looked like the proverbial 40 miles of bad road.

Wade Brookbank

The journeyman defenseman had some red eyeliner applied by Ducks enforcer Todd Fedoruk during an exchange of fistic pleasantries while plying his trade for Vancouver in 2005.

Brendan Witt

The Islanders backliner looked a little worse for wear after swapping knuckle sandwiches with Jim Slater of the Atlanta Thrashers in a December 2006 game.

Shean Donovan

The Calgary winger was in need of a little cleanup after he came out on the dirty end of a high stick in a 2006 game against Vancouver.

Eric Lindros

NHL life was not kind to the hulking center who suffered eight concussions during his 13 seasons in the NHL.

Andreas Dackell

The Ottawa Senators winger looked like he'd been hit by a train, but it was a crushing check by Eric Lindros in a 1998 game that sent Dackell off the ice on a stretcher and into the sawbones' office for 30 stitches.

Markus Naslund

The Canucks' captain spent time in the meathouse after being served with a check by Colorado's Steve Moore in February 2004.

Todd White

The jolly Maple Leafs had this Senator in stitches during the first round of the 2004 Eastern Conference playoffs.

Chris Simon

The New York Islanders' notorious enforcer proudly displayed the battle scars of his rugged 16-year hitch in the National Hockey League.