Hockey players are known for being tough.
In a sport where high-speed collisions are built into the fabric of the game, and a rubber disc the size of a cash-filled wallet is routinely fired around players’ bodies at 90+ miles an hour, there are going to be gnarly injuries. But the way hockey players respond to those injuries is what makes them a unique brand of tough, and Utah Hockey Club Captain Clayton Keller showed us all what that looked like on Jan. 20.
In the second period of a game against the Winnipeg Jets at Delta Center, a shot from Michael Kesselring deflected off a stick and ricocheted into Keller’s face, just above his eye and underneath his visor. Clutching his face, Keller quickly exited the ice and hustled back to the dressing room.
Locked at 0-0 against the Western Conference-leading Jets, Utah kept the game scoreless through most of the second period before Keller re-emerged late in the frame with his right eye bloodied, bruised, and featuring the stitching abilities of the Utah Hockey Club medical staff. Moments after reappearing on the Utah bench, Keller was back in the game where he contributed to Utah’s first goal en route to a 5-2 win.
“That’s a hockey player, eh?” said Utah Hockey Club Head Coach Andre Tourigny after the game. “He came back and in his first shift, no hesitation, takes the puck out on entry, went right to the net and got rewarded. Coming back without hesitation, without a doubt in his head, that was great.”
After the game on MLK Day at Delta Center, Keller was nonchalant about the injury that would’ve knocked most of us out of commission for the night.
“I got lucky, it didn’t catch my eye,” said Keller. “It happened so fast, you don’t really feel much. I tried to look through my eye, and I knew that I could, so I wasn’t too worried after that.”