Amazing it doesnt happen more often: How NHL players deal with skate cuts

June 26, 2024

Cam Atkinson sat dressed in his Blue Jackets uniform, a blood-soaked towel pressed to his right eye, awaiting instructions from a doctor he had never met.

Atkinson was still perspiring from his final shift midway through the third period of an Oct. 24, 2014, game at the Honda Center in Anaheim. He felt the searing sting from a cut caused by the skate blade of Ducks center Ryan Kesler.

Inside the examination room where Blue Jackets athletic trainer Mike Vogt had ushered him, the pain was not what worried Atkinson. He was frightened by the possibility of losing an eye and what it would mean to his budding career and his quality of life.

As the hockey game outside the room continued, the Anaheim team physician calmly told Atkinson to remove the towel and open his right eye.

Atkinson nervously pulled the cloth from his face. He saw nothing. Panic momentarily seized him.

The doctor gently touched the player’s damaged right eyelid and raised it. What Atkinson didn’t understand is eyelids have muscles that work like elevators, moving the lids up and down. The skate-blade laceration had disabled his muscular mechanism.

As soon as the doctor manually lifted the lid, Atkinson could see again.

“As soon as he pulled the (eyelid) up, I was like, ‘Holy fuck, I don’t care how bad I look, at least I can see,’” Atkinson recalled this past December.

Skate lacerations are among the scariest injuries in sports. It’s not only the damage caused by tempered steel blades slicing through flesh. It’s also that they often occur without warning, without any opportunity for players to shield themselves from danger.

The 2019-20 NHL season witnessed a rash of skate cuts — six in a 14-week span from late November through early March. While most see it as coincidence, the slew of injuries left some to wonder how they can better protect themselves and whether sporting goods manufacturers can produce more comfortable cut-resistant undergarments that would encourage more players to wear them.

Few around the league are more familiar with skate lacerations than the 30-year-old Atkinson, a two-time All-Star. He’s been gashed three times in his career.

Near the end of the 2014-15 season, Atkinson needed 10 stitches to mend a wound on the inside of his left wrist after teammate Alexander Wennberg cut him as players from the Blue Jackets bench hopped over the boards to celebrate a 5-0 victory against the Maple Leafs.

“It somehow didn’t hit any tendons or veins,” Atkinson said.

In the spring of 2017, he was clipped in the left shoulder, just inches from his face, as former Sabres forward Marcus Foligno rose to his feet after a pileup and cut Atkinson, who was still lying on the ice.

Nothing was as troubling, however, as the night in Anaheim. Reaching with his stick from behind the puck-carrying Kesler, Atkinson tried to disrupt a rush into the attacking zone while killing a penalty.

Every player who’s laced up a pair of skates has found himself in that same vulnerable position, arms extended, head down. As Kesler attempted to wiggle between two Blue Jackets, his right skate unexpectedly came off the ice, catching Atkinson underneath his visor.

He required more than 60 stitches and plastic surgery to repair his eyelid. Atkinson was fortunate to miss only one game and scored a goal in his return to the lineup.

Standing in the Blue Jackets locker room, recounting that moment and the relief he felt six years ago as his vision returned, Atkinson echoed the comments of many interviewed for this story:

“It’s amazing it doesn’t happen more often.”

Hall of Fame goaltender Johnny Bower grew up in the 1930s playing pond hockey in Saskatchewan. When pucks were in short supply, the boys from the Prairies improvised by using frozen horse dung. Bower called them “road apples.”

“When you got hit in the mouth with one you would know it, too,” the late Bower said in a “Legends of Hockey” documentary.

Sometimes, you have to “eat a puck.” That’s the colorful phrase players and coaches use in describing the sacrifice it takes to play the game.

Part of hockey’s appeal to fans is the danger boys and girls, men and women are willing to face for the good of their teams. It’s stepping in front of 100 mph slap shots. It’s having your back adjusted by a defenseman’s stick while standing in front of the net to screen a goalie. It’s absorbing a huge hit to make the pass that springs an odd-man rush.

In each case, players know they are entering a world of pain. They realize the potential for injury. Not when it comes to getting cut by someone else’s skate blade, however.

“The most dangerous part of our equipment is a complete afterthought to players,” NHL tough guy turned broadcaster Jody Shelley said. “Guys never think about that. They are only thinking about the blades for balance and speed, really.”

The majority of skate lacerations occur on innocent-looking plays. A forward loses his balance from a check and his blade suddenly kicks up. A defenseman is battling in the corner for a loose puck and he accidentally clips another player’s skate or lower leg.

The number of near misses is mind-numbing. Blue Jackets defenseman David Savard has glanced down at his skates during intermissions and noticed his laces have been slashed by contact with other players’ blades.

But Savard and others have adopted a certain mindset from a young age, sublimating their fears of skate lacerations and injury.

“You would be paralyzed out there if you were worried about every bit of contact,” Avalanche defenseman Ian Cole said. “You would be shying away, and you cannot be successful playing that way. You can bail out of a lot of situations when you are playing in a beer league, but not up here.”

Some players don’t even like addressing the topic. Avalanche star Nathan McKinnon trod lightly on the subject, not wanting to “jinx” himself.

Before the season was suspended amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the NHL saw an unusual run of lacerations and incidents involving skates:

Nov. 25: Kings defenseman Alec Martinez required surgery on his right wrist to repair an artery and two nerves after he dove to the ice trying to swat a loose puck and was cut by the skate of Sharks forward Melker Karlsson. Martinez, now a member of the Golden Knights, missed 18 games.

Dec. 19: Islanders winger Cal Clutterbuck had his left wrist cut by Bruins center Patrice Bergeron after the two players collided near the Boston bench. Clutterbuck needed surgery to repair a tendon. He missed 30 games.

Dec. 27: Maple Leafs winger Ilya Mikheyev had an artery and tendons sliced in his right wrist by Devils forward Jesper Bratt, who was falling to the ice. Mikheyev hasn’t played since.

Feb. 11: Red Wings forward Brendan Perlini required stitches to close a cut near his nose after he and Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju fell to the ice. Perlini missed one game.

Feb. 11: Islanders center Casey Cizikas suffered a cut to his leg as he finished a check on Flyers defenseman Ivan Provarov. Cizikas hasn’t played since the injury.

Feb. 14: Oilers forward Zack Kassian was suspended for seven games for kicking Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak while the two players were down on the ice. Cernak was not injured on the play.

March 3: Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk needed 90 stitches to close a cut to his left eyelid after Canadiens winger Artturi Lehkonen fell to the ice and his skate blade kicked up behind him. Boychuk did not play in New York’s final three games before the season was put on hold.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a run (of skate cuts) like this ever,” Martinez told the Los Angeles Times.

The defenseman made that statement on Jan. 4.

Islanders forward Johnny Boychuk required 90 stitches to close a cut to his eyelid after a collision with Montreal’s Artturi Lehkonen. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

While the number of skate cuts per season is rarely publicized, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnson reported on Dec. 29 that the NHL had 14 documented cases of a player either cut by a skate or coming “within a whisker of having it happen.” The NHL Players Association tracks the statistic, but the physician in charge of it was unavailable for comment because he was busy dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.

Players who spoke with The Athletic offered no reasons for the uptick in skate-blade lacerations. The speed of the game continues to accelerate, but it isn’t noticeably faster this season. Although the Kassian incident created headlines, players and former players believe there’s mutual respect when it comes to collisions and dislodging from a tangle of bodies on the ice.

“Upper-body-wise, you might battle and push or try to hold someone down,” Shelley said. “But guys are mindful about skates.”

In 2016, the NHL and the NHL Players Association established a Laceration Task Group — it falls under the Protective Equipment Sub-Committee — that meets twice a year, during All-Star Game weekend and in the summer. The group examines incidents and monitors the development of cut-resistant products such as sleeves and socks.

After all the lacerations this season, they anticipate more players inquiring about the products.

No NHL player has ever died from a skate laceration, but there have been several horrific accidents. In 1989, Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk nearly bled to death after catching the skate blade of Blues forward Steve Tuttle in the jugular. Malarchuk’s life was saved by Sabres trainer and former Vietnam War combat engineer Jim Pizzutelli. In 2008, the carotid artery of Panthers forward Richard Zednik was nearly severed during a game. He lost five units of blood and needed emergency surgery but made a complete recovery.

“When you look back at the history of the game, it’s really remarkable there haven’t been more really bad skate cuts,” Blue Jackets defenseman Ryan Murray said. “Think back to the time when there were all those fights and line brawls. You would see guys falling over each other and skates going everywhere. That’s insane.”

David Backes stood outside the visitors dressing room at Nationwide Arena and did the math in his head to prove a point.

The full-bodied forward played more than 800 NHL games, spanning 11-plus seasons, before suffering his first significant skate cut — a laceration to his knee on March 17, 2018, as a member of the Bruins. He was sliced again with a skate blade near his nose nine months later.

Backes doesn’t wear cut-resistant accessories available to all teams. He tried a sleeve for a short spell but didn’t like the feel of it.

“It’s a comfort thing, and it’s also a matter of what are you guarding against,” Backes said. “I’m guarding against one incident in my first (12) years. And for that, I’m going to deal with discomfort of wearing some extra protection and maybe it affects my performance? It wasn’t for me.”

Several years ago, the NHL mandated players wear cut-resistant panels sewn into the backs of their hockey socks, which cover the legs and shin pads. Additional items, which can cover gaps on arms, wrists, legs and feet, are optional.

“I don’t wear any of it,” Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. “I need for someone to put them in front of me and maybe I would put them on. It’s kind of stupid. I can’t tell you why I don’t do it.”

Foligno is hardly an outlier. Hockey players are creatures of habit.

Listening to them discuss the lack of comfort and how the undergarments might affect performance sounds similar to the reasons given years ago for not wearing visors. Of course, face shields grew in popularity because of the number of injuries caused by errant pucks and sticks — mishaps occurring far more frequently than skate cuts.

“I never liked the socks (worn underneath the skates) because they are too hot,” Cole said. “It’s like having a sweater on my legs. … And I have never had something happen to me where it forced me to change my mind.”

Atkinson tried wearing the cut-resistant socks but found they were “too heavy.”

The recent cluster of skate cuts has altered the thinking of some players. Sportsnet reported that five members of the Maple Leafs were fitted for protective Kevlar sleeves within hours of seeing Mikheyev’s injury in December. Martinez isn’t in favor of the league requiring extra equipment but told the Times he planned to wear cut-resistant protection on his wrists.

Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck wears cut-resistant socks. “The fact that some guys don’t wear them at all is shocking to me,” he said. (Fred Kfoury III / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Clutterbuck, who’s sustained three skate lacerations since joining the Islanders in 2013, told The Athletic’s Arthur Staple that he’s spoken to his team’s union rep and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman about the topic.

“I think the more attention that can be paid, the more energy put into it, the quicker we can find a solution,” said Clutterbuck, who’s stunned some players don’t wear the cut-resistant socks. “And I know there are some mainstream undergear companies that are starting to explore this, which is a great thing. The last three months, I think the lightbulb’s gone off over a lot of people’s heads. Trying to find something that’s protective and also comfortable, that’s the goal.”

As a player skates, equipment on his body begins to shift. One of the most common areas for skate lacerations is just above the knees.

“In a perfect world, you’re going to try and cover every body part you can,” Clutterbuck said. “We wear a lot of gear, obviously, but the truth of the matter is there’s a lot of gaps in that gear. If I put my gear on with no socks or jersey, there’s 25 percent of my body that’s not covered by anything. The first thing is to cover the vital areas, the ones that could be life-threatening. Then you look at where most cuts occur, how they happen.”

Bratt said some of his Devils teammates wear the cut-resistant undergarments, but he does not. He texted Mikheyev hours after the Dec. 27 injury to see how the Maple Leafs rookie was feeling and to express his sympathy.

Skate cuts happen so quickly and unexpectedly that the player who causes the damage sometimes is unaware of it. Bratt got to his feet after his skate blade clipped Mikheyev and remained on the forecheck in the Maple Leafs zone.

His first hint of trouble was seeing drops of blood on the ice as he skated to the bench.

“I didn’t know where it came from,” Bratt said. “I kept looking around and I started asking, ‘What happened? Did one of our guys get cut?’ That’s when they pulled up the video on a tablet. I couldn’t believe it.”

Atkinson has avoided serious injury on all three of his brushes with skate blades. The Blue Jackets winger said after his close call in 2017 he felt like he had “a guardian angel.”

In considering all the near misses he’s witnessed, Foligno is of a similar mindset.

“For as fast as we go and as reckless as we sometimes get, the numbers are still amazingly low,” he said. “I hope someone is watching out for us.”

(Note: All interviews for this story were conducted when the NHL season was active.)

(Top photo of former Vancouver Canucks forward Chris Higgins: Jeff Vinnick / Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kHBnamxhbHxzfJFpZmlrX2eDcK3MmrGippditrV5w6icrKakYrWivM%2BepWaln6eybrvFrZynZZikxG66x6VkqaSRrrKzv4ydnJqkXay2tbSMrKKarJVisLbA0maaqKSloq%2B2v4ybo66dXZ%2BupLfErapo