Clint Malarchuk

Clint Malarchuk (born May 1, 1961 in Grande Prairie, Alberta) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. He played 11 seasons in the NHL. He played 5 seasons with the Quebec Nordiques, 2 seasons with the Washington Capitals and 4 seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. He is probably best known for the serious throat injury that he received from a skate blade when Steve Tuttle of the St. Louis Blues and Uwe Krupp of the Buffalo Sabres became entangled when they were chasing the puck and they both crashed into Malarchuk's net, Tuttle's skate hit Malarchuk on the neck and severed his internal carotid artery which caused puddles of blood that collected on the ice. Malarchuk left the ice on his own two feet but he thought he was going to die so he said "All I wanted to do was get off the ice". "My mother was watching the game on TV, and I didn't want her to see me die." He knew that his mother was watching the game on TV and he had an equipment manager call and tell her he loved her. He also asked for a priest. His life was saved when the team's trainer, Jim Pizzutelli who was a former Army medic who had served in Vietnam. had reached into Malarchuk's neck and pinched off the bleeding. He did not let go until the doctors arrived to begin closing the wound. After the doctors spent 90 minutes and used over 300 stitches to close the wound he returned to practice four days later and was back in the net against the Quebec Nordiques after about a week. He said, "Doctors told me to take the rest of the year off, but there was no way", "The longer you wait, the harder it's going to be. I play for keeps". He made in time for the playoffs but the Sabres lost to the Boston Bruins 4 games to 1.