Clint Malarchuk

Clint Malarchuk (born May 1, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1981 and 1992. He has been a coach for four NHL teams and two minor league teams, most recently the Calgary Flames. He was born in Grande Prairie, Alberta, raised in Edmonton, Alberta, and lives in Alberta and Nevada.SN Magazine: Clint Malarchuk, The Survivor
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Malarchuk is known for surviving a life-threatening injury during a 1989 NHL game when a player's skate made contact with his neck, slicing his carotid artery and partially slicing his jugular vein, causing immediate massive blood loss.

Playing career

Early career

Malarchuk played junior hockey for the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League (WHL). He then went on to play professionally in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Quebec Nordiques, Washington Capitals, and Buffalo Sabres, and in the International Hockey League (IHL) for the San Diego Gulls and Las Vegas Thunder. He had a career record of 141 wins, 130 losses, 45 ties, 12 shutouts, and an .885 save percentage.

Malarchuk made his NHL debut with the Nordiques on December 13, 1981, getting the start in goal in a road game against the Buffalo Sabres. The Nordiques were dissatisfied with back-up goaltender Michel Plasse at the time and decided to give Malarchuk a look, in spite of his young age (he had just turned 20 a few months earlier). He did well enough in his first game, a 4–4 tie, but the second one, two days later, was a lot tougher, as he faced the defending Stanley Cup champions, the New York Islanders. The Nordiques favored a wide-open style of play at the time, and Malarchuk was left largely to his own devices and faced 37 shots, letting 10 goals past him, in a wild 10–7 loss, in what was the highest scoring game in the history of the Nassau Coliseum. Having failed his audition, he was returned to the American Hockey League after that game and did not come back until the following season. Quebec traded Plasse to the Hartford Whalers later that season in return for John Garrett, addressing the team's need for a reliable back-up goaltender for Dan Bouchard.

Malarchuk played sparingly in the NHL the next two seasons, then not at all in 1984–85, as he spent the majority of these three years with the Fredericton Express in the AHL. He became the Nordiques' primary goaltender in 1985–86, keeping the job for two seasons, although there was continual controversy over whether he or local favorite Mario Gosselin should be the starter. In a statistical quirk, during the 1984 NHL Playoffs, he was not credited with a game played but still was assessed with 15 penalty minutes. In Game 6 of the Adams Division Finals against the Montreal Canadiens on April 20, he was handed both a major penalty and a game misconduct for leaving his team's bench to take part in an on-ice brawl. He was traded to the Washington Capitals after the 1986–87 season alongside Dale Hunter in return for Gaétan Duchesne, Alan Haworth and a first-round choice in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft that eventually landed the Nordiques Joe Sakic. Then, on March 6, 1989, Malarchuk was traded to the Buffalo Sabres along with Grant Ledyard and a 1991 sixth round pick (Brian Holzinger) in exchange for Calle Johansson and a 1989 second-round pick (Byron Dafoe). It was sixteen days later in just his sixth game with the Sabres that Malarchuk would suffer a notorious life-threatening neck injury.

Neck injury

During a game between the visiting St. Louis Blues and Malarchuk's Buffalo Sabres on March 22, 1989, Steve Tuttle of the Blues and Uwe Krupp of the Sabres crashed hard into the goal crease during play. As they collided, Tuttle's skate blade hit the right front side of Malarchuk's neck, severing his carotid artery and partially cutting his jugular vein.

With blood gushing out of Malarchuk's neck onto the ice, he was able to leave the ice on his own feet with the assistance of his team's athletic trainer, Jim Pizzutelli. Many spectators were physically sickened by the sight. The excessive amount of blood that Malarchuk lost caused eleven fans to faint, two more to have heart attacks, and three players to vomit on the ice. Local television cameras covering the game cut away from the sight of Malarchuk bleeding after noticing what had happened, and Sabres announcers Ted Darling and Mike Robitaille were audibly shaken. At the production room of the national cable sports highlight show, a producer scrolled his tape back to show the event to two other producers, who were both horrified by the sight.

Malarchuk, meanwhile, believed that he was going to die. "All I wanted to do was get off the ice," said Malarchuk. "My mother was watching the game on TV, and I didn't want her to see me die." Aware that his mother had been watching the game on TV, he had an equipment manager call and tell her he loved her. Then he asked for a priest.

Malarchuk's life was saved due to quick action by the Sabres' athletic trainer, Jim Pizzutelli, a former US Army combat medic who served in the Vietnam War. He gripped Malarchuk's neck and pinched off the vein, not letting go until doctors arrived to begin stabilizing the wound. He led Malarchuk off the ice then applied extreme pressure by kneeling on his collarbone—a procedure designed to produce a low breathing rate and low metabolic state, which is preferable to exsanguination. Malarchuk was conscious and talking on the way to the hospital, and jokingly asked paramedics if they could bring him back in time for the third period. The game resumed when league personnel received word that Malarchuk was in stable condition.

Malarchuk lost 1.5 litres of blood. It took doctors a total of 300 stitches to close the wound. He was back on the ice in ten days.

On February 10, 2008, coincidentally again in Buffalo, Florida Panthers forward Richard Zedník suffered an injury similar to Malarchuk's after Olli Jokinen's skate blade cut the front of Zedník's neck, lacerating his common carotid artery

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