Alex Galchenyuk took a puck off the face playing for HC Spartak in the KHL this week.
The former NHL forward was on the ice against SKA Saint Petersburg when the play turned painful in a hurry.
The shot actually came from his own teammate, Joseph Keane, who wound up from the point and put everything behind it.
Keane clearly had no intention of hitting his own guy, and he looked visibly devastated the moment he realized what happened.
Galchenyuk spotted the puck late and managed to turn his head just before impact, but it still caught him square in the face.
He got back up almost immediately and looked relatively fine given the circumstances, which made the aftermath photos even more striking.
His eye was left nearly swollen shut on that side of his face, the kind of image that makes people wince just looking at it.
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Former NHL star Alex Galchenyuk drilled in the face by teammate's slap shot
Galchenyuk spent parts of over a decade in the NHL before continuing his career overseas in the KHL.
Freak accidents like this are part of what makes hockey feel so physically unforgiving, even when nobody involved meant any actual harm.
It's the kind of moment that reminds fans just how fast things can go from a normal drill to a genuinely scary few seconds.
Keane's reaction says as much about the moment as the hit itself. Nobody wants to be the guy who does that to a teammate.
Is a moment like this actually memorable because of the injury, or because of how quickly Galchenyuk brushed himself off afterward?
Hockey players absorbing shots like this and getting straight back up is exactly the kind of toughness that keeps earning respect around the sport.
My take: accidents like this are a reminder of how little margin for error exists on the ice, even in a completely harmless drill-gone-wrong moment.
Here's hoping the swelling goes down fast and Galchenyuk is back on the ice again soon, ideally without his own teammate lining up another one.
Source : Alex Galchenyuk Takes A Rocket To The Face In The KHL.
Would you have gotten back up as fast as Galchenyuk did after that hit?
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