CHICAGO -- The face of hockey, the window to the ache and sacrifice it requires to play this game, is frozen like the Indian head at the center of the United Center floor. The hair is common, long and greasy and poking out of the back of an previous totally free hat honoring Tony Esposito. The eyes are languid, the mouth shy, concealing a void exactly where its teeth employed to be. The lips are bloodied and unhurried. [+] EnlargeRob Grabowski/US PresswireDuncan Keith lost 7 teeth but returned to the ice to assist the Blackhawks win Game 4.Duncan Keith, all beardy and sweaty and hockey humble, is attempting to tell a revolving group of reporters why it wasn't that big of a deal that a puck collided with his encounter, costing him seven teeth and only a handful of shifts. He's speaking at a whisper, and with a pronounced lisp. He isn't attempting to be humble. This isn't an act. About seven minutes of ice time, one particular for each tooth, elapsed from the time he stumbled off the ice, teeth in his throat, and received shot up with sufficient numbing medicine to return. Keith, the Olympian and candidate for the Norris Trophy, wound up skating 4 far more shifts in the 2nd period and 13 in the third as the Blackhawks clinched their first Stanley Cup finals visual appeal because the days of Roenick and Belfour and Chelios. "Truthfully, I was fine," Keith said. "You get hit in the teeth, obviously it hurts the gums, but it truly is not like you received your jaw smashed in or something like that. It truly is tougher talking, but it really is not as poor as you consider it is." Here is a new Chicago Blackhawks motto for you: "A single Purpose. Seven Teeth." Keith's Komeback was one particular of several good stories in the Blackhawks' 4-2 win in excess of the San Jose Sharks on Sunday to close out the Western Conference finals in a 4- sweep. This wasn't a have to-win game, but Keith was not about to miss any time. The physicians jammed seven needles in his jaw, and he was back on the ice. He assisted on Dave Bolland's tying purpose with one:22 to go in the second. "He produced the whole play, taking the huge hit to set it up," Patrick Sharp explained. "And he's skating around prior to the electrical power play, telling us what to do, but he is mumbling. I never feel anybody understood what he was speaking about. But he is a single of our leaders." "I desired to get out there," Keith explained. "I heard they scored. It was variety of aggravating. It was great to hear the crowd cheering when we scored once again. So I missed a couple objectives there. I needed to get out there as swift as I can." The Hawks had to struggle to get previous the seventh-seeded Nashville Predators in the first round http://www.iceteamstore.com/Rick_Nash_Jersey-395, but they've gotten far better each and each and every series. No 1 could accuse this crew of searching towards the Stanley Cup with a 3- lead. Right after a slow begin -- 1 shot in the very first 16 minutes -- the Hawks turned in a championship functionality, sweeping the prime seed and setting up a playoff series that will engulf this city. Final year, the Hawks had been just pleased to be in the Western Conference finals towards a veteran Detroit Red Wings staff http://www.iceteamstore.com/Henrik_Lundqvist_Jersey-389. This year, for evident causes, the team had diverse objectives. "This 12 months, it really is virtually like we feel we should not drop a game," Patrick Kane explained. "It truly is not ****y. That is just our frame of mind. We really feel like we have such a great crew and the way we can perform, we feel we're as good as anybody in the league Patrice Bergeron Jersey." Down 2- early in the 2nd period, Chicago scored the final 4 goals, tying the game late in the second and taking a lead in the third on Dustin Byfuglien's third game winner of this series. Kris Versteeg's empty-netter with 42 seconds to go iced it. Brent Seabrook was credited with the Blackhawks' initial purpose following an official evaluation. No Kane, no Toews, no Marian Hossa. And that was a great issue. "So numerous guys stepped up," Kane mentioned. "Every game was a new challenge for us. It looked like factors weren't going to go our way nowadays and we even now stepped up and got the win. It really is a really great feeling appropriate now." The Hawks will take on the winner of the Philadelphia Flyers-Montreal Canadiens series in the franchise's 1st Cup finals physical appearance because 1992, but there was no celebration off the ice Sunday. No beer showers, not a hint of champagne. They got new hats and cheap T-shirts, but that about covered it. Then again, this is a sport in which teams snub a conference championship trophy like it was an annoying reporter. It really is Stanley Cup or bust. No use celebrating the milestones. "We do not do that. We go for the huge 1," stated John Madden, one particular of a handful of Hawks with Stanley Cup encounter, on the lack of premature jocularity. "It's usually been like that, the two instances I won the Cup. We just congratulated each and every other and perhaps had a cold one and that's it." The Hawks' locker room was buzzing with action, but each player stayed in their stall, sporting a cap and a T-shirt commemorating their feat and hunting toward their next process. Definitely celebrations would take place later on in nightclubs and tony dining establishments, with mother and father and girlfriends and wives and bottle support. Keith will be celebrating in the dentist's chair. He could really feel the medication wearing off as he talked. But he sat at his locker to talk to every single reporter, answering each and every query. "1, no two have been fake previously," he said. "Hopefully I can get some good teeth now." How a lot of did he lose? In-game reports explained four, which were later on amended to 7. "Let us take a appear," he stated, opening his mouth and exhibiting a leading shelf of gums. "I haven't even noticed what I look like, you tell me." Seven and a half minutes into the 2nd time period, Keith crumpled to the ice following Patrick Marleau, battling with Toews for puck possession in the Blackhawks' end, nailed him point-blank with a puck. Keith staggered off the ice and a couple of seconds later, Marleau scored to give the Sharks a 2- lead. ESPNChicago.com Blackhawks BlogThe newest Hawks news and notes from ESPN Chicago. Site Should-see: Hawks playoff gallery Keith explained he knew proper away his teeth have been smashed in. This isn't his very first rodeo. He could feel one hitting the back of his throat. "I felt a chunk of anything back there," he stated. "I figured it was a tooth. It would not have been anything at all else." It truly is almost cliché to create about a hard hockey player, but it is not unfair to say he was inspiration for his teammates, even the veterans. "There are a lot of issues that go undisclosed," said Brian Campbell, who missed the final month of the typical season and the first three games of the first round of the playoffs with a broken clavicle and fractured rib. "Duncan's is out there. You appear at guys like that, it is inspiration." "It truly is not that [amazing] … I'm just kidding. It's quite remarkable," Madden stated. "I consider the last guy I noticed with all his teeth knocked out was Ken Daneyko, and he came back the same way. And that was years ago. I noticed Duncs get that appropriate in the mouth. To conquer anything like that and come back http://www.iceteamstore.com/Andrew_Shaw_Jersey-121, it really is a tribute to how wonderful of a man he is and how wonderful of a teammate he is." Following final year's surprising run to the conference finals Rick Nash Jersey, this season has been a virtual countdown up to this level. This crew had the talent, the depth and the leadership to get here. They carried a bull's-eye all season. Now the end is nearly right here, and there will be lots to celebrate quickly adequate. So flash a smile, Blackhawks, with or with no unique teeth. A single Purpose. 7 Teeth. 4 Far more Video games. Jon Greenberg is a columnist for ESPNChicago.com Relate Articles： http://forum-8.ru/node/4177 http://www.deskdemon.com/dnet/blog.php?user=jarretstoll&blogentry_id=1201 http://howidoit.ning.com/profiles/blogs/rangers-blanked-as-kings-goalie-ben-scrivens-shuts-out-blueshirts
