Sami Salo suffered at least 40 injuries during his 15-year NHL career, and was often disparaged for his lack of durability. All that changed after a Duncan Keith slapshot during the playoffs against Chicago in 2010. (imacSportsnet)
VANCOUVER – About half the athletes in the world had a sense of the excruciating pain Sami Salo felt on May 9, 2010 when thedefenceman was drilled in the reproductive organs by a Duncan Keith slapshot during a playoff game in Chicago.
That was the night everyone loved Sami Salo, who suffered at least 40 injuries during his 15-year National Hockey League career and until that elimination game against the Blackhawks a decade ago was often disparaged for his lack of durability. But he was atrociously unlucky with injuries. Salo ruptured an Achilles tendon playing ball hockey one summer in Finland, suffered a gruesome facial injury when hit by teammate Alex Edler’s clearance, pulled a glute muscle while celebrating a goal. He was even bitten by a snake.
“If he plays tonight, man, that guy’s an ironman,” Chicago winger Adam Burish told reporters before Game 6. “Maybe I will rub up against him, so I can get some of that toughness. How you can play through something like that blows my mind.” “I’ve never seen a guy with such bad luck on freaky injuries that people didn’t understand. The reputation that he got, that this guy is injury-prone and he’s soft, that was the furthest thing from the truth. That balls-of-steel chant, that was recognition that this guy has had tough breaks [but] is fighting through it and is out here playing for his teammates. I was glad when that chant started.”
“Sami was so tough. I know he had a lot of injuries… but there was nothing you can do about them. That’s not soft. Soft is when you can’t play through pain or something like that. That wasn’t Sami.
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