VIDEO: Maple Leafs' Roman Polak takes slapshot to face, returns to game
Maple Leafs defenseman Roman Polak returned to Wednesday night's game after taking a Troy Brouwer slapshot square in the cheek.
By
Chris Peters
•
1 min read
Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Roman Polak was acquired in the offseason for a number of reasons, but his toughness was probably pretty high on the list. Usually that toughness manifests itself in body checks or hard physical play, but Wednesday night, Polak showed that he also has a pretty high pain threshold.
In the first period against the Washington Capitals, Polak took a Troy Brouwer slapshot right to the face. He was engaged at the side of the net with Marcus Johannson, so Polak never even saw it coming before it clocked him right in the cheek.
He went down in a heap and left a fair amount of blood on the ice. Polak immediately went to the dressing room and did not return for the remainder of the first period. He didn’t come back for the start of the second period, either. Then around halfway through the middle frame, Polak made his way to the bench to resume playing in the game. As you can see in the photo above, he looked like he just got out of the worst dentist appointment in history.
Polak was able to get two shifts in before the second period ended after his unexpected return to action.
