Clint Malarchuk - Before and After injury

[Sergei Bure]

I never saw much of Clint Malarchuk, so my question is, how good he was before the injury? And how much his horrible injury affected his performance?

 

[Fenway]

Listen to this CBC podcast from a month ago.

Clint Malarchuk suffered a horrific sporting injury. But PTSD put his life in peril again, decades later | CBC Radio

 

[tony d]

Looking at his #'s he was a decent enough goalie before the injury, playing in most of his team's games. After the injury his career wasn't the same. I think his injury is up there as one of the most unfortunate NHL injuries ever.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Holy cow - that's just terrible to read about. I had no idea he tried to kill himself.

I remember him being a solid goalie. Not sure what a comparable would be today.

Brian Elliot? Halak? Niemi?

A guy who would be a solid 1b but maybe not quite good enough to trust your Stanley Cup Playoff hopes to.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Pre-injury, Malarchuk was an above average goalie. He had two nice years with Quebec and Washington that garnered him a few Vezina votes. He was capable of stealing a game two or three times a year.

Really feel for Malarchuk. Hopefully, he is getting the help he needs to overcome the PTSD. I watched the tape of the incident the day after it happened and I haven't watched it since. Just gruesome. From what I remember from watching it, Steve Tuttle's skate was lifted. Did a Sabre grab Tuttle, causing Tuttle's skate to be lifted? Also, I've also always wondered if Tuttle was the same mentally afterwards? Has Tuttle ever commented on the incident?

 

[JMCx4]

... I watched the tape of the incident the day after it happened and I haven't watched it since. Just gruesome. From what I remember from watching it, Steve Tuttle's skate was lifted. Did a Sabre grab Tuttle, causing Tuttle's skate to be lifted? Also, I've also always wondered if Tuttle was the same mentally afterwards? Has Tuttle ever commented on the incident?

Tuttle was upended on his headlong rush to the front of the net by contact from a Buffalo backchecker, standard play with no unusual action. An E-mail statement by Tuttle on the incident many years after was cited in a 2013 Sean McIndoe piece for Grantland entitled "Absence of Malice." No evidence of more than appropriate sympathy & well wishes. Tuttle was never destined to stick in the NHL, but he went on to play a lot of productive seasons in the IHL after the infamous event.

 

[Johnny Engine]

Wasn't Uwe Krupp the Buffalo defender in this case? He had about 5 inches and 40 pounds on Tuttle.

 

[Big Phil]

Awful injury, terrible on the eyes even after all these years. Just a freak incident based on a routine play really.

Here is an interesting tidbit. Three goalies were on the Rendez-Vous NHL All-Stars team in 1987 to play the Soviets. Fuhr, Hextall and.............Malarchuk. Not sure why he never got the invite for the Canada Cup later that year though. So yeah, he was a good goalie for a little while, definitely capable.

 

[greyraven8]

Saw his presentation hosted by the Canadian Mental Health Association when he was in my town a few years back. Was well worth seeing.
» A Night of Hope and Humour with Clint Malarchuk

He put out a book and had that signed there. Here's a brief description of the book:
The Crazy Game by Clint Malarchuk

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Jim Pizzutelli is the trainer that saved his life by reaching into his neck and squeezing the artery shut. Thankfully he was a former combat medic and knew what to do.

And in what has to be something more than luck, when Zednik had his jugular cut the Panthers were playing the Sabres... And Pizzutelli saved his life as well

 

[Bondurant]

Jim Pizzutelli is the trainer that saved his life by reaching into his neck and squeezing the artery shut. Thankfully he was a former combat medic and knew what to do.

It's my understanding that had Pizzutelli not had that combat medic experience or if Malarchuk had been on the other side of the rink he would have died on the ice.

Malarchuk's best NHL years were pre-injury. His psychological trauma is apparent but may have also overlapped with a natural decline. He wasn't the same NHL goalie again but had solid seasons in the IHL which may indicate a natural decline may have also been a factor.

The ESPN 30 for 30 short about Malarchuk, Cutthroat, is one of their best. So much emotion packed into a short form documentary. I almost cried during it and I don't have such emotional responses to cinema.