Look around any NHL locker room and you're bound to see a few gap-toothed smiles. Even with mouth guards, the risk of losing a few teeth is just a part of being a hockey player.
Before the NHL season went on pause, I went around the Penguins' locker room and asked players how they lost their teeth.
Sam Lafferty, with two missing front teeth, has the biggest gap in his smile in the locker room.
"I lost them last year against Springfield," Lafferty said. "I took a high stick and they both came clean out."
Players will often wear something called a "flipper," which looks like a retainer with a fake tooth attached to fill in the gap. Lafferty says he wears his flipper whenever he's in public and plans on getting permanent replacements this summer, which should make his mom pretty happy.
"The person who was definitely the most upset when I lost them was my mother," Lafferty laughed. "She spent all the money on braces, she'll be happy when I get those fixed."
A few stalls over sits Teddy Blueger, who is missing one of his upper two front teeth.
"I got high-sticked in the preseason last year," Blueger recalled. "It didn't come all the way out. It was like, half of it came off, then I got a cap put on it. A couple of days later (the tooth) started sliding out on its own, so they ripped the gist of it out. I had to go in and get the root taken out later on."
I couldn't help but wince when Blueger was explaining how his partial tooth had to be ripped out of his face, but he clarified that it wasn't that bad of a process.
"It wasn't so much painful, it was just unpleasant, going to the dentist and getting shot up," Blueger said. "I hate the dentist to begin with, and then they're digging around in there and drilling. It's just unpleasant. They numb you up pretty good so you're not necessarily feeling the pain. It's just a cringe-worthy feeling."
Blueger said he "hardly ever" wears his flipper, and usually just puts it in for special occasions like weddings.
"Now I just forget it," he said. "If I go to dinner, I feel like I'm going to have to take it out anyway. It's kind of pointless."
Blueger said he figures he'll eventually get a permanent replacement, but definitely doesn't have any immediate plans to do so.
"I hate the dentist, so I'm going to delay it as long as I can," he laughed.
Anthony Angello is missing one of his teeth on the left side of his mouth, and the missing tooth wasn't even the result of a game.
"I lost it my junior year of high school," Angello explained. "I was coaching without a helmet on, I was teaching the technique of a corner battle one-on-one and I got hit in the face by a stick. He was 12. I figured I would lose one eventually, but not when I was 17 years old and coaching."
Angello said he wears a flipper "quite often," and said that he plans on waiting until his playing career is over to get his smile permanently fixed. He currently has an implant in his mouth where the missing tooth was, to which a permanent tooth can eventually be attached.
Justin Schultz is one of the players who didn't wait until after his playing career ends to get his smile fixed. After losing one of his front teeth shortly after joining the Penguins in the 2015-16 season, Schultz recently got permanent tooth implanted to fill the gap.
"I lost mine from a high-stick against Philly," Schultz said. "It wasn't out right away but the damage was already done so they just took it out."
Schultz figured that it was only a matter of time before it would happen.
"There's not much you can do," Schultz said, shaking his head. "I had a mouthguard in and everything, and still. I kind of knew it was going to happen eventually, playing this game."
