<p><p>SEATTLE – When passersby see 6-foot-7, 252-pound Jamie Oleksiak, even if they don’t recognize him, they have to have some inkling what his job is. Then the Kraken defenseman opens his mouth and drives the point home, showing a gap where a front tooth once was.</p></p><p><p>Oleksiak said that tooth was chipped and had a crown on it at different points, then during the 2020 “bubble” playoff year, it was time to call it.</p></p><p><p>“Forget who it was. I tried to hit someone and they kind of reverse hit me. Their shoulder went in my mouth,” Oleksiak said. “At that point, it was unsalvageable. It had been through a lot.”</p></p><p><p>Oleksiak wasn’t wearing a mouth guard and still doesn’t. He never could get used to it.</p></p><p><p>“I figure I’m so tall I don’t have to worry about that stuff,” Oleksiak said. “But surprisingly, I get hit in the face a lot.”</p></p><p><p>He’s owned – and lost – several flippers, or removable, partial dentures. It goes in for select special occasions. He left it out during the expansion draft, when he was introduced to the Kraken’s fan base.</p></p><p><p>“If I’m walking around in my day-to-day, I’ll try and keep it in because it’s kind of jarring when you meet somebody. You get looks,” Oleksiak said.</p></p><p><p>These days the implants are so good, it’s hard to tell anything happened.</p></p><p><p>But hockey players and their checkered smiles remain affectionately, morbidly linked. Many NHLers do opt for mouth guards, which are mandated by USA Hockey and Hockey Canada to a certain age. Still, every so often someone is shown hunting for spilled teeth on the ice.</p></p><p><p>Players usually have a story where pride has replaced pain. A puck to the face during the 2019 playoffs cost fellow Kraken blueliner Vince Dunn five teeth and broke his upper jaw, leading to several surgeries. Asked if he’d wear a face shield going forward, he later told the Athletic: “I’d rather just take another puck to the face.”</p></p><p><p>That’s really saying something.</p></p><p><p>“Been a lot of trips to the dentist. Mouth pain is probably one of the worst things,” Dunn said. “But knock on wood, I’ve been pretty solid ever since.”</p></p><p><p>This occurred in Game 3 of the Western Conference final as Dunn and the St. Louis Blues were in the latter half of a championship run. The shot came off the stick of then-Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon, now with the New Jersey Devils. It could have certainly been worse – Dillon’s 90 mph blast fractured Capitals defenseman John Carlson’s skull in 2022.</p></p><p><p>“He’s almost hit me a few times,” Dunn said. “I don’t know what it is. He shoots to score.”</p></p><p><p>Dunn never saw it coming.</p></p><p><p>“I would think that most of the time it’s pucks that do the most damage,” Dunn said. “You’re not really expecting it sometimes. As a D-man, it’s scary when the opposing D are shooting and you’re fighting and battling in front of the net.”</p></p><p><p>Defensemen in particular are in the line of fire, but somehow Josh Mahura’s smile is au naturel.</p></p><p><p>“And I’m keeping it that way,” Mahura said with a knuckle rap on his wooden locker stall. “I have a mouth guard in at all times.”</p></p><p><p>“Got the wedding coming up,” longtime teammate and friend Brandon Montour said helpfully. Mahura is getting married this summer.</p></p><p><p>Montour has one replaced front tooth and one on the side of his mouth after absorbing a shot to the cheek a long time ago.</p></p><p><p>Forward Kaapo Kakko was in that small club with Mahura until recently. The 24-year-old made it more than a decade into his playing career without any dental mishaps. But he briefly let his guard and his mouth guard down.</p></p><p><p>He lost a front tooth about three years ago. It was the first, casual skate of the summer, and he was trying out some new gear.</p></p><p><p>Then came “a high stick, by the young guy on the ice,” Kakko said.</p></p><p><p>The guy felt awful, of course.</p></p><p><p>“We tried to fix it,” Kakko said. “But then, I was like, ‘Just take it out.’</p></p><p><p>“My first one and my only one. So hopefully, it stays like that.”</p></p><p><p>Kakko’s linemate Matty Beniers’ tale features a few more twists and turns. Beniers has a collection of chipped teeth, and until recently, it had almost nothing to do with hockey.</p></p><p><p>There weren’t enough bikes for the seven or so guys hoping to make the trek from Beniers’ childhood home to a nearby candy store.</p></p><p><p>Like a gracious host, he offered to take a rip stick instead – similar to a skateboard – and fell face-first going downhill.</p></p><p><p>The repaired teeth have since seen other misadventures. They’ve been dislodged while biting into apples and thanks to a bad angle on a Tic Tac – even courtesy of his own knee while snowboarding for the first time.</p></p><p><p>Finally, those pearly whites were forced to reckon with the sport he’s made a career out of. The same ones were chipped again, earlier this season.</p></p><p><p>“I didn’t get them fixed for, like, two weeks,” Beniers said. “The game after I got them fixed, one of the old ones got chipped, then a new one.”</p></p><p><p>Similarly, in Dunn’s second shift after missing nearly three weeks’ worth of playoff games because of his own injury, he was high-sticked in the face. Once a tooth is lost, pucks, sticks and shoulders seem to want to ensure it remains lost.</p></p><p><p>“I feel like when you get hit once, you just keep getting hit and hit and hit, again and again,” Dunn said.</p></p><p><p>Mahura definitely has the right idea : safety first. But if it’s already too late, Oleksiak’s old-school approach works too. Might as well own it.</p></p>
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