Tongue-tied Gudbranson discusses latest injury
When Erik Gudbranson needed to quickly rush off the ice in the Calgary Flames' game against the Buffalo Sabres a week ago, Darryl Sutter was giving the medical staff a hard time about how long it took to stitch him back together.
“I could have done it in five minutes,” the Flames head coach deadpanned. “I sew horses and cows up in 10 minutes.”
But Gudbranson, who absorbed a high stick in the first period of the team's eventual 1-0 overtime loss, was not amused.
A reminder that this story isn't for the faint of heart, as the 30-yearold had bit down on his tongue so hard that it sliced a chunk out of it.
“Only my tongue needed stitches, actually,” Gudbranson was saying Thursday, almost a week since the painful incident happened and still having difficulty speaking without a lisp. “It's healing up. Today's the first day it's felt better. Just don't bite your tongue. Ever. Apparently it's the fastest healing part of your body but it's also the hardest thing to stitch, I would imagine. They had to pull my tongue out of my face for half an hour ... it was a pretty big hole.”
Gudbranson has been battered and bruised in his 626-game NHL career. He's suffered an incision on his leg, facial fractures, undergone two wrist surgeries and shoulder surgeries. He also blew out his shoulder wakeboarding.
But this one?
“Yeah, one of the dumbest ones? For sure,” he said.
That has also meant a soft foods diet, similar to that of his 11-month-old son Bennett.
“Baby food, soup, I've been using my kid's blender quite a bit,” he said. “Watching everybody enjoy dinnertime. It's been great.”
And when asked if he would have let Sutter do the work for the team doctors, his eyes widened and he answered swiftly.
“No.”