Scott Bjugstad and Lost Teeth

All hockey players lose teeth. It is a rite of passage. If you did not lose teeth playing hockey, you were not playing hard enough.

I lost my left front tooth in a hockey accident. I tell everyone a variety of stories with great pride. Puck to the face. Slashed across my mouth. Took a bad punch while taking the biggest, baddest goon in the whole league.

Yeah, none of those were true. Oh, I lost my front tooth due to hockey alright - but it was in a hockey card scramble.

You know, some masochistic kid would throw his doubles into a school yard crowd of hockey crazed kids at recess. We’d chase after these pieces of cardboard, scratch and claw after common cards like Tom Fergus, Blaine Stoughton or Hector Marini. They might as well have been throwing out girls’ phone numbers, that’s how spirited our battles would be.

This particular time I ended up on the very bottom of the pile, with several people piling on top. Fortunately my overbite broke my fall onto the pavement.

My only problem was my tooth hurt like hell. It was not a complete extract. Rather it was broken in half, with sharp daggers on each side. Man that hurt.

But it was totally worth it. I got the card - 1986-87 O Pee Chee card #23 - the coveted Scott Bjugstad rookie card.