Detroit Free Press article
February 11, 2004
by Helene St. James
Now appearing for the Red Wings: It’s captain Metal Mouth.
Steve Yzerman showed up for Tuesday’s practice complete with braces after spending most of the previous day at the dentist, getting his grin back on track. Yzerman lost one lower front tooth, and four other teeth were knocked back when he was whacked in the mouth last Thursday during a 3-2 overtime victory at Colorado.
Yzerman was injured with 1.6 seconds left in regulation when defenseman Adam Foote attempted to use his stick to lift Yzerman’s stick and missed, hitting Yzerman. He needed stitches to close a cut across his upper lip, and spent the All-Star weekend break in pain because of the dislocated teeth.
“In general, I feel pretty good now,” Yzerman said.
“Having these braces on, actually it feels a lot better. It’s kind of stabilizing.”
