By Marc Lostracco

During last night’s Leafs vs. Sabres game, Toronto Star photographer Steve Russell got a fluke shot he wasn’t expecting: a puck in the face.
Russell was pointing his lens through a tiny cutout in the laminated glass barrier when Sabres goalie Ryan Miller tossed the puck into the corner. The launch became reminiscent of a fairground dunk tank when the wayward puck torpedoed through the camera hole, striking Russell on the cheek. Hard.
Nothing was broken, and Russell considers himself lucky, according to a blog post today, which also included a photo of his new shiner. “Any higher it would have hit my eye,” he wrote. “Lower my mouth, any harder, well, I would have been really messed up.”
Russell’s injuries hearken back to the bad ol’ days of hockey, where men were men, face-masks were for wussies, and teeth were expendable. Hardcore.