The veteran defenseman lost seven teeth when he was hit in the mouth with a puck off the stick of Patrick Marleau during the second period of the Hawks' 4-2 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals Sunday afternoon at the United Center.
"I just smashed all my teeth out," Keith said as he opened his mouth to reveal the damage. "They numbed it after it happened; they just stuck a bunch of needles in there and froze it all up. It feels a lot better when we win. It would probably be hurting a lot more if we lost."
Keith lost four teeth on the bottom and three on top and said afterward he had a long night ahead of him at the dentist.
"I took one breath and it felt like my whole mouth was missing so I knew there were some teeth gone," Keith said. "I saw a couple fall out and I had one in the back of my throat. I could feel it and coughed it out. A bunch of them disintegrated it felt like.
"That sort of thing happens. I'm not the only guy who's ever lost bunch of teeth or been hit in the mouth with a puck or stick and I'm sure I won't be the last guy."
Despite the damage, Keith returned a short time later and assisted on Dave Bolland's game-tying goal and finished with a game-high 29 minutes 2 seconds of ice time.
"I told him it's kind of a blessing in disguise because now he's going to get some nice fake teeth," teammate Patrick Sharp said. "He's going to have a great smile in a couple weeks. That's playoff hockey (written) all over it. A guy takes one in the face, picking out his teeth in the locker room (and) comes back. He assisted on the Bolland goal there, created the whole goal there by taking a big hit. He's walking around, skating around the ice, talking to us before the power play, mumbling what we were supposed to do. I don't think anybody understood what he was talking about."
