"Duncan Keith lost count by the end of his visits to the dentist Monday, but he estimated to his Blackhawks teammates that doctors jammed Novocain-filled needles into his gums and vacated tooth roots maybe 30 times over two days.

Extracting seven teeth via high-speed collision with a hockey puck is bad enough. Then come those needles. Then, perhaps worst of all, the needling.

"It's kind of funny," winger Patrick Kane said. "Guys are saying he looks like he's homeless."

Keith may whistle while he talks, sounding like he packed chestnuts into his cheeks after a catching that puck off Patrick Marleau's stick in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals Sunday against the Sharks. And, yes, short a few chompers, he may hear about endorsement deals with Big Red gum or The Gap.

But if that puck had veered an inch, catching Keith in the eye or nose or throat, the Hawks might be trying to win a Stanley Cup without their Norris Trophy nominee on defense. Then there would be a lot more grinding of the teeth going around.

"In a lot of ways, I was lucky because it hit my teeth," Keith said Tuesday after the Hawks returned to the ice to prepare for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals versus the Flyers on Saturday.

"I was lucky enough that it didn't even break my lip or let alone break my nose or anything of that magnitude. … I'm missing some teeth, but probably a lot better this way than breaking something else.""