On New Year's Eve, Tim Jackman broke an orbital bone in his face in a one-sided "fight" with Ottawa's Matt Carkner.
Jackman checked old Islanders teammate Chris Campoli behind the goal right after the first-period buzzer sounded, and Carkner took extraordinary exception, charging Jackman with the timeless and hilarious criminal charge of "looking to cause some ruckus." Jackman, believing that Carkner would get extra penalties for jumping him, took the punches.
Now skating again but without contact, on the official site Jackman described the injury [interview video is after the jump]:
I got punched in my left eye. The punch, the fist hit me directly in the eyeball. So I went to the locker room, I thought I was fine. Then for some reason I had some blood coming out my nose, so I blew my nose, and since this [orbital] bone was broken, the air went into my eye and closed my eye up, and I couldn't play. ... It's just been a waiting process.
That is a lot for the sake of a two-minute powerplay. And that is why, even if I were 6'6" and could trade punches on skates and shout "c'mon boys" with the best of them, there's no way I could be an NHL enforcer.
Blowing blood out my nose, only to find it shooting through a different hole into my eye? No thanks. Suddenly office coffee and Hawaiian Shirt Day doesn't sound so bad.