SUNRISE, Fla. — After a 20-minute period of hockey, the sheet of ice looks like the face of a 100-year-old man. The playing surface is an intricate pattern of grooved cuts with deep indentations.

If the edge of a skate blade, propelled by the weight and force of prime-conditioned athletes, can slice through hard ice with ease, imagine how fast it can move through human skin and muscle tissue. Hockey players know all too well, living with the knowledge they play a sport a razor’s edge away from a potentially horrific accident.

There never has been a fatality in the NHL because of a cut by a skate — somehow Clint Malarchuk survived having his jugular vein severed 20 years ago when he was a goalie for Buffalo — but gruesome injuries are an almost annual occurrence.

“To be honest, I’m amazed there haven’t been more incidents like mine,” Malarchuk said by phone from his home in Nevada. “I still cringe whenever I see a skate come up. They’re going to cut whatever’s in their way.”

On Feb. 10, 2008, Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik had an external carotid artery sliced by a skate from teammate Olli Jokinen, who had been upended. Zednik’s artery was not severed, but he lost five units of blood and needed emergency surgery. He eventually made a full recovery.

Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson was in net for the Panthers when it happened, and he’ll never forget it.

“You saw the blood coming down on the ice from the neck and you knew it was bad. We finished the game, but it was tough. It was kind of a slow-motion game after that,” said Anderson, who will start tonight against his former team at Bank Atlantic Center.

In a playoff game last spring against Detroit, Chicago forward Adam Burish had his throat cut by the skate of teammate Ben Eager. Cuts to other body parts from skates — often to calves and thighs — happen routinely. Carolina goalie Cam Ward has been sidelined since Nov. 8 after a skate from Columbus’ Rick Nash sliced his leg. Former Avs goalie Jose Theodore sliced through the thigh of Anaheim’s Corey Perry in 2008, causing surgery and a six-week absence. Hall of Famer Dave Andreychuk — on the ice when Malarchuk suffered his injury — once suffered a gash in his back from a skate.

“I really didn’t even know I was cut or hurt until I got into the dressing room, and my pants were full of blood,” Andreychuk recalled. “It was such a fine cut that I really didn’t even feel it at first.”

Quick thinking by staff

Malarchuk certainly felt his wound, and wondered how he would survive getting off the ice when on March 22, 1989, he had the jugular vein along the left side of his neck severed by the skate blade of St. Louis Blues forward Steve Tuttle. As blood gushed onto the ice, Malarchuk was convinced he would soon die. And he would have if not for the heroic actions of the Sabres’ trainer, Jim Pizzutelli, a former U.S. Army medic.

Tuttle was knocked into the net by Sabres defender and former Avs player Uwe Krupp, and the Blues forward’s left skate diagonally passed through Malarchuk’s exposed jugular. Pizzutelli immediately raced to the ice and applied pressure with his fingers to the wound.

“I remember thinking, ‘God, you’re choking me, let go!’ ” Malarchuk said. “But he saved my life doing that. I was lucky because the play happened down by our player entrance, so it wasn’t far to the dressing room. The only thing I remember after that was another doctor coming in and leaning right over me on a table, with his chest right in my face, and applying a lot harder pressure to the cut area.”

Said Andreychuk: “I was only five feet away when it happened, and I remember we both looked at each other in the eyes right after it happened. Then you saw the blood. I remember seeing people throw up (in the stands). It was traumatic for all of us. We ended up playing the game out and we lost, and nobody cared. The game should have been stopped.”

Trauma runs deep

Malarchuk eventually recovered, and he played seven more years of pro hockey. But the emotional wounds took far longer to heal. Malarchuk grew up with an abusive father, and the throat injury created an added emotional trauma he tried masking with alcohol and prescription pills.

Last year, at home in Nevada, Malarchuk — then the goalie coach with Columbus — grabbed a gun after a day of “drinking and self-medicating.” He doesn’t call it a suicide attempt because he wasn’t in a clear state of mind, but he put a bullet through his face. He survived and maintains he’s now clean of drugs and alcohol with the help of a therapist. He’s no longer coaching hockey.

“I was like a lot of guys. I thought I could just get back out there (on the ice) and everything was fine. I dealt with the physical part, but didn’t deal with the emotional stuff at all,” Malarchuk said.

His therapist helped turned his life around, he said.

“Things started to click, and I really started to reflect back on my life. Now, I feel like I’m ready to help others.”

As for the issue of skate danger, Malarchuk said, “They haven’t gotten any less sharp, and I just hope nothing as serious ever happens as what happened to me.”

Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com

Razor sharp

Notable skate-blade injuries in the NHL:

1989 Buffalo goalie Clint Malarchuk suffers severed jugular vein in neck from errant skate blade of St. Louis Blues forward Steve Tuttle.

1997 Avalanche captain Joe Sakic suffers lacerated calf tendons after cut from skate of Philadelphia’s Dale Hawerchuk.

2008 Anaheim’s Corey Perry has right quadriceps tendon severed from skate of Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore.

2008 Florida’s Richard Zednik suffers laceration to carotid artery after errant skate blade from teammate Olli Jokinen.

2009 Carolina goalie Cam Ward suffers lacerated leg muscles from skate of Columbus’ Rick Nash.