Bourque

The 39-year-old future Hall of Famer joined his teammates for a morning skate Tuesday, one day after losing three teeth -- roots and all -- to a deflected puck that also split his upper lip.

"Why not?" the Bruins defenseman said when asked why he had come back with his lip still swollen and his stitches still raw.

"It's a long way to my legs. I can skate and I can play," he said. "I would have played yesterday if they'd let me. I guess that wouldn't have been too smart."

In the first period of Monday's 3-3 tie with Atlanta, Thrashers forward Ray Ferraro took a slap shot that deflected off Bourque's stick and under his Plexiglas visor. Bourque fell to the ice, clutching his face.

"You can try to be a tough guy all you want, but that really rockets through the back of your head," defenseman Marty McSorley said. "Sometimes people think it's glamorous. But it's the stuff behind the scenes."

Team doctors tended to Bourque on the ice, before he skated off. He did not return to the game.

"I like the way he stood up and shook off the trainers and said, 'I'll get off on my own,' " Bruins coach Pat Burns said. "Young guys should look at this. He's a competitor. He's one of the old-school guys. And he loves to play the game."

But that comes at a price, and for Bourque the latest toll was 11 stitches closing a Y-shaped cut below his nose, with some more stitches inside his mouth. But the real damage couldn't be seen beneath his fat and purple lip.

"You know what's coming: Probably half a day visiting the dentist," he said. "And that's not much fun."

Bourque said he will look for a gap in the schedule so he can replace the one in his gums. Missing the Feb. 6 All-Star Game in Toronto -- it will be his 18th in a row -- is not an option.

Bourque, who had lost only one or two teeth before Monday, asked that no still or video pictures be taken in the locker room. When a TV cameraman asked if he could aim the camera at Bourque's skates while he talked, he said, "I don't like the way I sound either."

A tour around the Bruins locker room gives a glimpse of what hockey players -- and their dentists -- have to endure. Forward Dave Andreychuk has broken his upper plate twice and all of his upper front teeth are false, and even Burns has lost a couple of teeth.

"It comes around, and once in a while it's your time. It's not fun, but you move on," Bourque said. "A lot of us have broken teeth and end up looking better."

The five-time Norris Trophy winner started wearing a half-visor after getting hit in a forehead by a puck that crushed his sinuses. "That's about as much as you're going to get me to wear," he said.

Some players don't like the full shield because it restricts their vision. Others say wearing a full shield only encourages opponents to carry their sticks high.

If that costs them a few teeth, that's no big deal.

"There is an expectation from your teammates that you suck it up. But a lot of times, your body tells you," McSorley said. But with Bourque: "No one's expecting anything. It just comes from within."

And the captain's lesson isn't lost on his teammates.

"I'm sure a lot of guys are seeing this and realizing you've got to bite the bullet and play," Andreychuk said. "That's where I get it from, passed down from older players."

While playing hurt might be part of hockey's unwritten code, Burns said there are some players who wouldn't have come back so soon.

"We'd have some guys who would have been out a month," Burns said, adding with a sneer, "back spasms?"

Bourque is the NHL's career leading scorer for defenseman with 391 goals, and is second in assists with 1,104. He has said he will decide near the end of the season whether he will return for the 2000-01 season, which would be his 22nd.

The Bruins got a glimpse of their future on Monday when Joe Thornton and Kyle McLaren scored as Boston rallied from a three-goal deficit to tie Atlanta.

Still, Burns is in no rush for Bourque to leave.

"I like what I saw," Burns said. "They are the future, and they have to accept that one day he's not going to be there."