For most of their opening round-robin game against the St Louis Blues, the Colorado Avalanche drove play but couldn’t score. Then things got dire in the third period when former Caps/current infant-child Andre Burakovsky got popped in the face by Blues forward Ivan Barbashev, putting Burakovsky’s priceless grin in peril.

Burakovsky’s line generated a couple scoring chances early in the third period but could not convert. As the play ended, Burakovsky raced Barbashev towards the puck along the boards. Barbashev won the duel, then Burakovsky got a stick to the face for his troubles.

Video via @zador0v

Burakovsky skated away from the play with a grimace on his face, which was, only moments before, cherubic. The NBC Sports announcers, who were on mute in this reporter’s home but whose words were available through closed captions, mused on possible damage to Burakovsky, who is baby.

“Looks like Burakovsky is injured,” Pierre McGuire said. “He may have lost some teeth.”

Burakovsky, a former model and now an alleged grown-up, did not draw a penalty on the play, but the Avs scored a few minutes later and won the game on a literally last second buzzer beater from Nazem Kadri, whom we like now.

No word yet on the status of Andre’s winning smile. We have our best people working on this story around the clock and will keep you posted.

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Brennin Weiswerda also contributed to this story.