The shot you don’t see coming can leave the biggest scar.

So when Gary Leeman came around after an Al MacInnis slap shot struck just behind his ear, looking up at worried Maple Leaf teammates, on-ice officials and doctors, his first semi-conscious flash was to fear the worst.

“I’d hit the ice, believing ‘This is it, I’m gonna die,’ ” Leeman recounted that night of Oct. 16, 1988. “Those around me said I was making horrifying noises. I was down awhile, struggling to get my bearings. It got pretty traumatic. I knew right then the puck likely cracked my skull.”

He was correct in diagnosing the injury, but fortunately wrong about its finality or it being career-ending. Leeman went on to score 51 goals the next year and eventually win a Stanley Cup with Montreal. But the next six and a half y

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