‘He’s picking up his teeth’: NHL player Paul Stastny drips blood after taking puck to mouth in gruesome injury (DISTURBING VIDEO)

Vegas Golden Knights center Paul Stastny was smashed in the face with a puck and picked his teeth off the blood-stained ice at Montreal’s Bell Center as his team lost to the Canadians.

The 34-year-old was battered by an accidental high stick and a shot from Canadiens forward Joel Armia that left him sprawled on the ice with blood gushing from his mouth.

Stastny had been racing back towards his own goal in a bid to stop Armia, whose attempt came off Stastny’s shoulder and left his face a gory mess.

Armia tried to comfort his combatant as he left the ice, but the veteran bravely shrugged off the horrific injury and accepted a towel from his team's staff to help stem the flow as he headed to the bench with some of his teeth in his glove.

The shocked Sportsnet commentary, which covers the NHL in Canada, told fans: “Stastny is down and he is bleeding.

“That hit him hard... he’s picking up his teeth. That caught him right in the mouth.”

Despite going on to score for Vegas, the brutal nature of the night continued for Stastny as his team lost one of the games of the year so far by the tightest of margins.

Canadiens goaltender Carey Price was so frustrated by the Knights’ late comeback to make the game 4-4 that he broke his stick on a post, but Tomas Tatar scored the winning shootout goal to earn the Habs a 5-4 victory.

Speaking after the game, new Knights coach Peter DeBoer said he did not have an update on Stastny's recovery.

“I’m hopeful it’s just a bad cut,” he said. “It looks like that so I don’t think it’s anything more.”

DeBoer, who was appointed in controversial circumstances following the axing of Gerard Gallant last week, praised the resilience of Stastny and his teammates.

“I thought our guys battled hard,” he added. “We showed a lot of character. It’s clear there’s a lot of character in that room.”