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Ryan Reaves requests stronger smelling salts and it goes horribly wrong

There aren't many NHL players who can take Wild enforcer Ryan Reaves down. Smelling salts, however, registered a near-KO on Saturday night.

Be careful what you wish for. As you can see in the video below, Minnesota Wild enforcer Ryan Reaves decided the smelling salts he first received weren’t good enough, and he needed something stronger.

Clearly, Reaves should have asked for something in between.

Reaves told Michael Russo of the Athletic after his team's matinee win over the Blackhawks on Saturday that he “almost puked twice” and still had a headache from his losing battle with especially-potent smelling salts.

In case you ever wondered about the practice, it doesn’t seem like there’s a ton of science behind getting a whiff of ammonia, yet Reaves and plenty of other athletes feel the need to get a pungent jolt from it anyway. Someone even put together a supercut of hockey players reacting to smelling salts.

(There’s even a Part 2.)

An eventful partial season for Reaves with Wild

Cameras focused on Reaves, 36, after he scored his fifth goal with the Wild, and just happened to catch that candid bit of gold.

By his standards, Reaves has picked up his game since being traded earlier this season. After going pointless in 12 contests with the Rangers, he’s now at 14 points in 53 games with Minnesota. He’s registered 24 penalty minutes as well, thanks to the four fights he’s engaged in.

Smelling salts - 1, Ryan Reaves - 0.
Smelling salts - 1, Ryan Reaves - 0. (Sportsnet)

Over a lengthy, scrap-filled NHL tenure, his career-highs sit at nine goals and 20 points. He’d need to pick up the pace (hopefully without overdoing the ammonia) if he were to match those totals, but he’s brought some energy to Minnesota.

Reaves also might just line up a media gig with the way things are going. He’s become a go-to (often shirtless) interview during TNT telecasts, most recently chirping Jordan Binnington about how he wouldn’t dare squirt Reaves with a water bottle.

If he does go that talking-head route, a bit of advice: replace the smelling salts with a safe, psychoactive drug (coffee).