Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun was the victim of teammate Keith Ballard's angry stick. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Associated Press)

Some people try to make a mark in the world with their sharp wit. Some use their smashing good looks to their credit. Even more depend on heart and determination. A few use, ahem, some semblance of a sense of humour.

And others? Well, they injure their teammates. To each his own.

Admittedly, you never want to be "that guy." You know, the one who makes others want to duck and cover when he enters the locker room. The guy who has to say, "Dude, I promise I won't hit you in the face with the puck" during every practice drill, power play, or stick-based charity function.

But through no fault of their own — or maybe through a lot of fault on their own — that's exactly who some people become.

Here are a few NHL players who are probably not at the top of the list to run the gas grill at team barbecues:

Bryan Allen — Florida Panthers

Specialty: Concussions due to horribly mistimed bodychecks

Remember those cartoons where the good guy is being chased by a bunch of bad guys, and fools them by making them run into each other, causing chaos, confusion and hilarity?

That's kind of what happened when Florida's Allen tried to hit the Oilers' Robert Nilsson in early December. Except that it didn't end in hilarity — especially for Gregory Campbell, unless you think massive headaches are hilarious. I don't judge.

Allen had Nilsson lined up in his sights like a certain coyote on an infamous animal of the avian variety. That's when Nilsson pulled a roadrunner and darted out of the way of Allen's shoulder, leaving Allen zooming like an Acme rocket right at Campbell, who was trailing Nilsson on the play.

Luckily, an unsuspecting Campbell managed to soften the impact. With his face. Which was the first part of his body to make contact with Allen's shoulder. If you listened hard enough, you could almost hear someone say "Beep beep!"

The injury looked bad, but Campbell missed only a week of action with a mild concussion.

Dennis Seidenberg — Florida Panthers

Specialty: Pucks to the legs, fired at high speed.

Three quick facts about hockey pucks: They can be fired at high velocity by large people with large sticks; they are made out of hard vulcanized rubber; they are incapable of rational thought, and deal out punishment evenly to all, without pity or remorse.

Within two days, Steve Reinprecht and especially Nathan Horton learned these lessons the hard way, via teammate Seidenberg.

Reinprecht was dinged on Jan. 23 during a game against Toronto, when a frozen, emotionless missile off the stick of Seidenberg hit him in the skate. It was undoubtedly painful, but Reinprecht only ended up missing one period.

When coming off the stick of Dennis Seidenberg, hockey pucks show no remorse. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Horton? Not so lucky. A puck without pity travelled off Seidenberg`s stick and smacked Horton in the leg so hard that it left him with a fracture. Horton has been out ever since — almost three weeks, and it’s an injury that takes at least a month to heal. He’s still tied for the team lead in scoring.

The worst part? It wasn’t even a slapshot that felled Horton — Seidenberg hit him with a dump-in.

Probably safe to expect a lot of unscreened shots from the Florida blue-line if Seidenberg is firing the disc.

Keith Ballard — Florida Panthers (noticing a trend?)

Specialty: Using the angry stick

This will remain one of the most bizarre injuries in hockey until someone actually finds a way to unintentionally use his stick as a medieval catapult.

There was Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun on Nov. 30, sitting in his crease, angry that he had stopped Ilya Kovalchuk on a breakaway only to let the Russian sniper score on the rebound.

Well, he definitely wasn’t as angry as Ballard, who accidentally whacked Vokoun in the head with his stick while trying to hit the crossbar in frustration.

Everybody’s seen the video a million times already and commented on it to no end, but the thing is, we’ve all been there before. Everybody’s had a situation where they were the last man back and hustling their buns off, only to get a front-row seat to a goal that is at least partly their fault.

Then they’re frustrated and angry, and the goalpost/crossbar is right there. And it makes a nice satisfying metallic “Ping!” sound when you hit it with your stick.

But that’s when you break your $200 composite stick, and you begin to feel embarrassed and remorseful.

Multiply that by approximately a million and you understand what Ballard was going through as Vokoun lay bloodied in a heap on the ice.

Moral of the story: to conserve sticks and brain cells, we should all try saying a few "Serenity Now"s while dreaming of a pristine lake after every goal our team surrenders.

Mike Fisher — Ottawa Senators

Specialty: Pucks to the head. Of Pascal Leclaire

Remember when I said that hockey pucks deal out punishment evenly amongst the players on the ice, making them a perfect symbol of democracy in action?

Well, that’s true in every case except one: when Ottawa’s Fisher has the puck and goalie Pascal Leclaire is in the same arena.

Nowhere is Leclaire safe from Fisher when he is carrying the puck during a game or training situation. The puck will find him. And then it will hit him in the face.

It found him while he was sitting on the bench during a game on Nov. 23. Fisher tried to fool the puck by dumping it into the Washington zone, but it was too smart for the forward’s tricks. The puck found Leclaire on the bench, breaking his cheekbone and putting him out of the lineup for four weeks.

And then it found him again. This time, it was personal.

During a morning skate on Jan. 14, Fisher and Leclaire were involved in shooting drills, and Fisher barrelled in to take a slapshot on Leclaire.

Guess where the puck went. And guess who was left with a concussion that forced him to miss another three weeks of play.

I have it on good authority (myself) that the Sens are looking into practising simultaneously in two arenas that are across town from each other for the rest of the season.

Special Honour: Florida Panthers

Specialty: Injuring their own players.

If you were paying attention, you would've noticed that three of the four players on this list represent the Kitty Cats of the Sunshine State, earning them special consideration in the field of self-inflicted wounds.

This is by no means a complete list, so make sure you weigh in on this! Which players on the team you root for make you cringe with fear every time they're near a teammate? Who else comes to mind when you think of friends injuring friends?

Brandon Hicks is a senior writer for CBCSports.ca, and knows first-hand the pain of getting hurt by teammates, as his head has been hit by friendly-fire pucks, sticks and hotel doorframes. Though Brandon feels no ill effects from this, his boss still maintains that it "explains a lot."