Not much keeps a smile off the face of Montreal Canadiens center Scott Gomez of Anchorage, or a joke from his lips.

So it was that Gomez kidded recently about the actual cause of an injury to teammate Andrei Markov, who suffered a severed tendon in his foot when cut by the skate of Canadiens goalie Carey Price.

Actually, Gomez said, "I knifed him.''

Anyhow, you can read the Canadian Press story about Gomez keepin’ it real here. (Stick salute to colleague Mark Dent for the heads-up -- he's Canadian, so he's on top of this stuff, plus, like Gomez, he's an Airports Heighter).

Anyhow, that's our man Scotty -- straight-up gangsta from Airport Heights, where it's all Thug Life, particularly where Gomez grew up, on the mean streets of, well, Toklat Street. Hey, you think it's any coincidence that Gomez attended and played hockey at East High, which has school colors of red and blue -- you know, like Bloods and Crips.

Of course, actually Gomez is just being his usual smart-ass self, which is one of his charms. Remember, the Mexican-Colombian-American received so much press about his heritage when he joined the NHL in 1999 that he said, laughingly, "sometimes they make it sound like I crossed the border two years ago with a bottle of tequila and a pair of skates and magic worked.''