Having been on skates many, many times in my life, losing an edge is never fun.  Your ankle gets twisted, you fall awkwardly, people point and laugh at you until their voices are hoarse.

Trust me, it can be traumatizing losing an edge on your skate.

But it can always be worse.  At least I never suffered the indignity of losing an edge and having my junk meet the unforgiving steel post of  the net, like this poor bastard here did.

WHL linesman Derek Nernberg raced in to clear up a post-whistle scrum, but his skate lost an edge en route and the resulting fall must have felt as painful as it looked.

Video of Nernberg’s untimely slip follows the jump…

Seeing that Nernberg jumped up and got right back into the action like nothing happened makes me think that linesman, in the WHL at least, are big fans of protective cups.

[H/T to Hot Clicks]