(AP) – The death of American hockey player Adam Johnson following a cut to his neck in England has reignited the debate over the safety of skate blades. The tragedy caused many people in the NHL and other levels to think differently about cut-resistant neck protection. Recent incidents of players cutting their wrists or Achilles tendons have brought some changes. But requiring neck, wrist or leg protection is easier said than done, even in a sport played at high speed with razor blades strapped to players’ feet. It comes with resistance, just like masks, helmets, visors and other protective equipment that took time to be implemented.
It was not until 1979 that the NHL required new players to wear helmets and goalie masks. It wasn’t until 2013 that eye protection visors became mandatory – grandfathered in for veterans, of course. A handful of players still don’t wear them.
Broken jaws, smashed noses and concussions have also not led to full face shields or cages in professional men’s hockey at any level. This week, the death of an American player from a skate blade to the neck during a game in England reignited the debate over cut protection and why more players aren’t wearing it.
That this is a debate might surprise some outside the sport. This should not be the case. Change in hockey tends to be slow, if at all.
Ask players if they have been cut by a skate during an NHL game or practice, and the affirmative answers are surprisingly numerous. Some are well known: Erik Karlsson’s Achilles tendon injury a decade ago and Evander Kane’s slashed wrist last year, for example. The death of a prep school player in Connecticut in 2022 has got people thinking again about safety improvements, and the topic is the talk of the sport this week after Adam Johnson, a former NHL player, died in a British hospital as a result of his cut.
However, it is unlikely to bring immediate change to a sport that stubbornly resists it. The helmet requirement, for example, came 11 years after Bill Masterton became the only NHL player to die as a direct result of injuries sustained on the ice.
“It’s always hard to change,” Philadelphia player-turned-general manager Danny Briere said Wednesday. “Unfortunately, we always wait for something tragic to happen for change to happen. I hope we don’t have to wait for another one.
Neck guards are not mandatory in the NHL, nor are any sort of cut protection for players’ wrists or the backs of their legs, areas that are more vulnerable than the heavily protected shoulders and elbows. Karlsson’s horrific injury prompted more players to try socks made of Kevlar, the synthetic fiber used in making bulletproof vests, and Cutlon, a fabric used in shark-bite-resistant suits.
Some are still reluctant due to concerns about comfort on the ice.
“They feel weird in my skates,” veteran Colorado defenseman Jack Johnson said of the socks before this season. “I wasn’t very happy with how I felt. But I’ve come this far, so I’m going to stick with what works.
Karlsson, now with Pittsburgh, said he wished he had worn cut-resistant socks when a Matt Cooke skate blade sliced his left Achilles tendon in 2013.
“It was probably my injury there that started this trend, because I don’t think anyone really wore it before that,” Karlsson said. “I think most guys just wear them because it’s like a normal sock anyway.”
It seems like almost everyone around hockey has a skate cut story, whether they’ve been stitched up themselves or have seen it happen. Colorado defenseman Josh Manson remembers a cut when he was in juniors.
“I hit a guy and he fell back and kind of kicked me and kicked me in the stomach. I walked into the penalty box and as I was sitting there I kind of felt something burning. So I lifted my shirt and the blood was pouring out,” he said. “It was like taking a sharp knife to a piece of steak and dragging it along it and opening the top a little bit.”
He was stitched up “in the laundry room” and played the rest of the game.
In 1989, Buffalo goalie Clint Malarchuk’s neck was sliced by a skate during a game, and in 2008, it happened to Florida forward Richard Zednik. Both received immediate help from coaches and medical staff and both returned to the game they loved.
Johnson, 29, won’t.
“It’s a game,” NHLPA general manager Marty Walsh said. “It’s a job for the players, but it’s something you don’t want anyone going to work to not coming home.”
Supporters of mandatory neck guards, like Mercyhurst College men’s hockey coach Rick Gotkin, see Johnson’s death as a wake-up call.
“These guys are skating on razor blades,” said Gotkin, whose efforts began in earnest earlier this year after seeing an Army player need surgery for a skate cut on his neck. “You think about the flow of a game: guys ducking, rushing in front of goal and everything else, you can see where it’s something that needs to be addressed.”
TJ Oshie of Washington said he had received more than 100 messages since Johnson’s death about cut-resistant guards his company made, and that Warroad Hockey sold out of its products within hours. He wore a neck guard during the Capitals game Thursday night.
Bauer Hockey has pledged to work with other equipment manufacturers to make neck guards more widely available and ultimately mandatory, as the English Ice Hockey Association did this week.
Mandates exist in some youth programs in the United States, Canada and other countries, but not in the NHL. League and union leaders have been studying cut-resistant materials for years and have renewed discussions about it in light of the tragedy in England.
“Players are free to wear it now,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Whether it’s something that’s mandatory directly or in a phased manner, that’s something we’re discussing with the players’ association.”
When Bettman’s son, Jordan, played high school hockey before the mandates were in place, his wife, Shelli, wouldn’t let him on the ice without a neck guard. Bettman recalled an early practice when Jordan told his mother that the coach said it was intentional, and she responded, “No, it wasn’t.” »
Larry Landon, longtime executive director of the Professional Hockey Players’ Association, feels the same pull as the representative of hundreds of minor leagues and a grandfather, who said of his grandsons: “Will I want them to wear cut resistant clothing? Absolutely. Paint their body with it if necessary.
Walsh wants to have these discussions with his NHL members. It is clear that some attitudes are already changing.
“It’s always a good idea to wear as much cut-protective gear as possible,” said Ross Colton of Colorado, who wears cut-resistant socks pulled up to his knees and protects his wrists with what look like headbands. anti-perspiration. In youth hockey, Colton wore a diaper that closed into a neck gaiter, after his father pushed him to wear it.
Having been sliced in the wrist and knowing his father once took a skate to the neck while playing, Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague felt differently about hoping it was just a one-time fluke.
“It’s really unfortunate that this had to happen just once,” Hague said. “It’s hard. Guys are stuck in their ways.
Sabers captain Kyle Okposo, who wears cut-resistant socks, compared the hockey situation to the on-field collapse of Damar Hamlin of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills as something that inspires players to enjoy their game moments , but don’t stop them from doing it. that to earn a living.
“You play this game and you obviously understand that it has risks,” Okposo said. “It’s incredibly unfortunate. It’s just one of those things as a player, I don’t think you can really let your mind go to that place. I think you just play the game the way you play it.
Carolina captain Jordan Staal has been wearing protective socks for years and is exploring more options to avoid getting cut.
“I had one up my leg, with about 50 stitches, a long time ago,” he recalls. “They said I had a skate very close to my artery, very close. …The big man upstairs was watching me there. I have been very lucky. That’s kind of what we flirt with, and you try to protect yourself as much as possible.
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AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow in Buffalo and AP freelance reporter Willie G. Ramirez contributed.
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