A year has come and gone since former NHL player Adam Johnson was killed after having his throat slashed by an errant skateblade during a game in England and yet a majority of players in hockey’s best league are still resisting the recommendation to wear neck protection.
Defenseman Travis Sanheim is one of the few Flyers to embrace protective, kevlar-infused gear to ward off the risk of a possible fatal accident.
He’s as puzzled as anyone as to why a player would not want to at least try some sort of device that not only lessens the possibility of a life-threatening piece of sharp-edged metal doing damage but also the danger from high-powered pucks and wildly-swung sticks.
Estimates by league officials currently have less than 10 percent of players wearing neck-protection equipment.
The same holds true for wrist protection, where veins are exposed if a glove happens to be too short.
If players are conflicted about experimenting with the new stuff, Sanheim will be more than willing to offer positive thoughts.
“What I’m wearing is comfortable, I’m not sure about other guys,” he said. “Maybe they just haven’t tried it. I know it’s available. I would like to see more guys use it.
“Obviously it’s unfortunate with what took place (with Johnson). If we can avoid that as fast as we can, I’m not sure why guys wouldn’t wear it.”
The American Hockey League recently made neck protection mandatory for its newly arriving players and some say its only a matter of time until the NHL follows suit.
Sanheim wears not only protection on his neck and wrists but also cut-resistant material down the inside of the gear below his waist.
“You get used to it,” he said. “It’s comfortable for me. More importantly, hopefully, I’m a lot safer out there.”
One gets the impression hockey veterans get set in their ways. After all, it took years before players accepted helmets, with the last holdout, Craig MacTavish, finally calling it a day in 1997.
It’s been just as tough making eye protection mandatory.
The league finally issued a mandate back in 2013-14, but like helmets, grandfathered the legislation in.
So, more than 10 years later, there are still five eyeshield holdouts: Toronto’s Ryan Reaves, Dallas’ Jamie Benn, Minnesota’s Zach Bogosian, the New York Islanders’ Matt Martin and Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly.
“Some guys don’t like changing things,” Sanheim said. “That includes neck protection. “Sometimes they don’t like the way it feels. The movement and all that stuff. My answer to that would be just wear it for a week and you would be used to it. It would feel normal.
“As I said, I would like to see more players jump on board.”
Over the past year, some players have walked up to Sanheim and asked for his opinion on the matter.
“I know last season, there were guys asking me what I was wearing,” Sanheim said. “Whether I like it. You can see now Travis Konecny is wearing it as well.”
A recent article in The Athletic pointed out some of the upper-body close-calls in recent years.
According to The Athletic piece, Chicago Blackhawks center Jason Dickinson was involved in incidents on both sides of the dangerous situation.
Two seasons ago, he caught a skateblade to the collarbone in a game against the Vegas Golden Knights, terrifying to say the least but an incident which could have been a lot worse.
On the flip side, he nearly took out the eye of Boston center Jakub Lauko while falling into the boards.
Former Flyer defenseman Chris Therien knows all about the dangers of leaving the neck area exposed to danger.
Back on Jan. 29, 2000 during a game in Montreal, Therien wound up to take a hard shot from the point as the Canadiens’ Trent McCleary dove in front of the puck’s trajectory. The hard-rubber object caught him squarely in the throat.
In his book, “Road to Redemption,” Therien describes the helpless feeling of watching another player fall to the ice, struggling to breathe.
“He had a fractured larynx, and as they performed an emergency tracheotomy, his lung had collapsed,” Therien recalled later. “I was devastated when I heard that. Nobody wants to see anything like that happen to anyone. It’s one of the most difficult times I’ve ever gone through in professional sports.”
Fortunately, years later, the two men spoke and cleared the air.
If neck protection had been mandatory at the time, perhaps that incident might not have been so gruesome.
It is something to keep in mind, though, when weighing the merits of added equipment.
“You can’t control what’s going on out there,” Sanheim said. “Sometimes there are sticks, skates flying everywhere. I’ve had close calls as well. I think just the thought of being safer and trying to avoid those situations as much as you can is a wise approach.
“Things are still going to happen. But if we can try to avoid them, make this sport safer, I’m not sure why we wouldn’t.”
Defenseman Travis Sanheim is one of the few Flyers to embrace protective, kevlar-infused gear to ward off the risk of a possible fatal accident.
He’s as puzzled as anyone as to why a player would not want to at least try some sort of device that not only lessens the possibility of a life-threatening piece of sharp-edged metal doing damage but also the danger from high-powered pucks and wildly-swung sticks.
Estimates by league officials currently have less than 10 percent of players wearing neck-protection equipment.
The same holds true for wrist protection, where veins are exposed if a glove happens to be too short.
If players are conflicted about experimenting with the new stuff, Sanheim will be more than willing to offer positive thoughts.
“What I’m wearing is comfortable, I’m not sure about other guys,” he said. “Maybe they just haven’t tried it. I know it’s available. I would like to see more guys use it.
“Obviously it’s unfortunate with what took place (with Johnson). If we can avoid that as fast as we can, I’m not sure why guys wouldn’t wear it.”
The American Hockey League recently made neck protection mandatory for its newly arriving players and some say its only a matter of time until the NHL follows suit.
Sanheim wears not only protection on his neck and wrists but also cut-resistant material down the inside of the gear below his waist.
“You get used to it,” he said. “It’s comfortable for me. More importantly, hopefully, I’m a lot safer out there.”
One gets the impression hockey veterans get set in their ways. After all, it took years before players accepted helmets, with the last holdout, Craig MacTavish, finally calling it a day in 1997.
It’s been just as tough making eye protection mandatory.
The league finally issued a mandate back in 2013-14, but like helmets, grandfathered the legislation in.
So, more than 10 years later, there are still five eyeshield holdouts: Toronto’s Ryan Reaves, Dallas’ Jamie Benn, Minnesota’s Zach Bogosian, the New York Islanders’ Matt Martin and Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly.
“Some guys don’t like changing things,” Sanheim said. “That includes neck protection. “Sometimes they don’t like the way it feels. The movement and all that stuff. My answer to that would be just wear it for a week and you would be used to it. It would feel normal.
“As I said, I would like to see more players jump on board.”
Over the past year, some players have walked up to Sanheim and asked for his opinion on the matter.
“I know last season, there were guys asking me what I was wearing,” Sanheim said. “Whether I like it. You can see now Travis Konecny is wearing it as well.”
A recent article in The Athletic pointed out some of the upper-body close-calls in recent years.
According to The Athletic piece, Chicago Blackhawks center Jason Dickinson was involved in incidents on both sides of the dangerous situation.
Two seasons ago, he caught a skateblade to the collarbone in a game against the Vegas Golden Knights, terrifying to say the least but an incident which could have been a lot worse.
On the flip side, he nearly took out the eye of Boston center Jakub Lauko while falling into the boards.
Former Flyer defenseman Chris Therien knows all about the dangers of leaving the neck area exposed to danger.
Back on Jan. 29, 2000 during a game in Montreal, Therien wound up to take a hard shot from the point as the Canadiens’ Trent McCleary dove in front of the puck’s trajectory. The hard-rubber object caught him squarely in the throat.
In his book, “Road to Redemption,” Therien describes the helpless feeling of watching another player fall to the ice, struggling to breathe.
“He had a fractured larynx, and as they performed an emergency tracheotomy, his lung had collapsed,” Therien recalled later. “I was devastated when I heard that. Nobody wants to see anything like that happen to anyone. It’s one of the most difficult times I’ve ever gone through in professional sports.”
Fortunately, years later, the two men spoke and cleared the air.
If neck protection had been mandatory at the time, perhaps that incident might not have been so gruesome.
It is something to keep in mind, though, when weighing the merits of added equipment.
“You can’t control what’s going on out there,” Sanheim said. “Sometimes there are sticks, skates flying everywhere. I’ve had close calls as well. I think just the thought of being safer and trying to avoid those situations as much as you can is a wise approach.
“Things are still going to happen. But if we can try to avoid them, make this sport safer, I’m not sure why we wouldn’t.”
