dead news :former buffalo player Adam Johnson died of injuries in a British hospital….
It took the NHL until 1979 to require helmets and goalie masks for new players. Eye protection visors only became mandatory in 2013 – for veterans, of course. A handful of players still don’t use them.
Broken jaws, bruised noses and concussions have not resulted in a full-face guard or cage in professional men’s and hockey at any level. The death of an American player who was hit in the neck by a skate blade during a game in England this week has reignited the debate about cut protection and why more players aren’t wearing it.
That this is a debate may come as a surprise to some outside the sport. It shouldn’t be. Change in hockey is usually slow, if it comes at all. Ask players if they’ve been cut by a skate in an NHL game or practice, and the response is surprisingly high.
Some of them are familiar – like Erik Karlsson’s Achilles tendon injury a decade ago and Evander Kaneand#039’s cut wrist last year.
The death of a Connecticut prep school player in 2022 has reignited concerns about safety improvements and is a sports topic this week after former NHL player Adam Johnson died of injuries in a British hospital. Neither is likely to bring immediate change to a sport that stubbornly resists it. For example, the helmet mandate lasted 11 years and countless head injuries after Bill Masterton became the only NHL player to die from a direct ice injury.
