Former player for the Nottingham Panthers Adam Johnson died at age 29 due to an ice hockey accident on October 28. In response, the English Ice Hockey Association announced that, beginning in 2024, neck protection in ice hockey will become mandatory.
Contact sports, at all levels, have always been proximate with injuries to players. The equipment worn by the players is generally designed to protect the most vulnerable areas of their bodies and, depending on the nature of the sport, the areas that encounter the most impact.
Protecting a player’s head remains the primary focus of officials and rule makers throughout the sports world. Advances in technology have made protective gear more effective against serious brain injuries. In American football, millions of dollars and years of research and development have resulted in more advanced technology and safer equipment, such as helmets and leg and shoulder pads. According to an article on Kids Health’s website (KidsHealth.org), these innovations have improved players’ chances of avoiding concussions in games and suffering from the long-term effects of repetitive impacts to the head.
Ice hockey players, however, are at risk of a unique injury particular to their sport—one with a more immediate and frightening injury than football. During the ice hockey game on Oct. 28, Johnson was fatally injured after another player’s skate blade lacerated his neck, causing a massive loss of blood. “It’s just horrible to know that accidents like this can happen,” said senior Katherine Ferng.
Ice hockey combines moving at high velocity with frequent contact with other players. The piece of metal on the bottom of a skate, aptly called the “blade,” is made extremely sharp in order to keep a player balanced and able to maneuver on the slippery surface of ice. This blade makes skates especially dangerous.
Although Johnson’s death was deemed a “freak accident” in an article on ESPN’s website (ESPN.com) and it is rare that this type of injury is fatal, incidents involving one player’s skate coming in contact with another player are not uncommon. However, the danger is mitigated by the fact that the majority of a player’s body is covered by heavy equipment. Unfortunately, the neck is not covered at all, making it highly vulnerable. In fact, the four carotid arteries carrying the blood supply to the brain are located in a human’s neck, as explained on MedLinePlus’s website (MedLinePlus.gov). One or more of these arteries was lacerated during Johnson’s tragic injury.
Neck guards are essentially just swatches of reinforced yet lightweight material that encircle a player’s neck, typically held together by velcro, also according to MedLinePlus’s website. Although they are not designed to protect the neck from the impact of a stick or a puck, they are extremely effective at protecting soft tissue from a sharp blade moving at high speeds. Sophomore Luke Palazzola explained, “We wear neck guards on my ice hockey team because they make sure we are safe while playing.”
Simply put, Johnson’s injury was avoidable.
As with any piece of equipment, designers must strike a balance between the protection the item offers and players’ ability to move comfortably and efficiently. According to CNN’s website, players share the opinion that neck guards are uncomfortable. This area of the human body, like the head in football, is just too vulnerable to be compromised by the need for comfort. Neck guards for hockey players offer necessary protection and should be worn by all ice hockey players at every level in order to avoid more tragedies in the future. “Neck protection is required in little league hockey. Why not in the Major League?” senior Madeline Diefel questioned.
