Pokecheque wrote:
Chris18 wrote:
After a former Penguin, playing in England, died yesterday from a skate cut to his neck, I wonder if the NHL or other leagues will start to enforce neck guards. Every time one of these things happens, I put my neck guard into my bag. But if I'm honest, I haven't actually worn one since shortly after the Clint Malarchuk incident. They are so uncomfortable and keep in so much frigging heat. I also don't know if they would really work. I was at a youth league meeting with a guy throwing a shit fit that they don't work. To prove his point he pulled out a commonly used neck guard and a pair of scissors, and he cut it in front of everyone. The league board members just said "and yet, they can slow the skate blade's progress through to the neck, so they're still mandatory."
I don't know if cuts are happening more often because of skates being sharper, more collisions, more hockey in general, or we just hear about it more easily in the day of internet news vs word of mouth back in the day. But I feel like we hear about skate cuts pretty often anymore.
I think they're definitely sharper now that you can change blades out and dispose (which I absolutely hate BTW). Also the added speed and athleticism of today's players is adding to the danger.
And that fucking demonstration was bullshit. In no way does a skate blade behave like a pair of scissors. He should've at least tried cutting through it with a knife.
Agreed all around. Just the sheer size of players now, the speed of the game. Do teams really throw away the blades after a use or two? That's disgusting if so. I know Crosby gets a fresh pair after each shift, which I think is ridiculous. The equipment managers must hate these modern players.
They probably spend most of the evening sharpening. Probably have like 25-30 pairs/player ready to go for each game.
The demonstration- some of these coaches care far more about their players having any advantage over safety. This guy was saying neckguards are useless, restrict head mobility, "weigh down the player" with sweat (I actually laughed out loud and he glared at me, which only made me laugh more), etc. Side note- his org was kicked out of the league at the end of that year or the year after. Illegal recruiting, which tells you all you need to know about a guy coaching 14U hockey. They aren't going to the NHL but he tried to sell them the dream that he could get them there. I don't think he ever produced a D1 player.