A brand new push for hockey neck guards : NPR

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A tragic hockey accident in October reinvigorated conversations about whether or not hockey gamers ought to put on neck guards. Within the coming months, each the NCAA and the NHL will talk about whether or not to mandate the gear. Not everyone seems to be satisfied there is a want, however advocates and corporations are forging forward creating the protecting gear. Evan Casey of Wisconsin Public Radio studies.

EVAN CASEY, BYLINE: At College of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Panther Area, the Milwaukee Admirals are chasing hockey pucks on the ice throughout a crew apply. Gamers are carrying helmets, visors, shin pads and ponderous hockey gloves. Most aren’t carrying neck guards, however two are, together with veteran Kevin Gravel.

KEVIN GRAVEL: I believe everybody, on the finish of the day, needs to do what they will to guard themselves, and proper now, carrying a neck guard is, I believe, useful for how briskly the sport is and what – you realize, what can occur on the ice.

CASEY: Admirals defenseman Adam Wilsby is from Sweden, the place neck guards are already obligatory. He grew up carrying one. And now he would not even discover it is on most video games.

ADAM WILSBY: Probably not, probably not – you are so targeted on the sport, so that you type of simply do not consider it.

CASEY: Everybody within the hockey world is aware of about Adam Johnson, the previous NHL participant and Minnesota native who died final October after a skate slash his throat throughout a sport. In 2022 a excessive schooler in Connecticut, Teddy Balkind, additionally died from an analogous damage on the ice. Neither have been carrying neck guards. Advocates say the gear needs to be worn by all gamers and made obligatory by professional leagues. Erik Martinson is a chairperson of the Ice Hockey Guidelines Committee for the NCAA. That committee, which oversees school groups, recommends gamers put on neck guards, and Martinson says they will be discussing a potential mandate within the coming months.

ERIK MARTINSON: Are neck guards the reply or not? These are the issues that we’re speaking by means of throughout the committee.

CASEY: Within the meantime, corporations are on the brink of fill any orders.

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CASEY: A seamstress working for Wisconsin-based Skate Armor is stitching and reducing cloth and rubber tabs as she creates a neck guard.

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CASEY: Proprietor and hockey mother Terry Weiss says gross sales exploded following Johnson’s demise. She thinks the gear needs to be obligatory for all gamers.

TERRY WEISS: In case you have a look at a hockey participant’s ensemble – their uniform, principally – each a part of their physique is roofed, even when it is simply by a bit of material, apart from the neck. And that is probably the most susceptible half, actually, that’s uncovered – utterly uncovered.

CASEY: Nonetheless, it might take some convincing. A USA hockey survey revealed 27% of neck lacerations occurred to gamers who already had neck guards on. Charles Popkin has been round hockey all of his life. He is a marketing consultant for G8RSkin Ice, a brand new neck guard firm. He says gamers are sometimes hesitant to put on new security gear on the ice.

CHARLES POPKIN: Hockey’s, you realize, been just a little reluctant on possibly a few of the common sense security stuff – takes just a little bit longer to set in or implement.

CASEY: That is lengthy been a problem in hockey. Helmets weren’t even mandated within the NHL till 1979. And NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says any mandate would require approval from the gamers’ affiliation.

GARY BETTMAN: We’re working cooperatively with – there’s plenty of learning that is been occurring. I believe finally, we might get there.

CASEY: That dialogue will proceed on into the brand new yr in an effort to stop any extra tragic accidents on the ice. For NPR Information, I am Evan Casey in Milwaukee.

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