Greg MacNeil from Bonderkage details for The Athletic how equipment innovations 'can eliminate skate cuts in hockey forever.'
Greg MacNeil wept when news reached him Sunday morning that former NHLer after having his neck cut by an opponent’s skate blade while playing professionally in England. The incident was described as a “freak accident” in a statement from the Nottingham Panthers — Johnson’s team — but in MacNeil’s eyes, the tragedy was both “100 percent preventable” and “totally unnecessary.
Beyond that, it comes down to education like the kind the NHL initiated in training camps this year when it had all 32 teams show their players a video that included footage of skate-cut incidents and options for protection. Among the clips included was a near-miss where forward got clipped on the neck by a skate last season and came away without injury. Still, no NHL player is known to be regularly wearing a neck guard this season. “Because they’re stubborn,” one NHL equipment manager .