Protective Gear Equals Safety In The NHL

Essay, Research Paper

PROTECTIVE GEAR EQUALS SAFETY IN THE NHL

The NHL should force their players to wear protective gear. Three reasons why protective gear should be worn are: one, it would prevent physical injuries; two, the players would set a good example for the future generations; three, it would take away from the negative aspects of the game. Protective gear helps a somewhat violent game remain as clean as possible.

Wearing protective gear would prevent physical injuries in hockey. There were many hockey players who have worked hard all of their lives to become professional hockey superstars and when they finally got to the NHL, they become injured and were forced to watch the game instead of playing in it. An example of this is Brett Lindros. At the age of sixteen, the New York Islanders drafted Brett in the first round of the entry draft. He played his first NHL game against the Buffalo Sabers when he was eighteen years old. One year later, on February ninth, his whole life came crashing down on him. His lifelong dream to win a Stanley Cup had come to an end. He was hit with a thundering bodycheck into the boards and was knocked unconscious. Soon it was discovered that Brett had a history of concussions that dated back to when he was sixteen years old. The collision forced him to retire at the age of nineteen and spend the rest of his life pondering what was now the fact that he would have to quit in order to live. What actually happened was, when he was hit against the boards, his head hit the glass and that impact forced him to collapse and fall to the ice. He was immediately taken to the emergency room and there the doctors said that they could not examine the severity of the injury so soon. The severity of a concussion depends strictly on how much force is applied to the head and whether it is a head-on or a glancing

blow.1 The following week, doctors told him that he had to stop playing hockey because the

concussion was very severe and there was no way that he could regain his health and play hockey. This gruesome injury could have been avoided if Brett was wearing an approved helmet. The helmet that he was wearing at the time of the injury had no foam on the inside. That foam helps

absorb the impact of a blow to the head. If he had been wearing one, there would have been a huge chance that he could have left the ice with only a mild injury instead of a career ending one. Another example is Brian Berard. His whole career came to an end on March the eleventh when he was playing against the Ottawa Senators. Marian Hossa was taking a slapshot and Berard fell to the ice to block the shot. When the puck was shot, the end of Hossa.s stick struck Berard in his eye. The blow caused a 20-millimeter cut across the eyeball, detached the retina, sliced off the lens, and caused other problems.2 Brian Berard is only twenty-two years old and is forced to finish his career because of his health. All of which could have been avoided if he had been wearing a visor on his helmet. If he had been wearing a visor, Hossa.s stick would have just bounced off the plastic and Berard would still have blocked the shot. It.s very sad to think of all the good people who have been injured while playing this very physical sport of hockey. It is even more heartbreaking to think about all of those whose injuries that could have been avoided if they had just had the proper protection. Brett.s older brother Eric Lindros defines this best. There is no player more valuable to his team than Eric is to the Philadelphia Flyers. But on December fourteenth, his career came to a halt when he was hit with a painful elbow to his head. He was playing against the Florida Panthers when Alex Hicks elbowed him in his face. He got a ten-

1 Levy Allan, Sports Injury Handbook (Toronto: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1985), 49.

2 Ormsby Mary, .Berard Set For Surgery On Eye., Toronto Star, 21 Mar. 2000, D6.

minute major and suspended for 6 games, but the damage had already been done. Eric Lindros had

his most severe concussion. He was unconscious for twelve minutes and when the doctors examined him a few days later, they concluded that he had postconcussion syndrome. Postconcussion syndrome is when a patient experience symptoms such as headache, dizziness, loss

of memory, of the event fatigue, and general weakness. For some people, these symptoms clear up and they feel fine, but the symptoms recur when they become active again.3 Even though Eric had no control over the situation that occurred, if he had been wearing a cage on his helmet, the blow would not have been so severe. Eric will return to playing hockey next season and has told the press that he is thinking about wearing a visor for protection. The game of hockey is one of the most brutal sports in the world. Players who don.t wear the proper protection are leaving themselvers open for injuries. It is better to be safe than to be sorry.

Players who wear approved equipment set a good example for the future generation of hockey players. An example of players setting good examples for children is, if the players of the NHL continue to wear protective equipment, the children watching them will grow up not fearing injuries when they play hockey. Michael Landsburg states, .If the league forces players to wear helmets, they will maintain the stars they have now and the