Death of High School Hockey Player renews debate on neck protection
Expressions of grief after the death of Teddy Balkind, a high school hockey player in Connecticut, have stretched across the ice hockey world, from silent moments before the game in New England to tributes on “Hockey Night in Canada” broadcasts to hockey clubs tenderly placed on porches from Manitoba to Minnesota to Maine.
Balkind, 16 and second at St. Luke’s School in New Canaan, died after a player’s skate blade cut itself in the neck in a collision on ice during a match on Thursday in Greenwich, Connecticut. Such fatalities are rare, but when they do occur they frighten and evoke a powerful “but for God’s grace” feeling, especially among hockey parents. Few know the feeling that Dr. Michael Stuart, chief physician and head of security for USA Hockey, does.
Stuart helped write the organization’s policy on neck protection. He also saw his son suffer a similar injury as a defender at Colorado College 24 years ago. Mike Stuart survived after 22 stitches closed what his father described as an “almost ear-to-ear” stain.
“It could have been the same result for our own son,” the doctor said of Balkind’s injury. “I wish this young man had the injury our son had. This evokes very vivid memories, and this is very close and close to my heart.”
Balkind’s death, a 10th grade, has again focused the review on the use of neck protection in amateur hockey in the United States.
USA Hockey, the national governing body of the sport, recommends players to wear head restraints that cover as much of the neck as possible, but it does not require them to do so, making USA something of an outlier on the international hockey scene, despite having a lot of research on the subject.
The governing bodies of hockey in Canada and Sweden have mandates for neck protection for amateurs, as well as many European leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation.
In the United States, it is up to individual hockey federations and regulators whether players must wear head protection. The result is a patchwork of politics.
Balkinds School, St. Luke’s, and the team’s opponent in the game, Brunswick School, Greenwich, play according to the rules of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council, which does not require players to wear head protection.
In contrast, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which sets rules for high school hockey in the state, but not for preschools, requires all players to wear “commercially made neck braces designed specifically for ice hockey.”
“Every single hockey player in the United States should have one because United States Hockey recommends it,” Stuart said, adding that the establishment of a mandate is a common item on the agenda of the organization’s annual conference – and will certainly do so again – when the conference begins on Thursday. .
“It’s very good that a mandate can come,” Stuart said. “If it can prevent this from ever happening, if it will have any effect, I guess it remains to be seen.”
Head restraints can be the most disliked hockey equipment among players. They are usually made of kevlar or nylon, foam and Velcro, and players, especially children, complain that they are hot and awkward.
It is unclear if Balkind was wearing a headband when he was injured. Michael West, the athletic director at St. Luke’s, and a spokeswoman for the school, Nancy Troeger, declined to comment, saying they were focused on giving their community privacy to mourn.
It is also not clear if a head protection would have prevented his injury.
Still, more than 63,000 people have signed up an online petition started by a friend of Balkind to make neck protection a mandatory equipment.
“It feels like there’s no reason not to have the head protection required in the United States, and it feels like we had to lose a young hockey player to raise awareness about the subject,” said the presenter, Sam Brande of Wayland, Mass. who participated in summer camp with Balkind for several years.
Brande, 16, and a serious hockey player, said he started wearing a headband last week after Balkind died. “Such an injury seemed impossible to me,” Brande said.
Skating injuries are among the most horrific injuries in sports. But they are relatively rare, and skating wounds in the neck are still rare.
A USA Hockey Survey 2008 found that only 1.8 percent of players reported ever being the victim of, or witnessing, a cut to the neck from a skate during play. Thirty-three players who reported being cut in the neck received non-life-threatening wounds. About one in four people who were cut, 27 percent, wore neck protection.
In total, 45 percent of the 26,342 respondents reported that they regularly wear a head protection, according to the survey, which USA Hockey has described as the most comprehensive that has been conducted.
However, the organization later concluded that the survey did not provide enough information to support mandatory neck protection.
“To date, there is little data to describe the prevalence of such an event, the severity or whether a neck wound protection (neck protection) reduces the risk or severity,” reads USA Hockey’s policy on “neck injury protection”.
It also states: “USA Hockey recommends that all players wear a neck wound protection and choose a design that covers as much of the neck area as possible. Further research and improved standard testing will better determine the effectiveness of neck wound protection.”
Since then, USA Hockey has documented 13 incidents of neck wounds caused by skates during the game, or about one a year, according to information from the organization.
The organization’s philanthropic arm, the United States Hockey Foundation, has also funded a handful of studies published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine on various aspects of neck protection, including their efficiency to prevent cuts and their affect a player’s range of motion.
Almost all tested head restraints prevented cuts in low power simulations, but all failed in high power simulations.
“If USA Hockey is an outlier, it’s because we’ve done more research and put more time and effort into trying to make neck ulcers less of a problem than anyone else in the world,” Stuart said. “There is not much other research going on about this.”
Before Balkind’s injury, the two most prominent cases concerned NHL players, both of whom survived.
Buffalo Sabers goalkeeper Clint Malarchuk was cut in 1989 when an opponent’s player, Steve Tuttle from St. Louis Blues, crashed into the finish line and his skate cut Malarchuk’s carotid arteries and cut down his jugular vein.
In 2008, Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik suffered a similar injury when his teammate Olli Jokinen lost his balance during a fight for a loose puck along the boards and his skate got stuck in Zednik’s neck.
1975, another New England schoolboy, the 18-year-old defender James Dragone Jr., bled to death when an opponent’s skate cut itself in the neck during a game in Boston. Almost 3,000 people participated his funeral.
2017, in a girls’ match in Guelph, Ontario, 16-year-old Cassidy Gordon escaped serious injury after another player’s skate hit her in the neck. She wore a headband.
“It can have value in protecting against a sore throat or the severity of a sore throat,” Stuart said. “Even if it is unproven, it certainly has enough logistical feel that USA Hockey recommends it to all players, and if mandating it would even save a potentially catastrophic injury or death, I think USA Hockey would be the one. first to do so. “