player safety

[RWAH]

A little thing I saw on "buzzing the Net" Think it would have the player being hit at the minimum in better posture and help reduce injury. Wont stop hits from behind but may reduce injuries all your thoughts

Most initiatives to reduce dangerous checks — head shots, hits from behind — puts the onus on changing the behaviour of the checking player. That is all well and good, but part of making hockey safer involves deterring players from risky acts, which is hard to do in a sport so fast-moving.

Now two New England prep schools, prompted by a eureka moment from Tom Smith, a former high school player whose life was altered by a spinal cord injury, are trying something new. The brainstorm: paint a 40-inch warning track around the perimeter of the ice surface, helping players strengthen their bearings and improve their posture when they are in a vulnerable position, three feet out from the boards.

From Michael Rosenberg:


It's called a “look up line” and is meant to be a visual cue to players – a sort of warning track – to look up when crashing into the boards, a safer play than ducking down, that could prevent broken necks and paralysis.

"If you see orange, pick your head up," said Smith.

Smith has faced-off against push-back in some circles. There is concern that the game may somehow be impacted.

"There is some resistance just because it's new," said Smith. "But we have not heard an educated response as to why we shouldn’t do this."

The 'look-up line' extends 40 inches from the base of the boards.

It’s been installed at two schools, Phillis Academy Andover and Pingree, and by October it should be in more than 100 rinks across 15 states. (WBZ Boston)

Needless to say, one would need to see this innovation in practice to determines its efficacy. It is something simple and uncomplicated, though, and it only requires having arena staff paint a portion of the ice surface orange, so it's hard to imagine why it would be cost-prohibitive.

The WBZ article says two U.S. prep schools have added the look-up line "and by October it should be in more than 100 rinks across 15 states." If there is a demonstrated drop-off in injuries caused by checks from behind, there's no reason to think it might not spread throughout North America.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.

[Fight Guy]

My honest opinion...it looks stupid as hell and is too much. Had to look it up before making an educated response, and from what I see, it's just too much.

Look-up-line news story... (http://www.citynews.ca/2014/06/17/gthl-to-consider-look-up-lines-along-boards-at-hockey-rinks/)

Maybe if it were a narrow line, goal line width or so, 40 inches out it would look less ridiculous. That orange section around the whole rink though? This could maybe be good for younger kids in minor hockey though.

[SectionNDeserter]

The aesthetics of the whole thing are irrelevant if it improves player safety. But does it? Players that have been playing the game for a long time should know how far away from the boards they are, and if someone drills them from behind, them looking up before it happens likely means the difference between a compression fracture of the spine, and a flexion-distraction fracture. Neither of these scenarios is ideal.

[chopper]

I have feelings both ways. I agree with Fight Guy that in it's present form it's too much. Combined with the advertising etc, enlarged face-off circles, larger trapezoid, it's too much. However if they were to paint it in a "striped pattern" or some form of "checkered pattern" I could be inclined to look at it. This way you could still follow the puck along the boards easily The linesmen would find it harder on calls, so there would need to be gaps. A striped or kiss-cross pattern would at least let one see a little bit of ice.

The question remains is whether or not this will have an effect. The risk is that over a period of time players will start to view this a part of the ice surface, and basically forget it's true purpose. The next step would likely be to make any hit within the orange zone a penalty? I'm for any initiative that truly makes a difference to player safety. The question is; will it really? OR are we just mucking up our game. I long ago felt making our arena "Olympic size" would do more to reduce injuries. Seats and money trump aLL else.

[patsdude114]

I for one have zero problems with this being put on to the ice for minor hockey where players are still small kids and safety still needs to be the #1 goal for any game involving kids. You will never see this in the CHL or the NHL though, for that players just need to respect one another a lot more on the ice when it comes to the dangerous types of hits. No hit is that important if it means checking a guy from behind.

I for one am in favour of making the ice abit bigger but not to the size of the Olympic sized rink, an addition 5ft in width and length would create more space for offensive players to move more safely.

Right now the current dimensions are 85ft x 200ft for 17,000sq ft

adding 5ft width and length would be 90ft x 205ft for 18,450sq ft

that's almost 1500 sq ft in added space, more space should add up to being more safer both in the NHL and minor hockey leagues. Lets face it players have gotten so much bigger in todays game and even more faster but yet the ice surface has not changed. I feel strongly that the European ice surface is far to big and the North American ice surface is far to small, imo somewhere in the middle seems abit right.

European ice dimensions are 98ft x 210ft for 20,580sq ft


I guess my bigger question is with the ice cooling system under the concrete how much further does it expand past the boards and what sort of changes would be needed if it needs to be expanded more??? which all costs money to bust up concrete to add in the required extra cooling, and then of course taking out at least 1 row of seats that are currently up against the glass. The look at a lot of these buildings are booked up year round with concerts and other events how much time is needed to do that type of construcition if its needed.

No wonder why the NHL has never seriously looked at making the ice surface bigger