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Jets Former Coach Speaks Out On the Tragic Accident and what the League Must Change


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Tom Banks
October 30, 2023  (4:18 PM)
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The hockey world is still in mourning over the Adam Johnson incident, and after the English Ice Hockey Association made a major change, some players and coaches in North America have made comments too.

A former Jets coach

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Current Columbus Blue Jackets Head Coach and former Winnipeg Jets coach Pascal Vincent is one of those names, as he recently made comment on potential changes to equipment in hockey.
What's the cost?" asked Vincent in wake of the Johnson tragedy. "I mean, you have two eyes. A neck is a very dangerous area. I don't know. I don't know what the cost is. I mean, are we more, we're males and we're strong and we have a lot of testosterones and we want to show it to the world. Yeah. Okay. But what's the cost? When you see this you're wondering, can we prevent the next one? Is there a way to prevent that? And if it's wearing the neck guard or turtle neck guard, I don't know what that is, but why not? Why not? That's how I see it.

While players are often set in their ways, a simple change like this to potentially prevent major injury or even worse makes plenty of sense, but will the NHL or smaller leagues in North America mandate this?

AHL Players making the change

It's highly unlikely they would mandate it anytime soon, but now, we've already seen two key players from the Providence Bruins, Boston's AHL affiliate make the change.
Several Providence Bruins, including John Farinacci and Fabian Lysell, wearing neck guards tonight.

Good for them. In the best interest of the players and leagues to move towards mandatory use. They're pretty noninvasive nowadays, too.
At this point, a small change like adding a neck guard or a turtle neck guard seems like the obvious move, and according to Vincent, it should be made, with player safety needing to be paramount in all situations.

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