More can be done to increase hockey safety
On the eve of the first anniversary of Teddy Balkind’s tragic death, Army junior Eric Huss fell to the ice in the second period of a college hockey game against Sacred Heart at Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport.
Huss had been hit by an inadvertent skate in the neck.
Blood flowed on the frozen surface.
This time, however, there would be no obituary.
Army trainer Rachel Leahy was able to get to Huss, compress the injury and, according to spokesman Steve Conn of Sacred Heart, never let go from in front of the bench until Huss was stabilized in the hospital.
You know what they call Rachel Leahy? A hero.
Huss, 23, underwent successful surgery to repair the severe laceration and was scheduled to return to West Point on Friday. This is not good news. This is great news. And how about this? Leahy graduated from Quinnipiac in 2016 with a degree in Athletic Training/Sports Medicine and competed on the acrobatics and tumbling team for four years.
Call Leahy a Hamden Hero.
According to Conn, Huss was not wearing a neck laceration protector. Its use is not mandated by the NCAA, which follows USA Hockey guidelines, and hardly any college players wear them.
We still don’t know if Balkind, 16, was wearing one when he was struck by a skate while playing for St. Luke’s in a junior varsity game on Jan. 6, 2022 at Brunswick School in Greenwich.
The lack of that important piece of information — a year later — is maddening. As a journalist who covered the Balkind tragedy from the start failing to get that answer is a source of professional disappointment in myself.
It will not stop me from again calling for USA
Hockey to mandate neck protectors for young amateur players and eventually extend it to the NCAA.
The harder I pushed for answers in the tragedy — hoping to be a catalyst for change in a sport I love — the more resistance and more of an outsider I felt. I grew so frustrated I stopped asking a few months ago whether or not Balkind was wearing a neck protector.
Playing in a New England Preparatory School Council game, he was not required to do so. There is a photo of Teddy playing for St. Luke’s, sent to Hearst Connecticut Media, where he isn’t wearing one. Given that he was wearing a COVID mask, the photo presumably was taken last season or the previous one, but was not from the day of the tragedy. With officials on the ice, it appears to be taken during a play stoppage or before a period.
Still, there is no room for conjecture or assumption.
In its report, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Hearst Connecticut Media, the Greenwich police did not specifically state if Balkind was wearing a neck protector.
In reaching out to NEPSAC I was directed to its earlier statement that it would share with its community should standards change.
An email to St. Luke’s went unanswered.
A USA Hockey spokesman pointed out it was not a USA Hockey game and said the organization did not know for certain one way or the other if he was wearing one.
The fact that a year after the tragedy there has been no public disclosure is a disservice to the greater good. Frankly, it’s an outrage. Everyone should want this information out there so, collectively, the most information can lead to the best solution for future neck injuries.
People around the world were profoundly impacted by Teddy’s death, including hundreds of thousands of parents deeply concerned about their own hockeyplaying kids and safety of the game. Many bought neck guards.
After Balkind’s death, his friend started a Change.org petition, which now has more than 138,000 signatures for USA Hockey to make neck guards mandatory. Canada and European countries have made them mandatory for young players.
In its annual meeting last January following Teddy’s death, USA Hockey reinforced its recommendation of neck protectors and recommended wearing other gear like cut-resistant socks and sleeves that aims to protect players from skates.
But it stopped short of mandating neck protectors.
And now we have what happened Thursday night in our state only 28 miles away from the Balkind tragedy. The scrutiny must begin again.
The CIAC already mandated neck guards. The Connecticut Hockey Conference, the state’s governing body for USA Hockey, passed a motion in February that required players to wear an unaltered, BNQ certified neck guard beginning last March 1.
Rep. Nicole KlaridesDitria, R-Seymour, a certified sports athletic trainer, introduced legislation to require neck guards for ALL young hockey players in the state. The bill was opposed by the Sports Medicine Committee of the Connecticut State Medical Society, which said there isn’t sufficient medical evidence for its use.
A compromise was found in the House, which unanimously voted to create a task force to study safety in youth athletics, focusing on neck guards, and give its recommendations by Jan. 1. Guess what? The state Senate sent the bill back to a legislative committee before the end of the 2022 session — allowing it to die — in response to the House fixing a top Senate bill. Politics over safety, anyone?
So the bill went in limbo, potentially watered down, and here was state Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor and a physician, who said he had mixed feelings after some medical experts who testified said neck guards can be “more dangerous than helpful.”
Whoa! Separately, after a peer-reviewed research study was published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, USA Hockey did say in 2017 neck protectors have a negative impact on cervical spine range of motion. But can it be more dangerous than helpful? Then why the heck would USA Hockey strongly recommend them?
That study reported 27 percent of the players who sustained a neck laceration were wearing a neck guard and that some neck guards shrank in the wash. If USA Hockey is an outlier, Dr. Michael Stuart, a Sports Medicine Specialist at the Mayo Clinic and volunteer chief medical officer for USA Hockey, told The New York Times in January, it’s because it has done more research than anyone in the world.
Stuart’s son sustained a neck laceration injury while playing at Colorado College. He clearly is invested. I believe him and USA Hockey when they say two-thirds of the neck lacerations require only a bandage, that its organization has done the most advanced study and further research and improved standards testing will better determine effectiveness.
Yet when a life is potentially at stake why not err a little with caution? Yes, neck protectors can be uncomfortable. No, they aren’t 100 percent foolproof. With neck cuts, a millimeter here or there on the neck also can be the difference between a scratch and death.
As far as comfort, why not mandate neck guards for all through high school and grandfather a rule over the next four years to cover college? That’s essentially what the NHL did with helmets many years ago.
My gut tells me liability is involved in USA Hockey recommending and not mandating. What if a kid is cut wearing a neck guard incorrectly or it’s somehow altered or shrunk?
The issue for USA Hockey is whether to mandate a piece of equipment that is still being perfected. At some point can’t we agree that something short of perfect, something that can save lives, should be more than a strong recommendation. Yet when a life is potentially at stake why not err a little with caution? Yes, neck protectors can be uncomfortable. No, they aren’t 100 percent foolproof. With neck cuts, a millimeter here or there on the neck also can be the difference between a scratch and death.