NHL Coach Calls for Significant Changes Following the Adam Johnson Tragic Incident

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Dawson Mckenzie
October 30, 2023 (9:46)

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After the tragic accident that occurred to Adam Johnson during a game in England, this NHL coach is calling for the NHL to revise its equipment rules.

Columbus Head Coach Wants Rules Changed to Protect Players' Lives

The tragic accident is spurring a conversation about player safety and whether measures should be taken to prevent an accident like this from occurring again. Pascal Vincent, head coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets, is now demanding that the NHL take a good hard look at its equipment rules.

"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."

Vincent has a point. There really isn't much cost to wearing a neckguard, and the risk of not doing it is about as high as it gets.

AHL Players Already Choosing To Wear Neckguards in Recent Game

In a recent game, many of the AHL's Providence Bruins chose to wear neck guards for protection.

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.

The neckguards, as pointed out, are pretty comfortable and non-invasive unlike how they used to be. We will see whether or not any NHL players themselves decide to wear one moving forward.

As seen on Hockey Feed - "NHL coach demands big changes after Adam Johnson incident.