Alex Evin knows what it feels like to have his exposed neck stepped on by a hockey player wearing skates.
It happened to the Prince George Spruce Kings head coach when he was a 17- or 18-year-old goalie playing for the Powell River Kings in a B.C. Hockey League game.
Fortunately, Evin was not cut by the blade, but the incident prompted some soul-searching and he started wearing a turtleneck he folded down to create a double layer of protection and he wore that through the rest of his junior career and in his four seasons playing college hockey at Colgate University.
“I was lucky, I got a skate on the neck and it didn’t cut me or anything but it definitely made me more aware of wearing some protection at the time,” said Evin.
Last week, in the wake of the death of former NHL forward Adam Johnson, who died after his neck was slashed by a skate Oct. 28 while playing for the Nottingham Panthers, the Spruce Kings took delivery of 27 neck protectors which the players will wear whenever they are on the ice.
The Spruce Kings became one of the first B.C. Hockey League teams to require neck guards and Evin obviously think that’s a good idea. The 36-year-old coach knows how close he came to a serious injury had that skate cut a vein or artery, as happened to Buffalo Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk during a game against the St. Louis Blues in 1989.
After learning of Johnson’s death Spruce Kings general manager Mike Hawes found a local supplier of cut-resistant Kevlar neck protectors at about $40 each and the order arrived four days later. The players wore them during their weekend games against the West Kelowna.
Most Kings players also wear protective underwear made of cut-resistant Kevlar material that covers their torso and limbs.
“I support it, and credit to the organization that we have our GM on top of it,” said Evin. “It’s unfortunate that something bad had to happen for hockey to make it more mandatory. I think it just takes some thought out of it. Now that you put a neck protector on it just takes a lot of worry and a lot of thought out of it.
“It happens a lot more that we see, I guess, I’m sure lot of players that played a long time have had a close call somewhere in their lives.”
Two weeks ago the Western Hockey League followed the lead of the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hocley League and made neck protection mandatory for all players. Haws expects that will happen soon in the BCHL.
“I anticipate our league mandate it,” said Hawes. “The issue right now is some teams are having trouble sourcing neck guards because they’ve become high-demand items worldwide.
“In the hockey world, cuts to the neck are more prevalent than people think, they do occur. Fortunately most of them don’t end up in tragedy the way it did in England.”
The Spruce Kings return to game action tonight (Wednesday, Nov. 15) at Kopar Memorial Arena against the Coquitlam Express (7 p.m. start).
The Kings are coming off a weekend split on home ice against the West Kelowna which started Friday with a 3-1 win over the Warriors Friday and 3-1 loss in the rematch Saturday.
That dropped the Spruce Kings’ record to 4-8-3-0, seventh in the Interior Conference.
Coquitlam (7-6-0-1) ranks fifth in the Coastal Conference. The Express has won three of its last four games.
