National Hockey League’s Research and Development Camp ready to implement new safety innovations
Keeping in view the alarming situation of player injuries and concussion which have been on the rise for over the last past few seasons, the National Hockey League’s (NHL) research and development wing are ready to implement a few of their new safety innovations
for next season after a well planned out thinking and testing phase.
Other than a number of injuries which rattled the major league last season was one very much noticeable and had all sorts of people involved, off the ice and on it as well.
The well known incident was between Montreal Canadiens young forward, Max Pacioretty, and Boston Bruins' captain, Zdeno Chara.
Chara had taken Pacioretty into the side boards and drove him at a high speed into the turnbuckles, which after being taken to the hospital, resulted in the Montreal's player's season being ended due to a severe concussion and fractured vertebrae. His status
is still unclear on when he will rejoin his team next season.
In order to prevent and nearly eliminate such incidents, the R&D development camp of the NHL have manufactured a curved-glass system, which will replace the padded turnbuckles situated at the end of each player bench along the side boards.
"The curved glass came into that area because when we went to a safety engineer he clearly said that termination point is an abrupt end and we can't have an abrupt end", NHL Facilities Operations Manager Dan Craig said.
The interesting aspect about the glass in that it would create a type of natural padding and will deflect the player back onto the ice instead of creating a hard physical impact on a specific spot.
"So, if by chance we do have a player hit that curved glass, it collapses about an inch and a half and then comes back into position", Craig said. "Not only do you deflect, but you deflect and there is a cushioned impact".
Along with the curved-glass system, which is set to be put on in every arena around Canada and the United States, various rule changes and tweaks to game-play are also being tested, in order to make the game not only more exciting but safe for those who
play it.
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