If you were to get on YouTube and type in Clint Malarchuk
the first video to pop up would be titled Worst Hockey Injury Ever. Go ahead and click on the link and, after confirming that you're 18, you will see 55 seconds of the most gruesome injury in sports, a player getting his neck sliced inadvertently by another player's skate.
Malarchuk's injury was in 1989 while he was playing for the Buffalo Sabres. His jugular had been cut by the blade.
This past Sunday, a similar event took place. Richard Zednik, an 11-year veteran for the Florida Panthers, had the misfortune of a skate cutting his carotid artery, narrowly missing his jugular.
While injuries this severe are rare, they do happen, and most players have witnessed an accident similar to it.
Ohio hockey coach Dan Morris was actually in attendance when Malarchuk was injured. When Malarchuk went down, Morris said he remembers not just how much blood was on the ice, but how fast it came.
It's scary how fast the amount of blood comes out of your body Morris said. When your heart rate's at 160 and you get cut it's amazing the amount of blood that comes out. Hockey is a game where
at any given moment
you can lose your life. When something like that happens to Richard Zednik
it brings that back to reality.
Morris has seen his share of injuries from skates cutting people to players getting paralyzed from big hits. He said that while they don't like to talk about it, players and coaches know it's a dangerous game and these freak accidents are a possibility.
But as dangerous as it is, there is no time for caution on the ice. Hockey needs to be played hard and fast or not played at all.
It's scary to see stuff like that happen
senior forward Jim Fuhs said, But
as hockey players
we don't think about getting hurt. There's a saying
'If you think about getting hurt
you are going to (get hurt).'
The Bobcats consider these types of injuries rare. Fuhs said a major accident like Zednik's seems to happen every seven or eight years. But when injuries like this happen, fans are going to ask the obvious question: Can this be prevented?
In foreign hockey leagues and youth leagues, players are required to wear a neck guard. Players and coaches in North America have taken different sides when it comes to this issue.
Ohio's assistant coach Brian Gallagher played in Finland for a couple years where the players wore them.
As a player
