At the risk of being lectured to again by Mike,  I'd like to expand on
the questions I posed yesterday and to thank Leigh for the response on the
subject.   Those were exactly the sort of comments that we need here.
 
     It's a question of mechanics.   There are proper mechanics for skating,
 proper mechanics for shooting,  proper mechanics for hitting,  and proper
mechanics for taking a hit.   For the latter,  conventional wisdom has it
that if you know you're going to be drilled,  to get right on the boards or
well off them.   Don't ever take a hit in "no-man's land" if you can
possibly avoid it.   And the conventional wisdom is not really any secret.
  It's been embedded in hockey culture since they invented boards.
 
     What I haven't heard much of is how to *deliver* a hit when the target
is just off the boards.   What is currently being taught?   Is that
situation highlighted as a special case (I suspect not)?   If not,  doesn't
it need to be?   Does the approach need to be angled (that last step),  does
the checker need to square up to the target (rather than shoulder to target)
in this situation,  or what?   Notice too that the players know quite well
that the 3 - 6 foot range from the boards is a dangerous area.   Once in a
while you will see a potential target go to the ice to avoid the hit when he
is right along the boards.   I don't think that I've ever seen that when the
target is just off the boards,  however.   Players know that can break
necks.
 
     Regarding equipment,  it wasn't clear from the footage shown by CBS of
the Roy accident that the cause of the injury was purely a compression
impulse.   If so,  yes,  there is probably nothing that can be invented that
will protect from that.   My point,  however,  was that there is virtually
no equipment available that will protect against neck injuries of any kind
(unless you want to count those little collars that the kids wear and which
are so uncomfortable that they are discarded at an age as soon as the rules
will permit).  I don't think,  though,  that just because there is nothing
available that that is the last word.   We can be a lot more creative than
that.
 
     -- Dick Tuthill
 
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