Vickie Price as asked to forward this to the list: recent STUDIES, (not opinions/newspaper quotes, etc), have shown that there is no statistical evidence to support the assertion that the face mask is correlated to the head/c-spine injury rate in ice hockey. there is, howerver, substantial evidence that face protection measurably reduces the rate of facial injury in ice hockey. 90% of the head and c-spine injuries in ice hockey result from checking-from-behind into the boards. this is documented in papers in the hockey medicine literature in refereed journals, written by medical investigators. recent (sports law) court rulings have reaffirmed that league administrators and officials hold the responsibility for the safety of the participants in regard to understanding, officiating and enforcing game rules and activity in regard to player safety. so it is incumbant on league administrators, on-ice officials, and coaches to teach safe hockey skills/techniques, call/penalize and enforce rules infractions, and uphold the rules of play with the safety of the participants in mind. this issue has been debated for almost 20 years now. the research to this point, (and more needs to be done and is being done), indicates that: the rules regarding: face masks checking from behind high sticking cross-checking mouthguards and others are ALREADY IN THE RULE BOOK. a receptive mindset to player safety must be maintained and the current rules must be consistently enforced in october AND MARCH. i thank you for your time, all for now. PLEASE pass this post on to hockey-l. bob broxterman, ms, atc/r assistant athletic trainer university of minnesota HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.