Appreciate the patience for the blogosphere silence the last couple of weeks, as I was on work travel to Southeast Asia, visiting Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore. Monitoring hockey was no easy task, considering the time difference of 12-13 hours.
If there was any hockey news that reached me organically, it was related to the tragedy of Adam Johnson, the former Minnesota Duluth star, who died following a “freak accident” in which his neck was cut by a skate during a game in the English league. Yes, the heartbreaking news went global. Naturally, the incident has sparked discussion on whether or not to make neck protection mandatory in a sport that has generally been slow to add or enforce proper wearing of protective gear and has even gone so far to blame certain gear, like face shields for making players more fearless and therefore more reckless (an argument I simply do not buy). It will be interesting to see how college hockey, in particular, responds to this. In youth hockey, Hockey Canada requires neck protection, while USA Hockey only recommends it at this time.
Back to the Mavericks and the college game, here are a few thoughts, three to be exact:
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