Players Equipment - Regulate It

I remember as a youngster playing hockey, the only plastic on my body was my cup and my shin pads. I used to use shoulder pads and elbow pads made entirely of foam. I felt safe in this equipment, I didn't get hurt nor did I bruise. Who determined that it was safe to use hard composite plastic over top of foam to better protect hockey players around the world, who decided that hockey players needed to look like RoboCop?

The NHL has gone through a plethora of injuries due to concussions over the last ten years and as of today their are such players as Keith Primeau having to retire and others like Tim Connollly who do not know if they will ever play again. On the NHL injury list as of today are 12 players who are currently injured with a concussion, most are as a result of a hit to the head. Now you might be thinking that this is a relative low number for a 30 team league, trust me when I say that there have been worse numbers than these in the NHL over the last 10 years. The one thing about an a concussion is that it is an uncertainty as to whether the player will return to action any time soon or even at all. These 12 players that are currently concussed, they might be 12 new retirees before or shortly after the 2007/08 NHL team's training camps.

Many will argue that many of these injuries are also due to a lack of respect among the players for each other, I agree with this point to a certain degree. Is that lack of respect due to not caring for one another or the feeling of being invincible? From the time that many of these current NHLers started playing the game and up until now they have been equip with body armour and not hockey equipment, the invincible mentality has been in them since they were little boys.

Regulate the equipment and get rid of the unnecessary plastic pads. Do this and your will save a few careers.