When helmets don’t help Hockey concussions require new attitude, not new headgear, expert says

Collisions with the boards or with other players can cause skull or facial fractures that a helmet and faceguard can help prevent. But researchers say a hockey helmet has not yet been made that will help prevent concussions caused by the brain sloshing around inside the skull.

Dr. PAT Bishop just may be a hockey player’s best friend.

His research to improve protective equipment, especially helmets and faceguards, has saved countless players from serious injury.

or example, when the first face shields and cages were introduced to hockey, Bishop’s research revealed most sat too close to the face and not properly on the chin. He warned that the impact of a puck could cave in the shield or even break it.

The result was a new standard that brought the shield or cage safely away from the face.

Today, bigger, stronger, faster hockey players at almost every level, combined with their new-age equipment, have created the sport’s newest concern, a spate of concussions never seen before.

It’s no trifling matter. Concussions are brain injuries, not to be slept off or played through. Though there is rarely structural damage that shows up on an MRI or a CAT scan, they cause one or more symptoms like disorientation, dizziness or nausea.

Helmets, worn properly, protect a player from contusions, skull fractures and other bruising. But as you saw earlier this season when Philadelphia’s Mike Richards smashed his shoulder into the head of Florida’s David Booth, a helmet was no protection from a concussion that caused Booth to miss 45 games.

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