{"id":65848,"date":"2023-11-02T12:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T19:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/whl-makes-neck-guards-mandatory-for-kent-based-t-birds-rest-of-teams\/"},"modified":"2023-11-02T12:45:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T19:45:00","slug":"whl-makes-neck-guards-mandatory-for-kent-based-t-birds-rest-of-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/sports\/whl-makes-neck-guards-mandatory-for-kent-based-t-birds-rest-of-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"WHL makes neck guards mandatory for Kent-based T-Birds, rest of teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Western Hockey League, which includes the Kent-based Seattle Thunderbirds, announced that neck guard protection will be mandatory for all players.<\/p>\n<p>The Nov. 1 announcement comes just days after the death of American hockey player Adam Johnson, 29, whose neck was cut by a skate blade from an opposing player during an Oct. 28 game in England.<\/p>\n<p>The new policy becomes effective Nov. 3 or as soon as the protective equipment is available to clubs. The Calgary, Alberta-based WHL has 22 teams, 16 in Western Canada and six in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;All WHL players will be required to wear protective neck guard equipment at all times while participating in on-ice activities, including WHL games and practices,&rdquo; according to the statement.<\/p>\n<p>The WHL said it anticipates challenges in delivery of protective neck guard equipment from licensed suppliers due to increased demand following the tragic passing of Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson, a Minnesota native, spent 13 games over parts of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL, according to Associated Press. He was playing for the Nottingham Panthers of England&rsquo;s Elite Ice Hockey League when the accident occurred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Decision comes just days after death of hockey player in England from skate cut to neck <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":65849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65848"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=65848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}