Canadiens’ Josh Anderson was saved by cut-resistant pants. Why do players still resist safety? - The Athletic

BROSSARD, Que. — Josh Anderson had a night to remember against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, scoring the tying goal, drawing the penalty that led to Nick Suzuki’s winning goal and scoring the insurance goal into an empty net, all of it in the third period of a game the Montreal Canadiens had to win.

What made it even more remarkable is none of it might have happened were it not for an equipment change Anderson decided to make that very night.

One day earlier, on Monday at Bell Centre, the Canadiens had their team photo and practiced afterward. Anderson was given a new pair of underpants to wear by equipment manager Patrick Langlois. They were cut-resistant pants, something Langlois has been lobbying Canadiens players to wear for weeks.

“Pat just gave them to me,” Anderson said, “and they felt fine.”

Thus, Anderson decided to wear those underpants against the Senators on Tuesday. And then, this happened.

As Anderson engages in a puck battle with Ottawa’s Shane Pinto, Pinto’s skate blade accidentally entered inside the back of Anderson’s right skate, an incredibly dangerous situation that ultimately caused no damage.

“First game that I wore the pants today,” Anderson said. “I was very fortunate.”

It is appropriate the TSN camera cuts to Jake Evans after showing the replay of Anderson nearly being cut, because Evans was not wearing those cut-resistant pants Tuesday night, and his reasoning provides a window into why it is such a challenge getting NHL hockey players to protect themselves from disaster.

The Canadiens were practicing in Edmonton on March 5, the day Evans first spoke publicly about the four-year contract he had signed the previous day worth $2.85 million a year. After talking about how lucky he feels to have that kind of security and how chasing more money elsewhere wasn’t worth it to him because he and his wife were happy in Montreal, Evans retreated back into the Canadiens dressing room.

Once there, he had a little meeting with Langlois. It was to discuss those cut-resistant underpants, the ones that saved Anderson Tuesday after he tried them in practice Monday. Evans had just tried them during that practice in Edmonton. He didn’t like them.

Evans kept mentioning how restrictive the pants felt and how uncomfortable they were, and the look on Langlois’ face was one of pure exasperation.

“I want you guys to not get cut,” Langlois told Evans.

Evans was asked about that exchange after Canadiens practice Wednesday, and Evans had seen what happened to Anderson and knew why that incident with Pinto was not disastrous.

Because Anderson was wearing those pants.

Still, Evans’ stance on those pants has not changed in the two weeks since that practice in Edmonton.

“I think it’s just a line of comfort,” Evans said. “Like, those pants to me were restricting right here, which I don’t like.”

As he said it, he slapped his legs, just above the knee.

“It felt like there was two layers right here, which I would hate,” Evans said. “So it was restricting your quads, which is the last thing you want as a hockey player.”

Ah, the quads, or the quadriceps muscle. Or the same muscle Canadiens defenceman Kaiden Guhle lacerated with his own skate on Jan. 28, an injury that required immediate surgery to repair. Guhle recently began skating on his own, but it remains unknown whether he will be able to return this season.

The reality is Guhle got lucky because that cut could have been far worse. It could have hit a major artery or something. But the other reality is that if Guhle had been wearing those cut-resistant pants, it likely would have prevented any major injury at all.

“But the Guhles thing,” Evans reasoned, “it was such a fluke.”

Yes, it was. But flukes happen, and what makes them flukes is you can’t see them coming. Which is why protecting against flukes seems to be a smart thing to do.

This was a major topic of conversation at the just-completed general managers meeting in Florida. New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald made an emotional case for making neck protection mandatory in the NHL after his son, Casey, had a scary cut to his neck in an AHL game that required 25 stitches and which, it should be noted, happened despite the AHL mandating the use of neck guards this season.

The death of former NHLer Adam Johnson in a professional game in England at the beginning of last season opened a lot of eyes in the NHL, and more players began trying out neck protection to see if they could get used to it.

But there are very few players who have stuck with the neck protection less than two years later.

Canadiens defenceman Arber Xhekaj played his final season in the OHL with mandatory neck protection, and he hated it.

“I wore it in junior, but I never liked it,” he said. “I always cut it up, super small. I always found ways to not wear it.”

The NHL cannot force players to wear neck protection or cut-resistant gear unilaterally. The NHLPA would have to sign off on it, and its stance has not changed, that player equipment is an individual choice.

“The NHLPA’s emphasis is on making sure players have the necessary information to make informed choices about their equipment,” the union said in a statement Tuesday. “Our membership continues to feel strongly that wearing cut-resistant equipment is a matter of individual preference.”

And as long as they leave it up to personal player preference, there will be pushback. Just ask Langlois. And just ask Evans.

He recognizes that if he were forced to wear the cut-resistant pants, he would get used to them eventually and life would go on.

“I would,” he admitted. “I just feel like I don’t need to wear them right now. It’s a hard argument for me to make, I understand that … If they made it mandatory, everybody would just do it and in a couple of weeks we wouldn’t think about it.

“I’m not at that point.”

Xhekaj seemed a bit shaken to learn Tuesday’s game was the first time Anderson wore the pants, and he nearly got cut in that same game. Imagine if Anderson had decided to try the pants for one more practice before using them in a game.

“I’ve ordered some, but I haven’t got them yet,” Xhekaj said. “Once I get them, I’ll try them out in practice.

“I hope I like them.”

Xhekaj admits, however, that the bar will likely be high for him to like those pants. The slightest variance from what he is accustomed to could be the difference between wearing them and ditching them.

“I think I’m more of a comfort guy, what feels good for me,” Xhekaj said. “But it’s a tough sport we play, a lot of stuff can go wrong and then that could be it for you. It’s something you definitely want to think about, especially with the Guhles situation and Andy yesterday. Every game, I have my socks cut from a skate, somehow. Something’s sliced open and I don’t even know when that happened.”

When playing a game that is only getting faster, a game that involves large men moving at great speed with knives attached to their feet, and a game that has already cost a teammate months of action and nearly cost another one Tuesday night were it not for the cut-resistant pants he was wearing, you would think this would be an easy decision for players to make.

Safety over comfort. Seems logical.

But as Evans said, his priority of comfort over safety is a difficult argument to make. But he’s making it regardless.

“That’s just how it is,” he said. “Hockey players are weird.”

(Photo: Vincent Ethier / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Arpon Basu has been the editor-in-chief of The Athletic Montréal since 2017. Previously, he worked for the NHL for six years as managing editor of LNH.com and a contributing writer on NHL.com. Follow Arpon on Twitter @ArponBasu

Arpon Basu@ArponBasu