Carnie's Comments

 

I got a kick out of the exchange between New York Rangers' star Chris Kreider and Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers the other night. 

Tkachuk doesn't actually put his mouthguard in his mouth - he chews it. It's kind of annoying. Kreider ripped it from his teeth and tossed it during a post-whistle scrum on Tuesday evening and the media and Tkachuk has some fun talking about it after the game.

It takes me back to when mouthguards were mandatory when I played minor hockey in the 70s. They weren't the fitted guards that you put in your mouth - they were hard plastic pieces that we wore outside of our lips. They were strapped to your helmet. They weren't very effective. Most of us just put them under our chins like a football helmet chin strap.

That equipment became obsolete around 1977 when full face cages become mandatory for all minor hockey players in our league. Too many kids were losing teeth and suffering eye injuries.

I wish I had kept some of that old, obsolete gear. The kids nowadays would be fascinated.

I do have a fitted mouthguard now. It's not for hockey, though. It's to protect me teeth when I grind 'em in my sleep - true story.