The puck deflected off a stick and fluttered into Section 107 at the United Center midway through the second period of last Sunday’s 2-1 Blackhawks victory over the Minnesota Wild.
Linda Powell saw the puck, and even though it wasn’t traveling all that fast, she said she felt frightened. Sitting next to Powell was her daughter, Karly.
Powell was frightened because Karly is 12, almost the same age as Brittanie Cecil.
Cecil, 13, is the West Alexandria, Ohio, girl who died after a blood clot formed in a vertebral artery in the back of her head, the result of her head snapping back when she was struck by a puck during the Columbus Blue Jackets-Calgary Flames game on March 16.
No one in Section 107 was hurt Sunday. In fact, as the puck hit the ground, fans scrambled to retrieve a souvenir.
During the second intermission, the Powell family was able to laugh about a lost opportunity to bring home a piece of the game.
Christopher Cioccio wasn’t that lucky.
Cioccio was sitting in the 100 level on March 27 when a puck deflected off a stick and struck him in the side of the head.
Cioccio, who was attending his second Hawks game, was taken to the United Center’s first-aid room, and then by ambulance to Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital for treatment. He was released later that evening but said he had “a real strong headache” the next day.
They are the best seats in the house.
They put a spectator as close to the action as possible. For $75, you can hear the sport and feel the bone-crunching checks into the boards and glass.
You can see a play develop right before your eyes and put yourself in the goalie’s skates.
They are the best seats in the house. They also can be the most dangerous.
There are 19 rows of seats from ice level to the top of the 100 section at the United Center. The first seven rows are protected by panes of plexiglass sitting atop the arena boards.
It’s those 12 rows of seats behind the goal–approximately 200 seats–that can pose the most danger from flying pucks. The same 12 rows that bring fans as close as they can get to the action without sitting on the bench.
“It’s the best view in the world,” said Andy Erkes of Deerfield, who was sitting next to his 8-year-old son, Eli, in Section 106, Row 15 as the Hawks and Wild warmed up last Sunday. “Up this high, you can see the plays develop.”
How unobstructed that view should be has become the central question in the aftermath of Brittanie Cecil’s death.
Currently the only protection from stray pucks for fans sitting in the 12 rows above the glass is their own attentiveness.
Before every NHL game, the public-address announcer warns fans about the danger of pucks sailing into the stands. For a time the message was delivered in the form of a cute cartoon shown on the scoreboard, but since the Columbus incident the message now is delivered in a more serious, urgent tone.
Some say that’s not enough, that protective netting should be installed in every NHL arena, as it is in most European rinks, or that the protective plexiglass should be extended a few feet higher. But raising the height of the plexiglass has its own dangers because that lessens the stability of the glass.
Others say the responsibility falls to the fans to pay attention to the game and be ready in case a puck comes their way.
Injuries are common
Nobody keeps an official count of the number of pucks that go into the stands in an average game. But, like foul balls at a baseball game, hockey pucks deflecting into the stands are a common and occasionally dangerous occurrence.
“I remember throwing towels up into the stands [for injured fans],” Hawks assistant coach Denis Savard said. “As a player, you always watch to see where the puck ends up.”
A fan requiring medical attention after being struck by a puck is also common. The NHL says it doesn’t keep track of how many fans are injured at games. But the New York Times, citing a study by an arena physician, reported 122 puck-related injuries to fans in 127 games at one NHL arena over the course of three seasons.
Of those injuries, 74 percent required “laceration repairs” and 45 percent of the victims were taken to hospital emergency rooms.
That’s very nearly one serious injury per game at one arena. Still, some fans note that Brittanie Cecil was the first fan to die after being struck by a puck in the NHL’s 85-year history, and they regard what happened to her as a freak accident.
And they don’t want a net obstructing their view from their $75 seats.
“I think that would bother me,” said Hawks fan Joe Kokal of New Lenox.
Kokal was in his 100-level seat, above the glass, with his wife Donna at a recent Hawks game. The couple shares season tickets and acknowledged that people who sit in those seats “have to be alert.”
That seems to be the prevailing view among hockey aficionados.
“I think it is all the fan’s responsibility,” said Eric Timmerman, a Toronto resident catching a Hawks game at the United Center while vacationing in Chicago. Timmerman attends many Maple Leafs games at Air Canada Centre and isn’t sold on protective nets. “You pay good dollars for these seats,” he said.
However, many true hockey fans can’t afford those dollars, and the seats are often occupied by corporate types who are there to be entertained and who might not be familiar with the game’s fast pace and inherent danger.
“There’s not a lot of pure hockey fans in here,” Erkes said of his neighbors in Section 106. “Years ago, these were all season ticket-holders.”
A physician who operates a first-aid station at an NHL rink said he believes “at least half” the injuries he treats are the result of fans not paying attention to what’s happening on the ice.
Red alert
Cioccio said he was following the play and just lost sight of the puck after it deflected into the crowd.
“I thought I was watching everything,” he said. “But I didn’t see that puck.”
Even people who should know better sometimes don’t. Savard said he noticed one of his family members not paying attention during a game last season. He said he had a hard time concentrating on his coaching duties worrying that a stray puck would deflect into their area.
Linda Powell is in favor of safety nets–and she was asked before the incident in the second period.
“I think the potential of someone getting injured outweighs, by far, [obstructed views],” she said.
Powell said she never gave a thought to getting hit by a puck–until she heard about Brittanie Cecil.
“I did have a puck come between my husband and me back when we were dating, but I thought that that never happens,” she said. “Then when I heard about [Cecil], yeah, I’m a little more nervous. I think I’m going to pay a little more attention to the game than I have in the past.”
What the NHL ultimately decides to do regarding added safety measures won’t be made public until the summer. Blackhawks executives–like team executives throughout the league–are referring safety questions to NHL executive vice president and chief legal officer Bill Daly.
“We’re going to take a look at everything, from A to Z,” Daly said of proposed safety initiatives.
“If we feel there is a way to make our games or our buildings any safer than they are, that’s something that we are going to explore.”
Fans behind goal at highest risk
Thirteen-year-old Brittanie Cecil was sitting in the 19th row of Nationwide Arena in Columbus when she was struck by an errant hockey puck March 16. She died two days later. In the United Center, about seven rows on the ends of the rink-including Row 19-are most prone to risk of a similar accident. The NHL is now studying possible measures to increase fan safety, including safety nets similar to those used at baseball games.
High-risk area
Glass
THE PUCK
Hockey pucks are frozen for several hours before the game and between periods to reduce the bounce. The hardest shooters in the NHL can launch pucks at speeds over 100 m.p.h.
1inch by 3 inches
Weight: 5.5 to 6 ounces
Material: Vulcanized rubber*
* Heated with sulfur to maintain consistency at a wide range of temperatures.
Protecting the crowd
European leagues and several college teams have installed safety netting in their arenas, and the Phoenix Coyotes have installed a small portion of netting on a section of obstructed-view seats. Any NHL decision to mandate these nets would have to take into account the fans’ view. Newer net designs use thinner, lighter-colored materials to reduce obstruction.
NETTING
Installing netting in the NHL’s 30 differently configured arenas would be an additional challenge. A hypothetical scenario–based on other arenas’ netting schemes–incorporates a system of pipes and cables.
Cables
Attached to ceiling winches that raise and lower the netting.
Hole size: 1.5 inches
50 percent of actual size
Net thickness: 1/16 inches
Material: Nylon or mono-filament (fishing line)
Plastic pipe: Heavy enough to keep the netting in place. Bottom pipe would rest two inches below the glass.
Artist’s conception
Source: Custom Ice Inc.
Chicago Tribune/Max Rust and Phil Geib.
