THE LBI (Lower Body Injury)

 

The date was February 22nd, 2019 around 9:00am in the morning, and the LSL Lions Bantam AAA team was playing game#2 of their Gramby tournament. They had just gotten called for a 2 minute penalty and their coach put on their usual first wave of the penalty killing unit. While killing the penalty, their teams leading scorer, Markus Vidicek, blocks a point shot and the puck slowly heads out of the zone. However, it's becomes very apparent that the puck doesn't have enough steam to get out of the zone on it's own and that creates a race between Markus and the opposing teams defenseman to either keep the puck in or ice the puck down the ice. As the 2 players get closer to the puck, Markus realizes that the other player will get to the puck first so he decides to dive head first and try to poke the puck out of the zone. SUCCESS!!! Markus dives, hits the puck first and manages not only to get the puck out of the zone, but he manages to get it down the ice and out of harms way so that his team can make changes and get fresh bodies out for the next wave of their teams PK.

 

Two minutes later, someone from their teams bench starts yelling in panic up at the stands which were directly behind the players bench. They were asking for me, Markus' father, to come down and into the locker room. Not really sure what all the panic was about, I rushed down and went into the locker room where their teams trainer was attending to Markus' lower body. With Markus being visibly shaken up, I asked what was going on and if he was ok. In a stricken voice ofpanic, Markus yells out that he slashed his leg with a skate blade and then prompted to show me the gash. Trying to keep a calm demeanor to not further scare Markus, I tell him to take off his equipment and that he would need to go get stitches. Inside the worse thoughts were going inside my head.... did he severe a tendon, will he need surgery, etc etc. Finally, we decided to go straight to the local Gramby hospital thinking that they will stitch Markus up fairly quickly and that hopefully Markus would be able to play the important due or die game#3 of the tournament scheduled at 9:00 pm that same night.

 

Once we get to the Gramby hospital, Markus goes through triage fairly quickly and is told that he would need to get stitched up. Not having had any previous experience with our beautiful Quebec medicare system in the past, my thoughts were that we would be there latest 5-6 hours tops, get stitched up and boom.... back in the game. TWELVE....... YES......... TWELVE FLIPPING hours later Markus finally gets called in by the doctor and stitched up. His team had just finished the 1st period up 1-0. Texting back and forth with our team manager Neil Katz, I asked him if Markus was really needed for this game. The text comes back as a "YES"...... so we rush out of the Gramby hospital and back to the arena which was about 15 minutes away. We walk into the arena to cheers from the opposing team that had just scored to take a 2-1 lead. Markus gets taped up and dressed up in time for the start of the 3rd period. To be honest with you, I'm not quite sure of the exact details of the game from this point onward, but I do know that we ended up coming back and winning the game with Markus getting a couple of points in the victory. The victory was shortly lived however as we lost the next morning 1-0 vs a touch Cascades team that eliminated us from the tournament.

 

The following week was practices for the SIL Quebec Games team and the start of the Quebec Games that were being held in Quebec City. Despite having 6 stitches to help secure the cut, Markus was determined to not miss the Quebec Games experience. Markus was able to play in the tournament but was definitely not himself as he did not have a strong tournament. I would say it took Markus at least 6 weeks to finally heal from the cut which could have been prevented if he wore anti-cut socks. Needless to say, since that LBI, Markus wears those anti-cut socks religiously for every practice, training session, or game.

 

Here are the graphic pictures of Markus' foot;

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fast forward to my 2006 born's Bantam team meeting held in September 2019. I tell the entire teams parents that were at the meeting about story#1 and how I felt, and how lucky Markus was to had only sufferred a cut. I encouraged everyone to buy anti-cut socks. Our team manager was great about it, she even went out and made a great deal with a local store to sell our team anti-cut socks at discounted retail price. I'm not exactly sure how many parent end up actually buying a pair as I'm sure many parents thought, like I did previously, that it's a freak accident and that it won't happen to my son or daughter.

 

Flash forward to this past Sunday January 19th, 2020. Our team was having a late practice... as Allen Iverson would have said... yes....  PRACTICE... WE ARE TALKING ABOUT PRACTICE..... NOT A GAME.... A PRACTICE.... at the old MacDonald arena at JAC. With less than 2 minutes left in the practice, the team was running their usual battle drill when one of our players gets stepped on by another players skate. Luckily the player that got stepped on had incredible parents that had bought him a pair of anti-cut socks after that famous parents meeting. However, unluckily the player decided not to wear them before this practice.

 

Again, I believe the player was extremely lucky but I'll let you see the graphic pictures to decide for yourself as the cut was worse then the previous story!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, it is extremely important to make the anti-cut socks part of your equipment and gear. It should be as essential as your neck guard, shin pad, or even under garments. Both these injuries could have been avoided if they would have worn the anti-cut socks.

 

 

 

If you are interested in ordering a pair of anti-cut socks, please feel free to order through Hockey 360 Training's link below;

 

 

Bamboo Anti-Cut Socks:

 

Cost: $35 per pair

 

Small: Fits sizes 1-5

Medium: Fits sizes 5-8

Large: Fits sizes 8-12

X-Large: Fits size 12+

 

Portion of sock in the boot is made of bamboo fabric which is incrediby comfortable, thin, and anti-fungal.

Portion of the sock above the boot is made of 95% anti-cut material.

 

 

 

All payments for sock order must be made via etransfer using password hockey.