Adam Johnson skates for the Pittsburgh Penguins against the New York Rangers on March 25, 2019 in New York City. Johnson died after his neck was sliced while playing with the Nottingham Panthers in a Halloween-themed game in Northern England.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
It started out as a family-friendly evening of hockey in northern England; the Sheffield Steelers taking on their archrivals the Nottingham Panthers in a Halloween-themed game before 8,000 fans, including dozens of kids wearing spooky T-shirts.
Halfway through the second period, with the Steelers leading 2-1, Panther forward Adam Johnson skated up the left side of the rink and stickhandled the puck across the blue line. He probably didn’t see Steelers defenceman Matt Petgrave bearing down on him from across the ice. Petgrave clipped another player before crashing into Johnson. As he fell, Petgrave’s left leg rose up and his skate sliced Johnson’s neck.
“It was pretty, pretty horrendous,” said Christian Bennett, who was at the game on Saturday with his sister. “I don’t think there was anything the medical staff could have done.”
The game was halted, and fans were asked to leave the arena. Bennett, a season-ticket holder, saw parents trying to console their children. “Ice hockey is sort of slightly different in the U.K.,” he said. “It’s very, very, very family orientated. So, there’s a lot of young kids there.”
Johnson died later in hospital, just 29 years old and barely into his third month with the Panthers. Nottingham was the latest stop in a nomadic hockey career that began in Hibbing, Minn., and wound through the University of Minnesota-Duluth, an assortment of minor-league teams, a 13-game stint with the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins and clubs in Sweden and Germany.
“He is a player that we feel with the team we are building fits perfectly with his speed and experience,” head coach Jonathan Paredes said when Johnson joined the Elite Ice Hockey League club in August.
His death has shaken the hockey world and tributes have poured in from far and wide. The National Hockey League offered its condolences along with the Penguins and the Minnesota Wild. The American Hockey League’s Ontario Reign, where Johnson played 42 games, made him the first star of their game against the Abbotsford Canucks on Sunday and fans stood for a minute of silence before the kickoff of Sheffield Wednesday’s soccer match against Rotherham United on Sunday.
His father, David, was watching the game online from his home in Minnesota, according to Johnson’s aunt Kari Johnson. “I cannot even describe it because nobody should have to live through what we saw,” Ms. Johnson told KSTP-TV in Saint Paul, Minn. “The skate cut right through Adam’s windpipe, and it cut his carotid artery.”
Bouquets of flowers line a sidewalk outside Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena and in an Instagram post, Johnson’s fiancée, Ryan Wolfe, wrote, “My sweet, sweet angel. I’ll miss you forever and love you always.”
Concern has also been expressed for Petgrave, a 31-year-old Toronto native who is in his second season with the Steelers and led the team in scoring last year. Like Johnson, he too has been a hockey journeyman, playing for more than a dozen teams in the Ontario Hockey League, U Sports, the ECHL, the AHL and leagues in Czechia and Slovakia.
Since Saturday, Petgrave, who is Black, has faced a stream of hate messages and racist comments online. He hasn’t commented but fans from across the country have denounced the abuse and offered their support.
The online messages are “disgraceful,” said Sean McCann, a long-time hockey fan who attends dozens of EIHL games every year, including in Nottingham. “This is going to be with him for the rest of his life. The poor guy. This is the sport that we all love. Someone might get a broken nose or a concussion or broken limb, but you would never dream of doing that.”
These kinds of fatal accidents are rare in hockey but last year Teddy Balkind, a 16-year-old high-school player in Connecticut, died after his neck was cut by the skate of an opposing player during an on-ice collision. The NHL has seen two notable cases of players being slashed in the neck – Buffalo Sabres goaltender Clint Malarchuk in 1989 and Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik in 2008 – and both survived.
Johnson’s death has prompted calls for hockey officials in Britain to make neck guards mandatory. The protection is required for amateur players in Canada, Sweden and Finland. However, the guards have been optional in the U.K. and the U.S. Late Monday Ice Hockey UK, which governs the game at the amateur level, announced that neck guards will now be mandatory.
On Monday the Oxford City Stars, who play in the second tier of British hockey, said neck guards will be compulsory for all their players and coaching staff, and the club encouraged other teams in the league to follow suit.
South Yorkshire Police have launched an investigation into Johnson’s death and the EIHL cancelled games on Sunday. Play is scheduled to resume on Wednesday, and Bennett said he will probably be back for future matches.
Paul Waldie