" SHEFFIELD, England — Police are investigating the death of American ice hockey player Adam Johnson after his neck was cut by a skate blade in a game in England.
Johnson, 29, was playing for the Nottingham Panthers at the Sheffield Steelers when he suffered the skate cut in a Champions Cup game on Saturday. He died at a hospital. He was a Minnesota native who appeared in a total of 13 NHL games with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2019 and 2020." Link.
They are calling it an accident but viewing the footage, it looks like the opposing player was trying to take a couple of players out of the action. I’m certainly not suggesting he intentionally killed Johnson, but I grew up going to hockey games and it does look like it was an intentional hit.
Just a terrible tragedy for all involved and the families. My heart goes out to them. Video link spoiler:
Sounds like the third time someone’s neck was severely slashed by a skate. I recall two NHL instances of players nearly dying, leaving lots of blood on the ice. Time for everyone to wear neck guards.
In January 2022, a prep school student in Connecticut died after falling on the rink. Another skater ran into him and accidentally cut him in the neck with his skate blade. And I found multiple other incidents, though not all to the neck.(Some to the wrist or leg, for example.)
It is being investigated for sure. I’m not sure how easy or difficult it would be to prove anything. I don’t know England’s levels of charges. Voluntary Manslaughter? Involuntary Manslaughter? In the US, I don’t see a murder charge that could be successfully prosecuted. Then again, I am not a lawyer.
But the legal commentary I’ve seen is that any charge is unlikely unless Petgrave did something that’s beyond the kind of contact that routinely happens in the sport. The fact that it would be considered a foul under the rules is not sufficient. The video shows that Petgrave intended contact, but there’s a lot of pretty brutal contact in ice hockey. A manslaughter charge would probably require that he intended to make contact with his skate, and I doubt that (or I doubt that there’s sufficient evidence for that).
Wow. I was expecting to see something low to the ice, not a kick to the head. It does look intentional to me, but it’s gonna be hard to prove anything, I think.
I watch a lot of hockey and I’ve never seen anyone kick someone in the neck like that. I was expecting the player to be on the ground, too.
I’m not saying it never happened in the NHL (a high kick), but it must be pretty rare. I don’t even recall seeing someone kick a player at all. I mean, knees happen all the time, but kicks? I can’t even find a youtube video (with a quick search).
Again, I can see that being convictable if the UK system is the same as ours, though I believe they do not require 100% unanimous juries in criminal trials. I think they can have two dissenters, though my information is certainly not up to date.
I won’t be surprised if he gets off with nothing, though will his hockey career be over?
Same here. Even a high shot like that with the knee would be a very unusual check. When I said “knees”, it was sticking out your knee to trip someone up, or hit them in the knee or maybe thigh. Not a shot to the belly.
Charges of involuntary manslaughter (sometimes called “criminally negligent homicide”) often come in the wake of a deadly car crash caused by a motorist under the influence of alcohol or drugs. While the motorist never intended to kill anyone, their negligence in operating a vehicle while impaired is enough to meet the requirements of the charge.
Bolding mine.
To try to prove intent would be much harder.
Matt Petgrave was negligent with his skates and it resulted in the death of Adam Johnson.
When I first read this story, I thought, what a tragic accident. I thought the player fell on the ice and another player accidentally cut his throat with his skate, just couldn’t avoid him. Looking at the video, to me it’s clear he had intent to hurt. You just don’t lift your leg up like that unintentionally.
Players in all sports have to realize it’s just a sport and wanting to hurt an opposing player is just not sportsmanlike and that a skate can be a lethal weapon. I hope the police charge him. Probably won’t stop the next yahoo out there wanting to hurt someone else, these types of people have no conscience.