Description
A neck guard (also called a Kim Crouch collar) is a piece of protective equipment worn by players around the neck area, particularly by (though not exclusively) players in the ice skating team sports of ice hockey, bandy, ringette, and rinkball. The guard is designed to prevent injury to the neck by ice hockey pucks, ringette rings, bandy balls, the metal blades on ice skates, and various types of sticks, i.e. ice hockey sticks. This piece is especially critical to goaltenders, especially ice hockey goaltenders, who are more likely at risk to be injured in this area.
In Canada, neck protectors worn by ringette and ice hockey players must contain fabric that is BNQ certified and approved. BNQ stands for Bureau de normalisation du Québec. Based in Quebec, BNQ is an organization that created the standard for cut-resistant neck guards. The test requires the neck guard have a certain amount of coverage that is determined by standards that BNQ developed. The test is a blade on a swinging test apparatus that is run across the neck guard to test for cut penetration. One such example of neck guards of this type are manufactured by Bauer Hockey.
