2023-08-24 21:18:38
Quebec Remparts forward Charles-Olivier Villeneuve suffered a major concussion Wednesday night during a preseason game against the Rimouski Oceanic.
All the spectators at the Colisée Financière Sun Life, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, held their breath after watching the 18-year-old rush into the bay window at full speed.
He was escorted off the rink on a stretcher, but not taken to hospital.
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ) wants all of its teams to upgrade its bay windows to “flex” bay windows, i.e. more flexible bands that absorb shock during contact along of the ramp.
“It’s a shame that we always manage to wait for incidents like this to change,” said the MNA and Official Opposition Critic for Sports, Recreation, the Outdoors and Healthy Lifestyles. life, Enrico Ciccone.
In Rimouski, the City wishes to undertake the changes as of the summer of 2024. An investment of nearly $500,000 is necessary to change the strips.
A beneficial change
The head coach of the Rimouski Oceanic, Joël Perrault, believes that this change can be beneficial for the league, and its players.
“The league does it from that perspective and yesterday’s incident reminds us that major junior hockey is high level hockey, where collisions are much stronger than at the lower levels, and that the teams that evolve in arenas must have safe ice, ”explained Mayor Guy Caron.
He also expects Quebec to contribute financially to help cities make the change.
“We, on our side, like all the cities that have a team, we want to make sure that it will not penalize us for other requests”, he claimed.
“Yes, it can be expensive, yes it can take a major investment, but at the same time, is there an investment that is too expensive for the safety of our children? I don’t think so,” the politician said.
Nine of the 12 Quebec teams on the circuit do not have this new technology.
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