As warm, summer memories fade, the cool, crisp air of Autumn has crept up to us on the Hilltop and brought with it bonfires, pumpkin spice everything, and most importantly, the return of hockey season! However, what you may not know is that while we were all gearing up to return to Saint Anselm, our very own hockey team was in the process of making a historic change to Sullivan Arena– the installation of the nation’s first ever “Look Up Line”.

The concept of the “Look Up Line” was developed by J. Tucker Mullin, a Saint Anselm hockey alum, and Thomas Smith. According to an article on the “Line” by Cassidy Swanson of the New Hampshire Union Leader, Smith, who received his second, and career ending, spinal cord injury while playing hockey in 2009, got the idea for the “Look Up Line” while observing how an outfielder responded to the warning track to avoid running into the wall in a baseball game. Swanson reports that Mullin and Smith worked for quite some time before they conceived this groundbreaking idea with the hope that they could find a way to drastically reduce the amount of injuries to hockey players, especially life changing ones like Smith’s.

The “Line” itself is simple: a 3-foot-wide, orange band painted underneath the ice around the rink that aims to alert players when they are getting close to the boards and remind them to lift their heads in order to protect themselves from sustaining dangerous injuries when checked by opponents. In the Union Leader, Smith tells that this reminder is important because “when the top of a player’s head makes contact with the board, the player needs to be moving only 4 mph to suffer a spinal compression” and, “If you have your head up, the way the vertebrae is shaped, it’s allowed to absorb the shock, and it kind of acts like a springboard”.

The reaction to the “Line” throughout the hockey community has been mixed thus far, with some expressing doubt that the line will accomplish its goal and others feeling that it will be more of a distraction and reluctance towards making such a significant change to the ice. However, I had the opportunity to catch up with some members of our hockey team before and after they skated on the newly “Lined” ice, and according to senior Sean Jenkins of Boston, MA, “In my opinion, it was neither a major distraction nor was there an adjustment period for me. I think with that the line will only work in our favor and in ice hockey’s favor.”

Before the team took to their new ice, senior Joey Agliato of Hauppague, NY weighed in that he believes the “Look Up Line” will be successful “if it’s a seamless addition and no one notices a difference.”

After the teams first skate last week, senior Ryan Donovan of Bridgewater, MA confirmed that “the line is definitely different but after being on the ice I don’t think it will be a distraction. There was one instance where I skated by the net toward the boards and did notice it out of the corner of my eye. So if people are worried that players won’t notice it. I did.” He further suggested that the purpose of the “Look Up Line” is to be noticed, and he felt it was noticeable in a positive way.

Before gaining first hand experience with the “Line”, Donovan expressed that he felt this change would be “really good for little kids, I got hit pretty hard a lot as a kid”, which seems to be the ultimate goal of Mullin and Smith as well.

As for the future of this unprecedented change to the rink: “This first year is huge, [the NCAA] will get feedback from the players and from the referees” said Jenkins, who added, “I hope it catches on. If more schools use the “Look Up Line” it will create a bigger sample size for feedback and help judge what to expect moving forward.” When discussing how the “Line” may change the game itself, Agliato suggested that although referees will still enforce strict rules when it comes to questionable hits, the line is an exact measurement and may help judge the distance between players before a hit occurs to settle discrepancies about boarding (a penalty called usually when a player is hit into the boards from about 4 or 5 feet away) and intent to injure penalties.

Thomas Smith lamented to the Union Leader, “I believe this game is the greatest game in the world,”… “It doesn’t have to be like this, with catastrophic injury … There’s never been a time other than now, in the last couple years, where players have been retiring more so because of catastrophic injury … We have to do something, because it’s supposed to be a game that provides so much joy, and yet, it’s providing so much sadness and heartache.” As Hawks, we should be proud to belong to the community that is pioneering such a promising change to the game of hockey. You can see your Hawks in action and show your support for our new “Look Up Line” at the hockey home opener on Friday, November 7th against Babson College. Go Hawks!