HAVING heard the terribly sad news of the death of Australian cricketer Phil Hughes this week, it does make you think of the safety gear that you wear in sport.

What happened in Australia was a freak accident - the ball hit him on the back of the neck and he never regained consciousness and I offer my condolences to his family and team-mates.

In hockey, getting hit in certain areas of the body hurts more than others. When you go to block the puck from a shot, it tends to hits you in the legs and you are wearing pads for that.

But what can hurt the most is when you get hit in the chest or stomach.

One thing where we are similar is that we both wear helmets. Now I would probably say that our helmets are a little lighter in hockey and having a visor instead of a cage allows us to have extra vision and we tend flinch if we see the puck come flying.

Also in hockey, we probably have a bit more adrenaline flying around too, which can help when you get struck by a puck.

I remember playing a bit of cricket when I was younger but I never got hit by a ball so I can’t really compare what it is like, but I do know that a puck can hurt.

I was back on the ice last week following my concussion and it was great that I had no effects from it, but I did feel the pace quite a bit and that is something that I have been working on this week.

We head to Invicta Dynamos on Sunday in an English Challenge Cup match and I have to say that I have enjoyed playing against the NIHL sides this year. It has allowed me to play in different roles to what I would normally do in the EPL matches, such as featuring in the power plays.

I hope that we keep these teams in the competition next year. If we are going to tweak the format of our season again, then maybe we could take a look at the play-offs.

For me, as they are two matches and then finals weekend, it is all over too quickly.

Why not spilt the eight teams into pools of four and go from there. Play-off hockey is totally different to the regular season and it is enjoyable to be involved in.

Let’s finish the regular campaign earlier and have a few more games in the play-offs.