In many hockey games safety is so important as to require the modification of normal hockey equipment. This is particularly true in schools or similar supervised recreational environments. Schools and other institutions own and use hockey sticks having hard plastic or wood blades which are very effective for controlling a puck, but which by their hard quality pose safety hazards for players not wearing safety pads. Since safety is very important in schools and other places, measures must be taken to reduce the potential for hard sticks to injure the hockey players. Purchasing pads for players to wear would be effective, but too expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,912,245 to Gardner et al teaches placing a rubber sleeve over a hockey stick blade. However, the rubber sleeve disclosed does not cover the entire blade. Nor does the sleeve cover the contiguous shaft portion of the stick, which may also cause injury. Moreover, the thin rubber sleeve provides little cushion to soften the impact of the blade. And the relative weight of the rubber cover makes the stick more difficult to manipulate. This creates problems when the users are young children. Finally, the preferred embodiment of the rubber sleeve is relatively expensive since it requires that the sleeve be molded onto the blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,990 to Profit teaches a hockey stick blade cover which covers a portion of the blade and also the contiguous shaft portion. However, the cover is intended only to protect the blade, and not persons or objects struck by the blade: accordingly, the cover is itself hard plastic, which provides no cushion. Also, the cover does not cover the entire surface of the blade, leaving portions of the blade exposed which could injure a person even if the cover were made from a different, softer material.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds