Invicta Dynamos’ win on Saturday was overshadowed by tragic events elsewhere which have hit the game hard.

Nottingham Panthers’ Adam Johnson lost his life after suffering a cut to the neck by a skate during a game against Sheffield Steelers on the same evening.

The Dynamos team learned about the news shortly after their 3-2 win over Oxford City Stars and the club plan to discus their own policy on neck guards in light of the player’s death.

Weekend opponents Oxford have already announced they will be making it a club policy that all players at the club must wear the guards, something players under the age of 21 already do.

Head coach Karl Lennon insists player safety must come first.

He said: “It is unclear whether the league will make it a mandatory requirement and from my personal opinion, probably should be by now, and I am surprised that is an area of equipment that has not been advanced really.

“It is up to them to enforce the laws but as a club we will be meeting this week to really think about what we wish to do as an organisation. Player safety for us is of paramount importance.”

A year ago Dynamos’ own player Matt Bell suffered a nasty cut to his neck, caused by a blade following a collision with another player.

Lennon said: “We had that near scare last year and it probably hit home with us a bit deeper than we thought.

“It is a really tough one to think about, we know that there will be repercussions as a consequence of what has happened and I think whether it is a protection topic, something the league will enforce, and something as a club we will be looking at our protocols and prepare for the worst scenario.”

Many of the senior hockey players choose not to wear the added protection but Lennon thinks it’s a natural progression in safety for the sport.

He said: “Back in the day players never wore helmets, which is ludicrous to think now, then all of a sudden the helmet becomes an important part of your equipment.

“Most players then didn‘t wear visors on their helmets to protect their eyes and then with incidents that happened, that becomes mandatory for players under a certain age and I think this is the next natural evolution.

“Nobody is too cool or too uncomfortable for something like that, we have all got families, jobs, people that care deeply for us, including each other, it is not just about the incident but the impact it has on everyone involved, the players, coaching staff, physios, it doesn’t bear thinking about.

“Because we are involved in processes, like theirs on a much lower scale, we still go through the same procedures most days and I think the best preparation is prevention, that is equipment, which has evolved over time. This seems like a no-brainer to me.”

Lennon said that on hearing of the incident at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield on Saturday, their own game was irrelevant. All matches at the Gillingham ice arena scheduled for Sunday were cancelled.

He said: “We were walking into the bar after the game when we heard there was an incident in Sheffield, that a player had been hurt and that the rink was abandoned by the fans as a consequence, and that hits home as a hockey player. You know it is not a good situation.

“The news came through Sunday morning that he had passed and it’s an absolute tragedy. Our club, the Invicta family, feel that because we know the type of person that a hockey player is, it was horrible news and it hit really hard on everyone.

“All of our thoughts are with him, his family, the team, his team-mates that he had, just the whole community has banded together on that part, that is where everything started and finished with us at the weekend.

“It was horrible. All of Sunday, we as a club were talking between ourselves about what had happened, trying to understand and digest it, but the reality is that is is quite harrowing, just an unfortunate series of events that came to it happening.

“I never saw Adam play hockey, but you know as a player, a coach, someone who has been involved in the game for a long time, what that type of person he is because you are that type of person, it could happen to anybody, and that was the most alarming thing.”