It's too soon for ice hockey to come back after tragic death of Nottingham Panther's Adam Johnson

The scale of the tragedy is enormous.

It is, of course, catastrophic for the family of Nottingham Panthers' forward Adam Johnson, who suffered the fatal wound from the skate of opponent Matt Petgrave.

My thoughts and condolences are with the Johnson family, his team, their fans and his adopted city.

They are also with Matt and the wider Sheffield Steelers' organisation, which was overwhelmed and grief-stricken in the aftermath.

In the home dressing room, the players knelt in a circle and paid their respects to Adam.

In the media room, shock and distress gave way to tears.

On social media, I had earlier chronicled the real-time events in two twitter/X-posts, outlining details of what the supporters were witnessing for themselves. I said I was hoping the Panther would be ok.

Within a short time, news of the full scale of the tragedy was all over the worldwide media.

As a former Pittsburgh Penguins' forward, Adam was of immediate interest to news outlets in north America.

Some felt my post on line was disrespectful and were quick to call me as many poisonous names as they could muster.

They are entitled to their opinion, and I deleted the X posts. Why?

Because the very last reason I have been covering the family club, that is Steelers, for the last 32 years, is to add to people's sorrow and pain.

While the full fury of key board comment was heading my way, there was no shortage of others who contacted me directly to say that they recognised I was doing my job as a purveyor of news, in the same way had I been covering a crash of cars in F1 or a boxing ring tragedy.

Among that category were former Steeler players, an ex Steelers' coach, long-time fans and staff at The Star and other newspapers.

Overall, we can agree to differ on my social media output and those of others who subsequently followed it up with videos and images.

What we must do now is monitor how the sport reacts and learns from this horrendous incident. A lot of questions need to be asked.

*Are changes inevitable?

*Would extra protective collars for players be worth trialling to avoid future skate lacerations?

*Are modifications necessary to the medical back up/emergency teams at all levels of the sport?

*Will young players still want to come into the game at junior level?

*Was the horror so profound that some parents will think twice about attending hockey games?

Looking back at the freak collison, in the 35th minute of the EIHL Challenge Cup game, I still find it hard to process and believe that it actually happened.

It's the stuff of a vicious Halloween nightmare.

Ice hockey will always be a dangerous game, of course, the participants know that better than anyone.

But nobody straps on ice hockey kit thinking that something like this is going happen.

Personally, I have no idea where we go from here. It feels too soon to be making lasting decisions. It also feels too soon to play again this coming weekend.

All I do know is that ice hockey will never be quite the same again for me and for everyone else connected to the Sheffield Steelers and the Nottingham Panthers.

*For those affected by Saturday’s events, further help and advice is available at NHS and NHS Inform.