About two weeks ago I sustained yet another hand injury to the back side of my trapper. In the past few years I’ve got a broke finger from a slash after covering a puck, took a puck to the end of my right ring finger causing blood to shoot from under the nail, and now (like a moron) I just reached up and “swatted” a slappper away from my face with the back of my hand. It hit on the edge of my hand just below the little finger. No broken bones but bruised so deep that the palm of my hand was black and blue. Yes I know had my mitt been up, open and ready (something I preach to the kids I coach) I would have just caught the puck but stuff happens. I figured the thumb is protected why not the fingers and the back of the hand. Here’s the mod I’ve done to help protect my hand.
First I took the hard plastic board out of an old blocker and cut in half.
Next using camping foam I made a pattern and traced it onto the board then cut it to shape w/ tin snips.
Using a propane torch I slowly heated the plastic and bent it to shape to conform to the contour of my glove. (The burn marks are from some residual glue that discolored, and yes I know my work bench is a train wreck)
I then slid both the camping foam & “board” under the thin padding covering the fingers on the back side of the trapper.
It took a little additional trimming and fitting to get it just right w/o exposing any fingers and maintaining flexibility but as far as I can tell it’ll work well. My hand is still bruised bad enough that I can’t really close my hand w/o sharp pain so pucks that hit in the palm just drop to the ice. I’ll give an up date after a little more play time.
