Everytime I see a player take a puck to the face or a stick to the eye, just inches from a brutal and career-ending injury, I wonder exactly why these players aren’t wearing a visor. I understand that hockey is supposed to be a “man’s game” and that everytime we attempt to add to the safety of the game there are some who are concerned that we are taking away the toughness of the sport.
Not so. This is about protecting a player’s well being after he is done playing hockey. Ian Laperriere, dropping down to block a shot and getting hit in the face with a puck, could have easily lost an eye. We want better head-shot rules to protect players now so they have a decent life after they are finished with the NHL, as head injuries can take years to really affect a person’s health.
After seeing Laperriere bleeding profusely on the ice, asking trainers if he still had his eye, I immediately asked myself “should the NHL make wearing visors mandatory?”. If the NHL is truly concerned about player’s safety, although they’ve yet to really act on changing the game to match their public concern, then perhaps requiring all players to wear visors would be a logical next step.
Laperriere says that this was a tough lesson to learn, and that he was “stupid” for not wearing one before. If you want to see the aftermath of the injury, and to hear what Laperriere had to say after the game, here’s the first part of his post-game interview:
After the jump, we look at whether mandatory visors is a good idea or not.
The issue with making visors mandatory is the backlash coming from the established players in the NHL. For those that choose not to wear them there are various reasons they have for forgoing the safety of the visor: comfort, visibility, etc. Some are just so used to not wearing them after so many years, they’re worried they won’t be the same if they suddenly attach a visor to their helmet.
What is interesting is how after facial injuries, players that are forced to wear cages and/or visors while healing immediately go back to wearing none as soon as cleared to do so. So obviously, their concern about their own safety is trumped by a desire for comfort.
So how should the NHL handle this?
After conducting an informal poll on Twitter, I tend to agree with the suggestions: make mandatory visors a part of the next CBA, and grandfather current players into the rule. Eventually, in ten years or so, all players in the NHL will be wearing visors and it will be just as normal as when the NHL switched to mandatory helmets three decades ago.
There are plenty of other safety issues that need to be addressed as well, the least of which is no-touch icing. I understand that the NHL is worried about keeping it’s own brand of hockey separate from the way it’s played around the world, but the thought that international hockey rules keeps the game from being physical was downplayed by the incredible hockey we witnessed in the playoffs this year.
The IIHF has some great, subtle rules that definitively makes hockey a safer game. Mandatory visors. No-touch icing. No head shots. No freaking trapezoid. The NHL will be wise to take notes.