Temporary_User

What are your guys opinion on mandatory visor's?
I personnally think it should be the player's opinion, If they're dumb enough to take a puck in the face, then that's them....
but I believe that it is going to happen eventually. It happened w/ helmets and other equip. it isnt going to slow the game down.

Although sorry I forgot who said it, the player had an eye injury a few years ago and is now back...
His belief is that it should be the players option too, he thinks that players get more aggressive the more safe they feel and the sticks will come up more if everyone is wearing one.
good thought...
So what are your opinions?

djtestudo

I'm not a big fan of mandetory equipment unless absolutely necessary; football helmets, for example.

In most cases, I think it should be the player's choice. They should be made to sign whatever legal documents it takes to rid the leagues of liability, but if they, for example, don't want to wear a batting helmet, they should be allowed to make the choice.

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soccerchamp76

I think so, most players dont want to because it hurts their vision, but it can also permanently damage your eye, getting hit by a stick (ask Al MacInnis).

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feelgood

I think you're thinking of Steve Yzerman. He did take a shot in the eye and had to undergo surgery to repair not only his eye but his eye socket I believe.

I think its up to the players themselves, some believe that a visor might slow down their game, other believe it won't be affected. In my case, after seeing my dad getting cuts to above his eye twice in the last few years by pucks, I'd go with visors but that's just me.

Its nice to see the NHL management taking initiaive to ensure that its players are well protected, it is a rough sport.

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Coppertop

It may be a rough sport, but hockey players are leagues above most other players in terms of toughness.

I say let the players choose.

God of Thunder

Helmets never used to be mandatory and now that they are I think most players don't even second guess them. If they went back to being optional, I think 99% of the players would still wear them.

You would probably hear some complaining for a while if they became mandatory, but once players saw their value, they would change their mind.

Detroit's Kris Draper just hit in the eye and he was quoted as saying the choice to wear a visor from this point forward was a pretty easy one.

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Nikilidstrom

I can understand the "let them choose"' arguement, but if I was a GM signing a key player to a huge contract, I'll be damned if I am not going to put a mandatory visor clause in his contract. For a team to have a season tank because their star forward. to whom they pay oodles of money, just lost 90% of the vision in one eye and has to have surgery, and they don't have enough money under the cap to sign an adequite replacement is just bad for business, especially when that injury could easily have been avoided by using a $50 piece of equipment. At the very least, it protects a teams investment, and at most, it keeps the league from loosing too many good players to injury, making it a less marketable product, which would make less money available for player contracts, etc.....

Temporary_User

Good point, I never think about the bosses.
I always think if you injure yourself, you screw yourself.
but your screwing the whole team/fans
I think you just made me all for mandatory.

Martian

Exactly, but it has to be league-wide. Half-visors do impede vision and affect a player's game and nobody wants to put blinders on a star forward. If it were league-mandated then everyone would be wearing them anyway, but with the rules as they are a lot of players have a hard time wearing them and staying competitive.

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Spartak

I remember reading an article on TSN about how a university carried out tests with the modern NHL visors, which basically called bullshit on the whole "impeded vision" argument.

It shouldn't be mandatory I don't think, but players should forfeit their salary for as long as they are injured as a result of not wearing one.

In the salary cap era GMs should also be given cap relief if one of their players goes down with a visor-preventable injury... but only if the player agrees to wear a visor for the rest of the season when he comes back.

Yes that'll do.

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Quadraton

Making visors mandatory might save a few ocular organs in certain situations, but they are hardly perfect. Visors can protect from an errant slapshot, but they do little for elevated sticks, and pucks that bounce upwards. If you really want to protect players, then you need to mandate that all players wear full face shields. Of course, then you might as well just have all the players wrap themselves in bubble wrap, because there is always a danger when you play a sport, especially a physical sport like hockey.

Then again, from what I've seen lately, more players should start choosing to wear a visor. I know that guys like Marian Hossa are thanking their lucky stars for their visor (errant slapshot hit him in the head, shattered his visor, gave him a slight cut on his face, but no eye damage), while guys like Sundin should stop flexing in front of the mirror, and just wear a damn visor already. It's like the Leafs aren't in enough trouble already without him looking like Mrs Sundin caught him coming home smelling like perfume, and lipstick on his collar. :P

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highthief

I think the face shield is the way to go - it's common practice in junior hockey, after all, so all the new guys would be well acquainted with it. That's how they did it with helmets - a grandfathered process. Once upon a time, goalies didn't wear masks because it "hurt their vision" or was "sissy". Ditto for helmets.

However, I don't think a lot of NHL bosses want to see it happen - they want A) crowds to see the faces of the stars and B) fights suck with face shields.

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silent_jay

Yes they really suck with a shield, especially when you try to throw and uppercut and catch the guys visor, not a pleasant feeling at all. I wore a visor when I was in Hull and London and didn't like it at all, of course during that time in junior you could wear the visor so far up on your forehead that it didn't protect anything, now they have changed the rules so it actually has to be covering your face.

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Leto

Either Stevie Y or Maybe you are thinking of Bryan Berard who received a stick to the eye. (link below)

I think that in his case, a visor could have prevented the injury, as the stick came from up front. But a lot of sticks could get caught under a visor as it comes up. The juniors grow up playing the game with cage protection, so that kind of cover shouldn't be a complaint of the players.

I think that seeing the faces is better television. The NHL will be hesitant on full face coverage for this reason. Visors may be the way to go, but only on a voluntary basis.

Berard link:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...30/ai_80678765

Text:

NO ONE CAN SAY BRYAN Berard is the kind of guy to take the money and run. He couldn't--he loves hockey too much.

That love of the sport has led the 24-year-old defenseman to undergo seven operations on an eye that was gruesomely injured in March 2000, give back the lion's share of a $6.5 million insurance settlement he received when it looked like he would never play again, and come to the New York Rangers camp on nothing more than a tryout contract.

"I love the game of hockey. That's why I'm doing it," Berard says.

On March 11, 2000, the question wasn't whether Berard would ever play again--it was whether he'd ever see out of his right eye again. While playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Ottawa, he was hit accidentally in the eye by Marian Hossa's stick. Blood streamed from the eye, and there appeared to be little question that a career that began with being selected No. 1 overall by Ottawa in 1995 and winning the Calder Trophy on Long Island two years later was over.

But Berard wasn't so willing to go quietly.


Even while lying in the hospital, his head wrapped in bandages after being told he might lose the eye, he told friends that he would play again. He underwent seven operations, enough to eventually give him 20/600 vision in the eye. In April 2001, one month after receiving the insurance settlement for what was regarded as a career-ending injury, he began working out again.

By summer, Berard was skating with some buddies near his Woonsocket, R.I., home; by September, he was practicing with the United States Olympic team--and stunning his countrymen with the progress he'd made.

In the meantime, he had become a free agent. The Maple Leafs, who took care of Berard and his family in the days and months after the injury, weren't going to offer a guaranteed seven-figure contract to a guy who might not be able to see.

When it became apparent that Berard might be able to play again, the Leafs were among the teams interested--but Berard was more interested in playing closer to home.

His former Toronto teammates understood.

"Teammates aren't there forever, but your family is," says winger Tie Domi, who kept in touch with Berard throughout the recuperation process. "I think that's really where his heart is--to be near his family; because they're the people who were with him through the whole thing."

Berard said he wanted to play for a rebuilding team, not a Cup contender like the Leafs. That, combined with the Big Apple's comparatively close proximity to Woonsocket, made the Rangers a perfect fit. After being fitted with a special contact lens that enabled him to meet the NHL's minimum of 20/400 vision in the eye, Berard was Broadway-bound.

The Rangers were the NHL's poorest defensive team last season, and aside from Brian Leetch, they were talent-poor on the back line. Berard's agent, former NHL defenseman Tom Laidlaw, worked out a deal with GM Glen Sather that gave the defenseman a tryout--at the cost of his insurance settlement. There were no guarantees when Berard suited up for his seven-day tryout during the last weekend of the exhibition season--if he couldn't play, he stood to lose everything.

But despite not having played competitively for 18 months, Berard didn't look out of place. He played well enough to parlay the two-game look-see into a deal that will pay him $2 million this sea, son and could earn him nearly $12 million over four seasons.

If he makes it through the four-year deal, the money is more than he would have made by not playing again--most of the first-year's salary will go toward paying off the insurance company, and the last three years are at the team's option. But Berard says the comeback is about pucks, not bucks.

"I hope the people in Toronto can see this wasn't a dollars decision," he says. "The Leafs were terrific to me, and the fans helped me through a difficult time. But it was a personal decision. Mentally, if I had gone back and started my career again in Toronto, there would have been so many reminders of what happened. That's why I think New York is a good place for me."

Amazingly, on opening night, just 19 months after his career appeared to be over, Berard was back in the NHL. Aside from the eye, he's actually in better physical shape than when he left--he's lost weight and is in better condition than when he won the Calder Trophy four years earlier. The question now is how well he can play.

If his early-season showing is any indication, Berard looks like he'll be able to stand up to the physical pounding that's part of the job description for an NHL defenseman. On opening night in Carolina, Hurricanes center Rod Brind'Amour drove Berard into the net in the first period, but Berard was able to get his arm up and avoid crashing into the crossbar. He also survived a fall in the third period, dove to break up a scoring opportunity, and played on both the power-play and penalty-killing units.

"I think he surprised a lot of people," says Rangers captain Mark Messier. "He came in and looked like he hadn't missed a beat. He's solid as a rock--he really Worked on his conditioning. You've got to feel good for him."

But the rust, if not his physical limitations, are visible, too. In the Rangers' home opener against Buffalo two nights later. Berard made an ill-timed poke check in the slot that led to one Sabres goal and he was burned on another tally when he left the area in front of the net open to throw a body check he didn't need to throw, leaving him out of position.

"I know I need to improve some parts of my game," he says.

Before the injury, the best part of Berard's game was his ability to move the puck--he was a good passer with a better-than-average shot and served as the quarterback of the Maple Leafs' power play. When he has the puck, Berard has looked like the player who was regarded as one of the league's better puck-moving defensemen--someone who was able to hold onto the puck for that extra half-second to make a play. But with almost no vision to the side, he knows he'll have some limitations.

"I have to keep the play in front of me," Berard says. "You're supposed to do that anyway. I'm trying to keep it simple--the first guy who's open gets the puck. That's how you're supposed to play the game."

Berard's sight in his right eye may be just enough to meet the league minimum; but it doesn't mean he'll necessarily have the on-ice vision he'll need on the blue line. With almost no peripheral vision, he figures to have trouble seeing players coming up alongside him. That could leave him open to being hit; it could also make him more likely to clip an opponent, or even a teammate, with his stick.

But he's got his sights set on the positive aspects of his return. Through his first six games, he had one assist and a plus-1 rating--not bad for someone who was forced to sit out more than a full season.

"Since the injury, I've always looked ahead," he says. "I feel fortunate to be here. A year ago, I didn't think I'd be in this situation--it looked like my career was going to be over. I'm excited to be back on the ice."

Perhaps his most emotional moment came on the season's second weekend, when he made his first trip back to Ottawa. It was the first time he and Hossa had been on the ice together since the accident.

Berard has never blamed Hossa, who visited him in the hospital after it happened. The two have also had several telephone conversations, including one the night before the October 13 game at the Corel Center.

"He called the hotel and we talked for a while," says Berard, who heard cheers at an arena where his unwillingness to play for the then-woeful Senators six years ago still earned him boos before the injury. "We've spoken several times since the incident. I appreciate the support I've received from him.

"It's been tough on him. I've made it clear that I have no hard feelings. I know it was an accident. He really struggled with it for the rest of the season and the playoffs."

Berard is unlikely to have the offensive flair that made him the No. 1 overall pick six years ago and drove expectations that he would become an elite player--a status he never achieved. He's worked harder to make his comeback than he ever did before he was injured--had he paid this much attention to conditioning in his pre-injury career, he'd have been the All-Star both the Senators and Islanders expected him to be.

But having sustained an injury that by all rights should have ended his career, Berard knows he's fortunate to have a second chance.

"I think he appreciates the game more after being away for 18 months," Laidlaw says. "He's just glad to be back."