[Coach]

Friday afternoon and just looking for some discussion.

I watched an interview with Bouma where I guess Bob Hartley said he wanted him to keep his cage, because he's never seen someone so fearless. I've thought about this before, but it brought it back into my head, why not?

What is wrong with NHL players wearing cages? With all the talk of injuries and concussions, you'd think the first they would look to is something like cages. They can greatly reduce the impact a headshot makes.

Shot blocking is seriously dangerous. I'm honestly shocked that more people haven't died doing it, especially with the velocity on some players' shots. Players walk away from hockey with missing teeth, broken facial bones, in some cases losing eye sight. How has the thought, "why don't I wear a cage?" popped into their minds?

It's a pure macho issue, there is no other explanation. NFL players wear cages, and arguably take less impact on hits than hockey players. Hockey also has the added bonuses of: each player having a graphite spear that can be wielded irresponsibly; two razer sharp blades per person, sometimes sliding wildly into goalies or piles of people with very little control; and a hard, frozen rubber disk with sharp edges being whipped around an enclosed surface at over 100 mph. How are these guys not armoured to the teeth? A neck guard even (and we've seen some horrific incidents involving a lack of those). I can understand when they were gigantic rolls of padding that choked you, but they are barely more than a turtleneck at this point. Is it toughness, or stupidity?

Hit me CP.

EDIT: I think I should add that I have played hockey my whole life, and I have worn and understand the discomfort of a cage. But I never found it to be a huge hindrance on my play when compared with having something to stop a puck from smashing my face while blocking a shot.