Location: Wondering when # became hashtag and not a number sign.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
What part of mandatory is unclear about it being mandatory to wear helmets to play in the NHL?
Are you telling me the NHL cannot force a player to wear a helmet right now?
They did, arbitrarily, force players to wear helmets, and any player currently in the league that didn't want to had to sign a waiver for their health in order not to. Further, any player NOT in the league at the time of the rule change was required (mandatory) to wear a helmet if they wanted to play an NHL game.
That means...not mandatory as they had a choice. Some players played for another 15 years without HAVING to wear a helmet. period.
Now, to get this back on track....read the article i posted. The NHLPA has stopped the league from making visors mandatory...what part of this are you disagreeing with?
First off I think they are stupid if they don't wear one. But I also believe they are professional players and have the right to make their own decisions. The eye injury could end your career but so could a terrible knee injury, so should they make all players wear knee braces?
Cage I get. I'll never play with a cage again if I can help it.
Visor? No brainer, I rock a visor and love it. Zero percent of me has issue seeing out of a visor, and when they get dirty or wet... that's all snow and grime that would have been spraying me in the face... and I quickly wipe when I'm on the bench.
If hockey were any other sport, not only would everyone be wearing visors, they would all be wearing full face shields.
This.
A full face shield of some kind has to be designed. It should be simlar to the what players wear in the NFL except with a visor to also protect eyes from pucks and sticks.
The sad part of this is that hockey leagues are actually going backwards to emulate the NHL. The NCAA announced they are scrapping their full face shield rule:
Once again, the NHL totally drops the ball when it comes to player safety and equipment regulation. No more hard plastic shoulder/elbow pads. Full face protection is required.
Can owners mandate this with individual players? I could see owners demanding that there be a clause in certain players' contracts that requires them to wear a visor based on ownership's investment.
I imagine the owner could put it in the contract. They can put restrictions on activities outside of hockey.
But the player would individually have to agree, and I doubt the union would like the precedence it would set
It reduces their peripheral vision. Affects how well you can see the puck when your not looking directly at it, or when it's moving beside you, and also affects how well you can see what players beside you are doing.
I read this morning that 8 of the top 10 and 17 of the top 20 scorers in the league right now wear visors. Doesn't seem to be affecting them too much.
Location: Wondering when # became hashtag and not a number sign.
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The FAN just played an interview with James Neal who took a stick in the eye whule wearing a visor....they asked him if it should be mandatory, grandfathered in, or nothing at all.
His answer was....nothing at all. He stated if guys dont want to wear one, then they shouldnt have to.
There's your mentality for this and why the NHL doesn't have it mandated....yet.
It is pretty slow moving but progress is being made. If you look at the Flames team from 2004, less than half were wearing visors (and Leopold looked weird). Now only a handful of a guys are not wearing them.
A visor used to be looked down upon by "tough" hockey players but now some of the toughest players on the team (Iggy, Jackman etc.) are wearing visors. So while mandatory visors weren't included in the CBA, there is some progress being made when it comes to the mentality towards them and hopefully we are close to getting in done (before someone else loses a career).
Not sure if mentioned already but they had Brandon Prust on the FAN this morning. He was asked about this and said there was an unwritten rule with fighters that you never wear a visor (makes sense I guess) so he doesn't wear one for that reason. But he did go on to say that the league should probably make them mandatory and he would happily wear one if they did. Sounded like he was hinting that mandatory visors might reduce fighting a bit and he'd be okay with that.
I read this morning that 8 of the top 10 and 17 of the top 20 scorers in the league right now wear visors. Doesn't seem to be affecting them too much.
It's believe it's mostly defense men that don't wear them. I understand it helps them deflect pucks and defend 1 on 1 better. I'm not certain how much of a difference it makes, but it seems to be large enough that a lot of defense men don't wear one.
Berard will always be one of those "what if" players. What if that never happened, how would his career would have panned out. Could have been an all time great. He was that good back then.
