By Bryan Blom
Jim Dewar knows all too well the dangers of playing hockey without a visor.
After spending many years playing the sport he loves without facial protection, and receiving numerous injuries as a result, the Ottawa Senior Hockey League forced him to strap on a face mask in 1999.
“I used to come home with cuts, even stitches,” says Dewar, a veteran of several local senior hockey leagues. “My wife would just shake her head.”
At the beginning of the 1999-2000 season, the eight-team over-40 league made it mandatory for players to wear a visor that shields at least their eyes.
“I was a bit unsure of the rule at first,” says Dewar. “But now, if I had the choice, I wouldn’t go back to playing without eye protection.”
Many other players in the league seem to share Dewar’s opinion.
“I have always worn face protection,” says Jim Liston, a 12-year veteran. “I wouldn’t want to play without it.”
Each year the league hands out questionnaires to its players, and before last season, the participants voted in favour of the mandatory visor rule.
League president Richard Nelligan says the question was posed after he and other league associates examined hockey injury statistics in various articles.
“We found that a high percentage of facial injuries occurred in senior leagues such as ours,” says Nelligan. “We just decided it was appropriate to let the players decide for themselves.”
Nelligan says that while the response was generally positive, the league did lose a few players who refused to strap on a mask. He says many such players jumped to leagues that had optional face mask rules.
The Ottawa Senior Hockey League operates out of Tom Brown Arena on Bayview, which borders Centretown.
The visor debate has been a hot issue since last year, following Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Bryan Berard’s career-ending injury.
It has been proven the number of eye injuries in organized Canadian hockey has decreased drastically over the past two decades, since the implementation of mandatory helmet and visor regulations. According to the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA), 258 eye injuries were recorded during the 1975-76 season, 43 of which resulted in blindness. In 1999-2000, there were just 13 reported eye injuries across the country.
The CHA recommends players at all levels, especially in adult men’s leagues, use facial protection.
“I think it’s extremely important to protect the eyes,” says Todd Jackson, manager of the Safety and Risk Management division of the CHA’s Ottawa branch. However, at the senior recreational level, the choice to mandate visor regulations is up to the league.
In Canadian junior hockey, facial protection is mandatory. This legislation also includes proper visor modifications.
Despite tough regulations through the junior ranks, a low percentage of NHL players choose to wear a visor.
Regulations aside, Nelligan notes he had little difficulty convincing his players to cover their eyes. He says the majority of players in the Ottawa Senior Hockey League wore helmets and visors before the rules came into effect.
“It seems common sense to most of the guys,” he says.