"I don’t like wearing a helmet in warm up. As a kid, I liked watching guys in warm ups without a helmet … it was just something I always wanted to do when I got to this level. You might get hurt, but it’s a chance you take,” Jason Spezza told a media scrum before he hit the ice in a recent game against the Los Angeles Kings.
Karma didn’t wait long to teach the Senators star a lesson. A few minutes later, during warm up, a puck that deflected off the glass hit Spezza and cut him above the right eye.
This is just one of several recent incidents in the NHL in which helmetless players have been injured during warm up. The incident that first brought attention to the issue was when Edmonton Oilers' Taylor Hall fell during warm up and was clipped by a teammate’s skate. Hall had to get 30 stiches, stretching from his scalp to above his eyebrow and was forced to miss two games.
The players who usually opt-out of wearing helmets during warm-up are brushing off the incident, calling it a “freak accident.” Meanwhile, everyone else is saying that not wearing a helmet on the ice, when pucks are flying everywhere, is just plain stupid.
There is a tough-guy mentality and macho culture among many of the players in the NHL. You can easily spot these players on the ice – during warm up, they aren’t wearing helmets. During the game, they don’t wear visors.
A poll conducted by The Hockey News found that 30 per cent of players currently choose not to wear visors during games. The good news is this number has dropped significantly since last season, when 40 per cent of players played without visors. The decrease could be due to the number of injuries that keep happening to visor-less players. Remember in October, when Chris Pronger was hit in the eye by a stick? The superstar missed several weeks of play due to the injury.
Why players are still choosing to opt-out of wearing protective gear is a mystery. It will inevitably lead to injuries – or as the tough guys prefer to call them, “freak accidents” – and it sets a poor example for young players that look up to NHL stars.
The only situation in which a player could maybe get away with not wearing a helmet is during the skills competition in the All-Star game, where the events are contained and pucks aren’t flying in every direction.
There is no NHL rule about wearing visors during games. The NHL has stated that it would like to enforce a mandatory visor rule, but it won’t do so until players are on board. The NHL Players' Association has maintained visors should be a personal choice. There also isn’t an NHL rule about wearing helmets during warm-up, although there are several teams making it mandatory, including the New York Rangers and the Colorado Avalanche.
Players and the NHLPA need to make safety a bigger priority. They need to lose the tough-guy mentality and realize that player safety should come first.
Playing professional hockey is these players’ full-time job. No other workplace would dare risk the safety of their employees by making a safety concern a choice – so why does the NHL?
Does not wearing a helmet during warm-up make you tougher? Does choosing to not wear a visor during a game, in which physical play is crucial, make you a more respected player?
No. It just makes you plain stupid.