As for the visors, until the NHL forces these guys to wear them, guys will always take the risk so they can have better vision. Not saying it’s right but if you asked Marc Staal prior to last night he probably would’ve laughed at the idea of visors.

flyers fan: but for real, my stomach clenched when i saw him squirming. you don’t see an NHL player do that every day. hopefully he’s ok.

The “Brad Richards injury conspiracy theory”:

Richards decides that throwing himself head first into the boards in a 1-0 regular season game when his team is already on the powerplay is worth possibly breaking his neck and never walking again. He decides to use poor Patrick Kaleta as a scapegoat and eagerly awaits Kaleta to approach him from behind. He then proceeds to throw himself head first into the boards and squirms in agonizing pain, which of course was all a show. After the penalty is called he decides that going to the locker room would add credibility to his scam even though the penalty has already been called.

After the game he bribes Ryan Miller to say during an interview that it was a bad hit that he doesn’t like to see in the game. Richards then calls up Mike Millberry and Keith Jones and bribes them to both agree that it was a terrible hit. The next day, to add further credibility to his story, Richards sits out of an important game against the flyers.

Makes perfect sense, huh?

OR….maybe Kaleta threw a bad hit.

With that being said, I really hope Staal is alright. Rarely do you see hockey players, some of the toughest athletes out there, react the way he did after that puck hit him. Scary stuff to watch.