During the 1959–60 NHL season, Plante wore a goaltender mask for the first time in a regular season game. Although Plante had used his mask in practice since 1956 after missing 13 games because of sinusitis, head coach Toe Blake did not permit him to wear it during regulation play. However, on November 1, 1959, Plante’s nose was broken when he was hit by a shot fired by Andy Bathgate three minutes into a game against the New York Rangers, and he was taken to the dressing room for stitches. When he returned, he was wearing the crude home-made goaltender mask that he had been using in practices. Blake was livid, but he had no other goaltender to call upon and Plante refused to return to the goal unless he wore the mask. Blake agreed on the condition that Plante discard the mask when the cut healed.

With that said, the one side of the argument I agree with is that teams should have a say in it. If teams want their players to wear a shield, so be it. However the NHLPA would never allow that, and is never going to agree to make shields mandatory… at least not for a few years.

To go over your points:

1. You have to wear a seat belt on an airplane because the companies that own the planes don’t want to get sued if you get hurt. They have a vested interest in you not getting hurt on their plane. Its also the law… which is in place to protect people who might not understand that a takeoff and landing on an airplane can be dangerous. There is no law that requires hockey players to wear a shield, and all players fully know the risk… the same is not true for airline passangers.

2. Hockey players have been playing without visors for decades, and only a handful of players have ever been seriously hurt as a result. Cocaine use on the other hand, has a negative impact on everyone that does it… and again, its against federal law. Though, while hard core drugs are illegal, we do allow people to chose to use cancer causing cigarettes that are very bad for them.

3. Helmets are different then shields. In virtually every game there is a case in which a player would probably have been hurt if he wasn’t wearing a helemt. The same is not true for visors. Injuries that would be prevented with visors are very rare compared with head injuries prevented with helemts. Not to mention that no one is going to die from not wearing a visor… but someone could (and has) died from the lack of a helmet.

4. I might not be effected by the change, but I’m not the one freaking out that players need to be protected from themselves. I think the choice should be theirs, its you that wants to take it out of their hands… so me not being effected has nothing to do with it. Besides, throwing my own argument back at me only proves you have no valid point.

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Look, they can come up with a thousand different pieces of equipment to protect against every freak injury possible in hockey, but where does it stop? There has to be a point at which you say “Ok, its the players choice if they want to wear more then basic protection on the ice”. Otherwise we will end up with NHL players wearing more armor then a 15th century knight… all because whiny fans who never played the game demanded it. And make no mistake about it…. visor preventable injuries ARE freak injuries.

I responded weeks ago. I pointed out that players are team assets. I pointed out that the fans come to see the players. I pointed out that contracts are guaranteed.

I suggested that players should have the choice, but should sign waivers and pay for their own insurance. I said players should not receive their guaranteed contracts if they receive a preventable injury due to a choice they make, such as going without a visor.

You proceeded to go on a rant about how I said they should be forced to wear a visor (despite my first sentence saying otherwise), how I must want to take hitting out of the game, and how I should stick to bowling or baseball.

I mean players are just as likely to suffer life changing injuries from clean hits, so does that mean the NHL should ban contact? Of course not. Players know the risk and chose to take it by playing the sport. Its the same with visors. Players know the risk of not wearing one, and some chose to take it.

So lets stop trying to play nanny for NHL players, and let them make some choices themselves. Its their life after all, not yours.

In August 1979, then president of the National Hockey League (NHL), John Ziegler, announced that protective helmets would become mandatory in the NHL. “The introduction of the helmet rule will be an additional safety factor,” he said. The only exception to the rule are players—after signing a waiver form—who signed professional contracts prior to June 1, 1979. Essentially, this grandfather clause allowed established NHL players to choose whether or not they wanted to wear helmets but forced all new players to wear them.