Head Shots, Visors, and I’m Guessing More Rules
No sooner had the NHL settled the head hits issue, and now they’re looking at visors, all because one of the gooniest guys in hockey, Chris Pronger, took a shot to the eye. I like that Pronger’s replacement, former Blackhawk defenseman Matt Walker, has come out staunchly against wearing a visor saying “It’s a personal thing.” Walker further argued that,
“The stick can get underneath your visor…It’s coming straight up, it’s not coming up horizontally. It’s not hard to come up under the visor and get stuck and hit you two or three times coming out instead of just once.”
Not only is it still possible to high-stick someone wearing a visor, but visors make play unbearable for some players. As the player gets hot and sweaty, the visor fogs up and causes decreased visibility. So until they make Rain-X or visor wipers, it should be a player’s choice whether to wear a visor or not since it’s his career on the line.
Look at it this way, is the coach going to cut the player slack when he misses a shot or doesn’t block a shot due to poor visibility? No, of course not. That player’s going to get an earful. It’s bad enough that incoming players aren’t given the choice whether to wear a visor or not and all you see on the bench are guys constantly wiping the fog off their visors, but now the NHL is considering making visors mandatory and affecting the play of veteran players?
A couple of years ago I tongue-in-cheek said that the NHL would so severely scrutinize the game that the players would find playing hockey odious and the fans would end up bored. Unfortunately, it looks like that’s what’s happening. Hockey now is boring. I’m having a hard time watching it because the players look afraid to move, and with the risk of fines, suspensions and yet more burdensome rules applied to their play, can you blame them? Can you blame us fans for being bored? Hockey now looks more like a tennis match — back and forth and back and forth — than a hockey game. Boo NHL. As predicted you are ruining the game of hockey.
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