Marc Staal Injury Revives Mandatory Visor Debate- Bruce’s Thought Of The Day

The gruesome injury to Rangers defensemen Marc Staal has brought back the visor debate. Should they or shouldn't they be mandatory?

Staal got hit right in the eye by a deflected puck in the tail end of the Rangers 4-2 victory over the Flyers on Tuesday night. hr writhed around on the ice and that was difficult to watch. he left the ice on his own but clearly was not in good shape, holding a towel to his eye.

As usual happens when a player gets hit in the face with a puck is " Should visors be mandatory"? My answer is no..It's not  a hard core no but no none the less and here is why. A visor may have helped Staal but no one can say for sure that it would have. Pucks do sneek under the visor and clip players in the face. Happens often. That's reason number 1.

Reason number 2- It has been shown the more "protection" players wear, in any sport, means more liberties are taken by others players and more cheap shots. Some think the way to solve the NFL and NHL concussion problems are to remove helmets from players, the opponents feel like they can be rougher, tougher, and cheesier and dirtier because players are "protected."  Not sure I agree with that but the argument does have some valid points in my opinion.

Another negative for hockey players and visors is many players are uncomfortable wearing them. They cloud up, They scratch. they get wet. Another words sometimes with a visor your sight is reduced. Reduced sight can lead to injury. I totally understand this argument.

Now let me state that if I played hockey I would wear a visor. I think the positive outweigh the negative. But I am not a mandatory type of guy. For any athlete other then a pro athlete I am all for mandatory. Another words amateur, kids, college, high school etc I am all about mandatory. But when you get to the pro level you are old enough to make a choice. However deal with the ramifications of that choice!

Visor use is up in the NHL. It is now believed that 73% of players wear a visor. That's up 4% from just a year ago. Players are choosing to wear them. Smart choice.

Back to Staal for a moment. The Rangers released a statement Wednesday night saying Staal's condition has improved significantly and he was expected to make a full recovery. Thank goodness for that. I am betting anyone watching that game that saw that incident that plays hockey or has kids that play hockey even on a recreation basis is wearing a visor in their next game. Smart!