On the surface, the argument over facial protection is straightforward. A player is less likely to sustain facial injuries during play the more protection he is wearing.
The gladiator effect, however, is a crucial point that is frequently ignored in the debate as a whole.
The phrase refers to the idea that a player feels more invincible on the ice, like a gladiator in full armor, the more protection he wears.
Players are more likely to behave recklessly on the ice when wearing a complete cage, whether through high-sticking or unnecessarily violent body checking.
The gladiator effect, in my opinion, is unquestionably genuine. Players put their heads and faces in places they might otherwise avoid since wearing a cage gives you the impression that you are more protected than you would be with a visor. This holds true when delivering and receiving blows, deflecting shots, and in post-whistle scrums.
So, why do hockey players struggle with facial injuries when there is a means to prevent pucks, sticks, and skates from harming? The majority of individuals would undoubtedly want to retain their teeth attached and their visage unchanged.
Here’s what we got and why NHL players actually don’t wear cages…
Why Don’t NHL Players Wear Cages?
• Because NHL regulations expressly forbid this, nobody wears one, and it would be dangerous in crashes.
• NHL players do not favor wearing cages. It wasn’t until the late 1970s or early 1980s that helmets became popular, and even then, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that visors became popular.
According to NHL regulations, visor-style protectors, rather than cages, must be worn by all players besides the goaltender.
The amateur National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires players to wear full facial protection, although they are free to pick a wire cage if they so wish. In reality, the majority of professional hockey leagues dictate that their players wear visors.
Despite the law requiring visors for new players, more than 30 players are still not wearing them. NHL players take their time implementing safety measures and aren’t putting pressure on the NHLPA to amend the regulation.
If we recall Staal getting hit in the face by that puck a few years ago, you need to understand that the injury would not have occurred if Staal had been wearing a visor; instead, he was only sporting a helmet, leaving his eye open to pucks.
Since then, NHL veterans who are eligible to go visorless have started wearing visors far more frequently.
The NHL rule does have certain exceptions, though. For instance, it’s fairly uncommon for a player with a face injury to wear a complete combination cage/visor style helmet to protect the injured area.
Injuries to the cheekbone, jaw, nose, and eye region frequently go into this.
To be fair, there are very few NHL injuries that actually result in career-ending damage and could have been avoided with full facial protection.
On the subject of full face protection, the NHL and NHLPA largely concur.
The NHL is okay without a mandate right now because they want fans to be able to identify their superstars, and they are more concerned with the concussion discussion than the mandate itself.
Because players don’t want full face protection, the NHLPA is okay with it (for the most part). When it’s possible, most players immediately lose their cage or bubble.
In the end, if games lost due to injury were a problem, something would be done about it. Cases are currently very rare compared to the number of games all clubs and players play in an NHL season.
An eye injury is essentially a “career terminating face injury.” Nearly everything else is recoverable and frequently played through. The visors essentially shield the eyes, and because they are so common, there haven’t been many eye injuries.
The Best Protection is a Full One, But…
The following article published in the American Medical Journal shows why different levels of play require varying amounts of protection: A comparison of facial protection and the incidence of head, neck, and facial injuries in Junior A hockey players. A function of individual playing time.
According to the study, full protection is preferable to partial protection, and partial protection is preferable to no protection.
If you consider injury risk to the eyes, hockey is one of the safest sports on the earth, provided you wear full facial protection.
In fact, players without a face mask had an almost five times higher risk of eye injury compared to players wearing a visor, and players wearing full facial protection have no such risk.
Despite this, injuries in hockey continue to be frequent because of the physical characteristics of the game.
Visceral injuries are not nearly as easily avoidable with a complete face mask on as external injuries like eye injuries, facial lacerations, and fractured bones in the face.
The NHL and AHL first used facial coverage to protect the area around the eyes, while amateur and lower league sports adopted it to protect the complete face.
Before the visor was adopted, there had been a number of serious eye and facial injuries in the NHL; yet, players are still experiencing injuries to other parts of the face while wearing them, such as missing teeth.
Sticks and pucks commonly cause these wounds when they hit players in the lower face area behind the visor. Additionally, sticks and pucks can still hurt people by piercing visors.
The NHL has made great strides in head and facial protection, but it still hasn’t made full cages a requirement, and there are currently no plans to do so.
It’s extremely doubtful that wire cages will be worn in the future because paying fans prefer to know their favorite players easily, and the league is in business to make money.
The Beginning of Cages
Players didn’t wear helmets in the early years of collegiate hockey, much like they did in the pros.
But that all changed in the late 1950s when the first head gear for the sport was introduced: leather helmets without facial shields.
The leather was replaced with plastic as technology advanced, but players were still without facial protection for another 20 or more years.
Throughout the NCAA, full cages weren’t required until 1978.
According to the NCAA, full cages were primarily used to protect players’ eyes, even though other injuries, including face lacerations and concussions, were frequent before the regulation change.
Teams have since worn full-face shields in the shape of full metal cages and full, transparent shields, sometimes known as bubbles.
Visors vs. Cages
A wire cage-style face protector, often composed of metal or composite mesh, is also affixed to the front of a helmet. Since a cage covers the full face down to the chin, it provides more protection than a visor or shield.
The cage comprises multiple metal bars that are spaced apart enough to ensure that a player’s vision is not obstructed. The wire bars are built close enough to shield a player’s face from flying pucks and sticks.
Several hybrid full-face masks are available, including a cage on the bottom and a visor on the top. Additionally, clear polycarbonate complete visors that cover the entire face and chin are also available (known as a fishbowl).
Visors provide a larger range of vision but can fog up easily. Aluminum cages are more expensive but much lighter and offer full facial protection. However, cages are heavier.
Minor pedantic point: Visors are compulsory for players *who started after 2013*. A select few players are still exempt from the visor requirement.
Interestingly, some exempt athletes chose to switch to using a visor. Using the Red Wings as an example, Jonathan Ericsson is exempt from wearing a visor and chooses not to.
Niklas Kronwall was not required to wear a visor, yet he still did (albeit very high up, at an angle that covers almost none of his face.)
Full fishbowls are permitted. However, several guys have also been seen with fishbowls with the upper visor removed but the lower portion still attached. (Abdelkader did this a few years back while his mouth was wired shut.)
Other players in a fight or conflict risk getting hurt because of cages. A finger can be brutally dislocated by being hooked in someone’s cage. I couldn’t find any particular language in the regulations that forbade them.
What Makes More NHL Players Wear Visors?
A clear, impact-resistant polycarbonate visor or shield that typically covers the eyes and extends as far down as the nose is fitted to the front of every NHL player’s helmet.
The American Hockey League (AHL) mandated visors in 2006–07, and the NHL followed suit in 2013–14 with a somewhat different rule.
Starting with the 2013–14 season, all players who had participated in fewer than 25 NHL games were required to wear visors in accordance with Rule 9.7.
Since they had more than 25 games of experience when the rule was imposed, many players still competed in the league without wearing a visor.
