Top 10 Hockey Stories of 2004 and Equipment Issues
Jamie Fitzpatrick posts his Top 10 Hockey Stories of 2004 on About.com.
A quickie look at his list:
- Lockout Kills the NHL Season
- Todd Bertuzzi
- A new crop of players winning the Cup with the Lightning
- Canada dominating the World Cup
- Finland hockey doing well in the World Cup
- St. Louis winning MVP
- Possible new rules coming to the NHL (and being tested now in the AHL)
- Mike Danton and David Frost
- The US winning the Juniors Championship
- More players not wearing visors
I’m sure we all have our own order, but I’d say most lists would look pretty similar. My notable order change is that I might bump up the Danton case a bit; and probably wouldn’t separate WC stories.
One item I can’t say I’d focus on is the visor issue. I can’t stand visors, reason being - I’ve put one (well, a couple) on. I really don’t understand how anyone can see out of those things. Perhaps it’s that my eye sight isn’t too great in the first place (I wear glasses, not contacts, and nothing when I play) and that I had fog/sweat issues up the wazoo. I would rather wear a cage. Seriously. But the NHL won’t allow you to do that. You must have a medical condition to wear a full shield or cage. So while I don’t care for the half-shield personally, I think players should have all available options to them.
Flames’ Captain Jarome Iginla wears a visor and plays a rough kind of game that all fans seem to love. His only beef with it is the extra penalty you receive if you instigate a fight with a visor.
“I think the rule for the instigator, giving an extra two (minutes) because of the visor, is a dumb rule,” Iginla said. “You hear all the talk about trying to help the players’ safety then (the NHL has) a penalty that penalizes for having a visor.
He then went on to say how he shouldn’t have put his team down in the first place, like any Captain would.
Of course, some argue that mandatory visors in Juniors is one of the reasons sticks seem to be flying at all heights. That’s a possibility, coupled with the fact that sticks weigh nothing nowadays, but it’s virtually impossible to take something protective away from the players to simply try and instill some respect into players and just hope they’re careful enough to keep their sticks down and that no pucks go flying. Also, Yzerman’s situation, that Jamie cites, is puck-inflicted damage, so there’s no cure-all even if players somehow kept all sticks down.
This really should all be player’s choice - and they should have all options available, including a full shield or cage.
Visors and such aren’t the only pieces of equipment that need to be addressed. Sticks should have minimum weights IMO and possibly be made only from wood. Keep them down a bit more, they’re a hell of a lot cheaper to make and buy, and how often do player’s sticks seem to be snapping during play recently? It’s obvious these things have multiple issues and players were able to shoot and score just fine with wooden sticks in the past. Take a lesson from baseball and the wooden bats-only rule here, they’re actually doing this one right.
Other pieces of equipment that need toning down are shoulder pads and elbow pads. The plastics used to make these “pads” have turned some of them into weapons. There needs to be some sort of well-researched study done to find out what level of hardness can be used to protect a player best and minimize harm to another on impact.
Let’s start to be safe and smart at the same time. When building these pads and guards, think of protecting the player wearing it - and the other players around him, and let’s not fool ourselves over how some things may be used. After all, with all the differing opinions out there, none of us want to see any career-ending injuries that could have been prevented.
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