Marc Staal takes a puck to the face

[Buccaneerfan 16]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/marc-staal-i-should-have-been-wearing-a-visor/article10950157/?cmpid=rss1

[psh 25]

The way the article ends, it sounds like Marc has permanent vision impairment in his eye. Is that correct? I hadn't heard that before.

[fluggles 0]

The way the article ends, it sounds like Marc has permanent vision impairment in his eye. Is that correct? I hadn't heard that before.

He was only alluding to the fact that he could come back and play with his eye not being at 100 percent because the stronger eye will compensate.

[psh 25]

He was only alluding to the fact that he could come back and play with his eye not being at 100 percent because the stronger eye will compensate.

The injury is, indeed, expected to have a permanent affect on Marc. Very unfortunate and I hope that his being open about it does change some players' minds.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/nhl/story/_/id/9316066/marc-staal-new-york-rangers-injured-eye-probably-not-going-100-percent

[pizzakid13 5]

Sad.

Do the players have any say in yearly rule changes?

[Cosmic 178]

I can't fathom why guys act so surprised "when it happens to them," or these comments, "I just never thought it would happen to me." You have a potentially lethal projectile (the puck) travelling at 100 mph and getting deflected around like a pinball. How could one expect not to ever get hit in any part of the body? Not to mention that players lose their cool now and then, and use their sticks as weapons against other people's faces. The craziest situation was Vokoun getting slashed by his own defenseman (by mistake, apparently), with full protection, and still somehow ending up bloodied up.

The only defense that could be made against using the mandatory visor is the "it makes it tougher to find the puck when it is in my skates" logic. In this situation, Dion Phaneuf may very well have ended Michael Sauer's career, when Sauer could not find the puck quickly enough to avoid getting freightrained by Phaneuf.

Regardless, I feel like the NHL is about 50 years behind the NFL, in which players formerly did not wear face masks, but now the facemasks are simply a staple. The union and the culture will fight what seems to be common sense, but eventually, common sense will prevail, after another 2 or 3 Marc Stall type situations occur over the next 4 or 5 years.

[Dish 0]

I think that when you have a dangerous job you convince yourself it can't happen to you so that you can function. Sometimes this belief causes you to make poor decisions like not wearing a visor but I completely understand why it is necessary to think this way to do your job.