Choosing Machismo Over Safety -- Nhl Players Refuse To Wear Protective Visors

NEW YORK - Rich Pilon insists he's still tough.

The New York Islanders' defenseman, whose value is better measured by his penalty minutes instead of goals or assists, reluctantly put a clear plastic visor on his helmet seven years ago after suffering a career-threatening eye injury.

"When you're wearing a visor a lot of other guys think that you're not as tough and they'll pick on you that much more," Pilon said. He said if he didn't wear one, he couldn't get insurance.

An estimated 80 percent of National Hockey League players compete without a visor, risking career-ending eye injuries. While players give reasons ranging from visors fogging up to them making it hard to breathe, Hall-of-Famer Denis Potvin said it has more to do with masculinity.

"It's got to be peer pressure completely," Potvin said.

The former Islanders defenseman felt the same kind of pressure when he began his career in 1973. Other players criticized him for wearing a helmet before they were mandatory. Today's players take the same kind of heat for wearing eye protection.

"You have to stand by what you believe," said Potvin, whose retired sweater No. 5 hangs above Pilon in the rafters of New York's Nassau Veterans' Memorial Coliseum.

Pilon, who has over 1,200 career penalty minutes to show for his toughness, said many young players who were required to wear a visor or full face mask while playing amateur hockey take them off when they get to the NHL to avoid ridicule.

Philadelphia Flyers second-year defenseman Janne Niinimaa was required to wear a visor while playing in Finland. The 22-year-old removed it before a game in the 1996 World Cup and hasn't worn it since.

"I feel more like a player when I don't have it on," Niinimaa said.

Fellow Flyers defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, who began wearing a visor after breaking his cheekbone in 1992, said players tend to rethink their choice later in their careers after realizing "they only have two eyes."

Florida Panthers defenseman Ed Jovanovski, who had to wear a visor while playing junior hockey in Canada, got rid of it for his first NHL season in 1995-96.

"When you come into the league, I think guys are looking forward to ripping them off," Jovanovski said. "I certainly was. I hated the visor."

While the NHL has required tougher helmets to prevent concussions and head injuries, there's no plan to require face protection.

"We've had discussions about it, but there's been no movement towards making them mandatory," said Brian Burke, the NHL's senior vice president and director of hockey operations.

That's fine with opponents of visors who say, among other things, that players who wear them are careless with their sticks.

"By not having the shield on there's a little more respect shown among the guys that play the game," said Panthers coach and General Manager Bryan Murray. "They're much more safety conscious."

Most visor-wearing players, like Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins and Mark Recchi of the Montreal Canadiens, stay away from physical play. Others -- such as instigators Claude Lemieux of the Colorado Avalanche and Ulf Samuelsson of the New York Rangers - have developed reputations as dirty players who hide behind their visors.

Since most visors only come down to the nose, they don't afford total protection. Flyers right wing Brantt Myhres has a standard response when someone hits him with a cheap shot: "Cross-check them right in the mouth. That's all you can do. They'll keep their stick down after that."

While some NHL general managers encourage their players to wear visors to protect the safety of their multimillion-dollar investments, others say they can do more harm than good.

"There can be some real tough injuries with visors," said Neil Smith, Rangers general manager. "A stick can get caught up (under the visor) and really rip you once it's stuck up there."

That's what happened to David-Alexandre Beauregard, who lost his left eye in 1994-95 when a stick got caught under his visor while playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Beauregard, a 1994 draft pick of the San Jose Sharks, returned the following season with one healthy eye and had 40 goals and 33 assists in 56 games. NHL rules prevent him from ever playing in the league.

About 110 NHL players wear visors, said Robin Burns, owner of Montreal-based Itech Sports Products, hockey's leading visor maker. About 90 percent of them use Itech, Burns said.

He agrees with Potvin on the reason why the other approximately 500 NHL players don't wear visors: Fear of being labeled as soft.

"It's almost like being back in the days of Jacques Plante (the first goalie to wear a mask), when goalies weren't considered macho if they put a mask on," he said. "Imagine a goalie going in the net today without a mask."