Marc Staal's helmet stayed on and he ended up missing half of a season.
What could have prevented Staal's concussion, is a visor. Instead of his face impacting the ice, the visor would have taken the impact.
I once got tripped up and landed square on my face. Except my full facial protection saved me. No concussion. Nothing. Up and back into the play.
I understand its their choice, for now anyway, but at some point common sense needs to take over and these guys need to start using the available protection.
Visors (I'd prefer full face masks, don't need fighting, don't need to see their faces either), neck guards, wrist guards, cut resistant socks and jerseys, foot protectors.
None of these things prohibit play. And all of them could prevent career/life altering/ending injuries.
NHL talks a big game about safety, and does nothing to really solve issues.
Eventually, players need to accept that they are investments, and the team is above their "cool factor".
NCAA gets away fine with no fights and full facial protection. No worries about eye injuries. But injuries still happen. Kreider broke his jaw getting hit by a puck.
There's a linesman in a game against the Flyers I believe it was, Rangers vs Flyers, several years ago. There was a collision by two players near the boards, in the neutral zone, a skate came up and hit the linesman in the face. Nothing was mentioned other then he got hit and hope he's well. Months later it was revealed that he required full facial reconstruction, he suffers from vertigo permanently, he had to learn how to speak again. It was a life altering event.
He had a visor on. A mask would have prevented that.
Zhednik nearly died because he got his neck slit. A neck guard would have prevented that.
Had Sauer had a mask, the straps would have kept his helmet secure. No hitting his bare head on the top dasher.
Every game I worry about some incident like this happening. And its a miracle it doesn't happen more often.
Simple pieces of equipment can prevent these injuries.