Reaction to last helmetless players

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

I’ve read/heard somewhat recent comments by Langway (last 5-6 years) where he basically said he’d still go helmetless today if he were allowed. Those guys were a different breed.

Honestly, I was one of those kids that grew up with the full cage & helmet, every game since timbits, just saw it as the default. Used to think it was caveman mentality not wanting to wear the visor, like how Malhotra immediately switched to a visor after his eye injury.

Then I tried just a visor with a helmet (risky decision when I couldnt change my helmet over from refereeing at a shinny) and I couldnt believe it. Found myself saying all the same things, you cant see as well with the cage, having your vision as open as possible makes a world of difference on the ice. I can totally understand why players insisted on dropping from cage-visor-no visor even with the risks.

I have to think they took it a little easier on him. The way the game was already being played in 1994, it would be sheer luck to get through a season without an incident if everyone was playing him hard.

Keeping in mind, how many other players were still playing with those useless old Jofa helmets in 1994? You might as well wear a party hat

 

[tarheelhockey]

Keeping in mind, how many other players were still playing with those useless old Jofa helmets in 1994? You might as well wear a party hat

Ah, the old "single layer of thin plastic with a strip of styrofoam glued inside" method of protecting your skull from a massive collision.

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Ah, the old "single layer of thin plastic with a strip of styrofoam glued inside" method of protecting your skull from a massive collision.

Check out the inside view

JOFA Helmets | Halos of Hockey: The JOFA 235 51

Im trying to be specific here and point out the 235 as the deathtrap, Im sure Jofa has produced helmets that could get a CSA cert, but the 235 was reputedly never intended for hockey in the first place.

 

[vaspa]

I got one of those useless old Jofas myself and wear it when I take my wife's nieces aged 6 and 8 to local rink or to the lake at the cottage to skate and say that even uncle Vaspa has to wear a protective helmet even if he's an adult and can skate well. I expect them to call me on my BS probably next winter

 

[tarheelhockey]

the 235 was reputedly never intended for hockey in the first place.

Interesting... any idea on what it was intended for? Maybe something like bandy, where you could fall and hit your head but probably will not be driven to the ice as in hockey?

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Interesting... any idea on what it was intended for? Maybe something like bandy, where you could fall and hit your head but probably will not be driven to the ice as in hockey?

White water rafting apparently

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Honestly, I was one of those kids that grew up with the full cage & helmet, every game since timbits, just saw it as the default. Used to think it was caveman mentality not wanting to wear the visor, like how Malhotra immediately switched to a visor after his eye injury.

Then I tried just a visor with a helmet (risky decision when I couldnt change my helmet over from refereeing at a shinny) and I couldnt believe it. Found myself saying all the same things, you cant see as well with the cage, having your vision as open as possible makes a world of difference on the ice. I can totally understand why players insisted on dropping from cage-visor-no visor even with the risks.

i played with a cage since i started, around six years old i think. but at the beginning of the 90s there was thing sexy new equipment craze. easton aluminum sticks, and itech visors (full face). for multiple years, i begged and begged my parents for a visor, which weren't cheap. finally they got me one for christmas and i absolutely hated it. not only did it fog up like crazy so you had to open it on the bench to air it out, i really just missed feeling the air on my face when i skated. i rode it out for the rest of the season before putting the cage back on the next season. my parents were not pleased.

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

i played with a cage since i started, around six years old i think. but at the beginning of the 90s there was thing sexy new equipment craze. easton aluminum sticks, and itech visors (full face). for multiple years, i begged and begged my parents for a visor, which weren't cheap. finally they got me one for christmas and i absolutely hated it. not only did it fog up like crazy so you had to open it on the bench to air it out, i really just missed feeling the air on my face when i skated. i rode it out for the rest of the season before putting the cage back on the next season. my parents were not pleased.

Exact same experience here, but much less expensive (my first year of timbits was 1998 or 99?)

I should clarify that it felt like it was particularly liberating to look at the puck in the range of view below the visor with nothing between my eyes and what Im looking at (ie when stickhandling).

There was a quote from the 89 Vancouver series where Linden got cut and had to return wearing a visor. He said something like he didnt like it because he found himself looking at the visor instead of through it, which sounded ridiculous, but I honestly can say I had the same experience

 

[tarheelhockey]

White water rafting apparently

I mean... this is technically white water... right?

 

[MarkusKetterer]

I so wish we could see helmetlessness back. I know it's impossible due to security concerns, but it looked so much better for the spectator.

Apparently they changed it so you can go helmetless if you want to. But that’s a little redundant with the whole “lose your lid and go back to the bench” rule they introduced last year.

Damn Torey Krug ruining it for the rest of us

 

[tarheelhockey]

Apparently they changed it so you can go helmetless if you want to.

Wait, what? I’m pretty sure they didn’t

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Wait, what? I’m pretty sure they didn’t

Read that link from the 1st page where it says at the end that they amended it (in 1992) to where players can go helmetless if they choose to. I mean, not a solid source, hence why I said “apparently”.

 

[JianYang]

My only thought of the helmetless players back in the early 90s as a kid was man, these guys must be old.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

My only thought of the helmetless players back in the early 90s as a kid was man, these guys must be old.

if i hadn't just looked it up i wouldn't have thought mactavish was 2+ years older than gretzky, messier, kurri, anderson, and moog and a year older than lowe/huddy. i always thought of him as part of the younger wave with tikkanen, muni, and steve smith.

weird also to think that fuhr is more in the age range of muni/smith than of gretzky and those other guys.

 

[JMCx4]

Apparently they changed it so you can go helmetless if you want to. ...

Wait, what? I’m pretty sure they didn’t

Read that link from the 1st page where it says at the end that they amended it (in 1992) to where players can go helmetless if they choose to. I mean, not a solid source, hence why I said “apparently”.

Fact-checking per this 2016 article from The Hockey News ...

... Gimmick: Making helmets optional for players so that they are more recognizable during TV broadcasts, thus making them more marketable.
The Skinny: At the start of the 1979-80 season, helmets became mandatory for all players, though any player who signed a pro contract before then could opt out. Throughout the 1980s, the number of NHLers without helmets declined, and by 1992-93 only five players opted not to wear one. Silly players! How are fans going to recognize you from the nosebleed seats — or on TV — with your head covered up? So too thought the NHL Board of Governors, who voted to make helmets optional prior to the start of the 1992-93 season. Any player, regardless of when he entered the league, could ditch his helmet so long as he signed a waiver absolving the league for an injury. Not coincidentally, the league’s new U.S. television deal with ESPN and ABC started that year too.
How Long Did it Last? Not counting the five veterans who were already going helmetless in 1992-93, either four games or eleven games, depending on who you ask.
Did it Work? Nope! Whereas the league probably hoped that Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and other stars would forgo their helmets, only one player — Greg Smyth, an enforcer with the Calgary Flames — took up the NHL on its offer, but not to mug the TV cameras. “I grew up watching the Maple Leafs play without helmets,” said Smyth, “so it was something I just wanted to try.” According to a 1993 article in The Los Angeles Times, Smyth played three games in 1992-93 without a helmet, was injured in a fight, then resumed wearing one. ... “There wasn’t one particular incident or anything that changed my mind,” (Smyth) said. “It was a long time ago. I don’t recall any [head] injury. I had a couple of fights. I didn’t get hit in the head or with a high stick or anything. I played ten games without a helmet, then put it back on.” ...

 

[tarheelhockey]

Read that link from the 1st page where it says at the end that they amended it (in 1992) to where players can go helmetless if they choose to. I mean, not a solid source, hence why I said “apparently”.

Oh, my fault... I thought you meant they did that last year

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Fact-checking per this 2016 article from The Hockey News ...

Didn’t he also have a huge stache going on too?

 

[JianYang]

if i hadn't just looked it up i wouldn't have thought mactavish was 2+ years older than gretzky, messier, kurri, anderson, and moog and a year older than lowe/huddy. i always thought of him as part of the younger wave with tikkanen, muni, and steve smith.

weird also to think that fuhr is more in the age range of muni/smith than of gretzky and those other guys.

Yeah it's kinda crazy to think now that even in 1997, only 23 years ago, we had a helmetless player in the league in the era when we were seeing some devastating headshots.

Mac T played a hard nosed game too, but I don't recall him ever getting smoked in the head.

 

[JMCx4]

Didn’t he also have a huge stache going on too?

This Puck Junk article contains a photo of Smyth in the '92-'93 season without a helmet (though it looks like a warmups photo to me). I wouldn't describe his mustache as "huge" by any stretch. His front teeth, maybe ...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Yeah it's kinda crazy to think now that even in 1997, only 23 years ago, we had a helmetless player in the league in the era when we were seeing some devastating headshots.

Mac T played a hard nosed game too, but I don't recall him ever getting smoked in the head.

i never noticed anyone letting up but i always wondered by the mid-90s whether there was just the understanding among players that you don't smoke mactavish in the head

like for example, i joined a rec league my second year of college. you know, against grown men. it wasn't full contact but there was some, and i still had basically the body of a 14 year old. i didn't ask for it and i didn't want it but there seemed to be the understanding that you didn't ride me too close along the boards. same for some of the really old guys.

 

[tarheelhockey]

This Puck Junk article contains a photo of Smyth in the '92-'93 season without a helmet (though it looks like a warmups photo to me). I wouldn't describe his mustache as "huge" by any stretch. His front teeth, maybe ...

Looks like he’s wearing a mouthguard with no helmet.

The National Hockey League, ladies and gentlemen.

 

[JianYang]

i never noticed anyone letting up but i always wondered by the mid-90s whether there was just the understanding among players that you don't smoke mactavish in the head

like for example, i joined a rec league my second year of college. you know, against grown men. it wasn't full contact but there was some, and i still had basically the body of a 14 year old. i didn't ask for it and i didn't want it but there seemed to be the understanding that you didn't ride me too close along the boards. same for some of the really old guys.

That scenario did run through my mind, and it relates to the idea that players may have lost some respect for each other as the equipment started evolving. Here's Mac T in the middle of it, without a helmet, but nobody is really looking for his head the same way as Lafontaine got knocked out, for example. It could also be that MAcT was more self aware of his surroundings though without that helmet.... Perhaps a combination of both.

 

[The Panther]

if i hadn't just looked it up i wouldn't have thought mactavish was 2+ years older than gretzky, messier, kurri, anderson, and moog and a year older than lowe/huddy. i always thought of him as part of the younger wave with tikkanen, muni, and steve smith.

weird also to think that fuhr is more in the age range of muni/smith than of gretzky and those other guys.

Yes, MacT first played NHL in 1979-80 (same as Gretz, Messier, Lowe), but he was 21 by then.

If you click 'play' here, you can see a glimpse of him with Boston in Dec. 1979, the third game of his long career!... and he's wearing a helmet!

He was a rookie on the same club as Ray Bourque.


Fuhr was young in the 80s. He's about the same age as Adam Oates, Mike Vernon, Geoff Courtnall...

 

[The Pale King]

Without dredging up too much of the past, my theory is that Mactavish went lidless to remind himself of his own mortality, his own falibility. Kept him honest out there & prevented him from feeling invincible.