Between injuries of players like Kris Draper (Detroit) and Mat Sundin (Toronto) along with The Hockey News’ survey, hockey players and visors have become a major reason for debate among players, the league, and fans alike over the past week.
The Injuries
Hockeytown has had two distinct cases where a visor would’ve really helped over the past two seasons. One incident ended captain Steve Yzerman’s 2003-2004 season in the midst of the playoffs. The other took Kris Draper out of the game and to the hospital. Both had pucks deflected into their face causing injury. While Yzerman’s injury was much more serious, neither cases were something to blow off.
Yzerman’s injury resulted in an immediate four and a half hour surgery to repair a scratched cornea and numerous fractures of the orbital bone. Here’s what Yzerman had to say after the incident:
“I have a small tear in the iris, which controls how the pupil dilates. I have some eye drops that temporarily paralyze my pupils to keep them open. It acts as a cast to let that part of the eye heal. The only uncertainty is how much my pupil will expand and contract. Down the road, I don’t know how my eye will respond in bright light…I don’t think I’m going to have any significant permanent loss of eyesight. Both eyes were 20-20. My whole life, I never had an eye injury. I don’t know if it’ll get back to 20-20 in my left eye, but I don’t think it’s going to get to a point where I can’t play.
Sitting in the hospital that night, I really wished I’d been wearing a visor. I played 21 years and never had an eye injury…My cheekbone didn’t really hurt at the time. The first thing that went through my mind was, ‘I don’t want to lose my eyesight.’ I really believe guys should be wearing them. I didn’t say that a week ago.”
After getting hit in the face with a puck on Monday, Kris Draper already has his visor on. While Draper’s injury did not require surgery, he did have a lot of stitches, bruising, and retinal swelling and fluid buildup. Here’s what Draper had to say following his injury:
“I feel all right, lucky, from how it could have been. It was a freak thing. Sometimes the use of sticks, something happens and it’s accidental. This, all it was, I was backchecking and it (the puck) deflected off a stick and I never saw it coming…I know how lucky I was. It was pretty close. Talking to the doctors, they recommended it, as soon as I come back playing, I’d have to wear it anyways. It’s something that I’m going to give it a real strong effort.
It’s kind of different now. You wake up in the morning and the kids see you, and obviously it scares them, and it puts everything into perspective. This is different [regarding a previous eye injury a few years ago], it’s not just about me anymore. All of a sudden you look at your kids and they look back at you and they’re squinting and trying to find their dad behind the mask he’s wearing right now. It’s a little bit different, and puts a scare, not only in myself but my kids as well. That’s something that has hit home the last couple of days.
You have (players) like Pavel (Datsyuk) and Hank (Zetterberg), Joe Sakic and (Peter) Forsberg (all wear visors), it doesn’t seem to bother their game. There’s no reason I can’t get used to it.”
The Hockey News’ report
The Hockey News surveyed 640 hockey players in the NHL. Of that group, only 244 are wearing visors this season (38%). Before the lockout, 227 players (32%) wore visors. The average NHL team has 8.1 players wearing a visor. Colorado Avalanche leads the league with 14 players wearing visors while Chicago and Tampa Bay only have four players apiece wearing visors.
Players’ Thoughts
While playing in the Czech Republic during the lockout, Jiri Fischer was required to wear a visor.
“I got used to it, and at the end, it didn’t bother me at all. I wouldn’t mind it (wearing a visor) at all. It has its benefits, but there’s downsides to it, also. Everybody sees the pucks in the face, and getting hit around the eyes, and thinks it would prevent injuries. But if you get (hit) in the visor with a shoulder, easily it’ll smash your nose no matter what.”
Managements’ Thoughts
While head coach Mike Babcock believes that player should be able to make a personal decision in regards to wearing a visor, he also thinks that the decision should be changed once a player has kids. “When you have kids at home, you decide life would be better with my eyes than without them,” Babcock said. “Nobody plans on getting injuried. It’s an individual preference thing.”
Wings GM Holland wants to see more players wearing visors.
“I just believe it protects the players more,” he said. “The league has done a good job of keeping the sticks down (a significant source of trouble a few years ago). But nowadays, after you see what happened to Steve Yzerman, and Draper last night, and you look at Mats Sundin, the puck is just flying all over the place. I just think it (a visor) gives you a little more protection.”
My Thoughts
I understand why players don’t want to wear visors because it does affect their play to some degree. But without a visor, you’re at such a great risk to injure your eye that could cause permanent damage to prevent you from playing hockey, surgery, and it could cost you money as well for not being able to play. I personally believe that the risks totally outweigh the benefits to not wearing a visor. But then, I’m not a hockey player either.
What is your guys’ view on this whole visor issue?
The Oakland Press article
May 8, 2004
by Paula Pasche
While Steve Yzerman is dealing with a smashed cheekbone and a torn iris in his left eye, the Red Wings captain has a vision for the future.
First of all, he’s not done playing hockey.
“At this stage, I would say I’d like to play again. There’s just a lot of uncertainty,” Yzerman said following the team-photo session Friday. “There’s going to be changes with our team. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the CBA (collective bargaining agreement). That might be the biggest issue, not just myself but with others.”
The collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the players’ association expires Sept. 15, and a lockout could mean the end of careers, especially for veteran players.
Yzerman doesn’t rule out that scenario. If the lockout goes longer than a year, he might never play again.
“It doesn’t help you, at 39, to take a whole year off and not do anything,” he said. “Assuming you take really good care of yourself, you can miss a year and play. Beyond a year, it’s time to look to do something else.”
MLive.com article
May 3, 2004
by Ansar Khan
After undergoing 4 1/2 hours of surgery Saturday night to repair multiple fractures to his orbital bone, Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, who also suffered a scratched cornea during Saturday’s playoff game against Calgary, asked if he could join the team Sunday for its flight to Calgary.
The answer, obviously, was no. But the gesture was inspiring.
“That goes to show you what he’s all about,” teammate Darren McCarty said.
The Wings said Yzerman will be out indefinitely — it’s hard to imagine any scenario in which he could return in these playoffs — but the good news is he is expected to make a full recovery.
Detroit Free Press article
February 11, 2004
by Helene St. James
Now appearing for the Red Wings: It’s captain Metal Mouth.
Steve Yzerman showed up for Tuesday’s practice complete with braces after spending most of the previous day at the dentist, getting his grin back on track. Yzerman lost one lower front tooth, and four other teeth were knocked back when he was whacked in the mouth last Thursday during a 3-2 overtime victory at Colorado.
Yzerman was injured with 1.6 seconds left in regulation when defenseman Adam Foote attempted to use his stick to lift Yzerman’s stick and missed, hitting Yzerman. He needed stitches to close a cut across his upper lip, and spent the All-Star weekend break in pain because of the dislocated teeth.
“In general, I feel pretty good now,” Yzerman said.
“Having these braces on, actually it feels a lot better. It’s kind of stabilizing.”
ESPN.com sports ticker
Steve Yzerman has yet to play a game this season, but the veteran is still motivating the Red Wings.
The captain skated Tuesday morning, the first time he’s hit the ice since undergoing surgery on his right knee during the offseason, the Detroit Free Press reported Wednesday.
“Totally shocked and surprised me,” a smiling Wings coach Dave Lewis told the newspaper. “I actually told him he looked like he was moving a bit better than he did last year in the playoffs.”
Yzerman, playing it down, went out and skated by himself for about 15 minutes.
“I didn’t really do a whole lot,” Yzerman told the Press. “I didn’t even break a sweat, just skated, just put my equipment on basically. So there wasn’t really much of a test of anything.”
MLive.com
November 17, 2003
by Ansar Khan
When doctors took a saw to Steve Yzerman’s right knee some 15 months ago, realigning the bones in a rare surgical procedure for a professional athlete, it was believed to be the beginning of the end for the Detroit Red Wings captain.
Instead, it seems to have led to a rebirth because Yzerman doesn’t resemble a player on his last leg.
From his winning goal with 1.7 seconds to play in the season-opener against Los Angeles to his clutch third-period game-tying goal at Minnesota on Saturday, Yzerman has been perhaps the team’s most valuable player, certainly its best forward. Had he retired after last season, this club might be in dire straits right now. But a long summer apparently is just what he needed to re-energize.
“Maybe he’s got some of Igor Larionov’s red wine,” Wings coach Dave Lewis said, referring to the beverage the former Wing often cited as his fountain of youth. “(Yzerman) has such inner strength and inner focus, when he comes to the rink he comes to play. He has such a high standard that anything else is unacceptable.”
November 17, 2003
by Ansar Khan
I mean, the best thing for my knee, for anyone’s knee, is to never play again and retire. But I’m not going to do that.”
- Steve Yzerman
When doctors took a saw to Steve Yzerman’s right knee some 15 months ago, realigning the bones in a rare surgical procedure for a professional athlete, it was believed to be the beginning of the end for the Detroit Red Wings captain.
Instead, it seems to have led to a rebirth because Yzerman doesn’t resemble a player on his last leg.
From his winning goal with 1.7 seconds to play in the season-opener against Los Angeles to his clutch third-period game-tying goal at Minnesota on Saturday, Yzerman has been perhaps the team’s most valuable player, certainly its best forward. Had he retired after last season, this club might be in dire straits right now. But a long summer apparently is just what he needed to re-energize.
“Maybe he’s got some of Igor Larionov’s red wine,” Wings coach Dave Lewis said, referring to the beverage the former Wing often cited as his fountain of youth. “(Yzerman) has such inner strength and inner focus, when he comes to the rink he comes to play. He has such a high standard that anything else is unacceptable.”
Detroit News column
by Jerry Green
They are hockey players , and they play under a code that they do not share with the athletes in other sports. They ignore a hangnail or a sliced face or a fractured leg or a ruptured knee, and keep going. It is not that the athletes in football and the other collision sports are wimps. It is that the hockey players have learned their sport on a frozen, hard surface wearing razor blades on their feet, with clubs in their hands. Playing with damaged body parts is ingrained in their minds — and hearts.
Steve Yzerman will be playing as captain of the Wings in April when the playoffs start. My estimate, without any medical background, is 95 percent. He will be playing despite the doom-saying surgeons who operated on his terribly torn knee and then said he had just a 50-50 chance.
They operated on his knee, but they didn’t touch his heart . He played powered by that heart last spring when he led the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup on a crippled knee that buckled and ached. “What’s inside is more important than what’s outside,” Wings Coach Dave Lewis said.
That is the code.
SI.com article
March 6, 2003
by David Vecsey
You know Steve Yzerman’s comeback from knee surgery was improbable. But do you know really just how improbable?
Let’s put it this way: The doctor who perfomed the osteotomy on Yzerman’s 37-year-old right knee in August said it was the first time he had ever heard of a pro athlete having the procedure done. Much less an active pro athlete.
The operation was to realign the bones in the knee. The six-month recovery usually implies getting people up and walking normally again. Not playing in professional hockey games.
“I had never heard of one before last June,” Yzerman said. “It’s pretty common, although they had never done it on a competitive athlete. What they did was, in my tibia right below right knee, they sawed 9/10ths of the way through and bent it a little and put a wedge in it. It made me a little more bowlegged. When you’re knockkneed, I guess, you bear more weight on the outside of your knee. And when you’re bowlegged, you bear the weight more on the inside. Since I have a healthier surface on the inside of my knee, they made me more bowlegged.”
London Free Press article
February 27, 2003
by Ryan Pyette
There are a lot of good phrases used to describe Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman.
Great leader. Skilled centre. Stanley Cup winner. Olympic champion. Future Hall of Famer.
Time to add one more to that list: medical marvel.
Personally, I thought a Stevie Y NHL return was as likely as a Bill Gates bankruptcy.
Blogroll
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Jun | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
