# Hockey Opinion Question - B.Berard **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 13, 2000, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-opinion-question-b-berard/14812 "2000-03-13T16:06:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2000, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-opinion-question-b-berard/14812/1 "2000-03-13T16:06:00Z")
Okay, for those of you who are hockey fans… and those of you who are not but have an opinion: Bryan Berard, who plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs, was recently struck in the face (unintentional) by a stick resulting in what maybe a career ending injury and at the least partial blindness in that eye. The question is: the NHL requires some specific safety equipment, such as helmets, gloves, shin/elbow pads, etc. Should the league FINALLY require a minimum of a half-shield for all players? In B.Berard’s case, a half-shield would have prevented this injury completely. There are countless other examples where the half-shield would have prevented similar high-sticking injurys, puck impact injurys, etc. Remember it wasn’t long ago that many players didn’t even wear helmets. * * * The Sleeper has AWAKEN! ---
**Author:** ![drollman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@drollman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drollman)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2000, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-opinion-question-b-berard/14812/2 "2000-03-13T17:31:00Z")
According to the lunch-time sportscast. Berard is now blind in one eye and his career is over. (The NHL has a rule against one-eyed players.) After several reviews of the incident, the severity of the injury, the angle of the hit, etc., an Ottawa eye-specialist is saying that a visor would not have made a difference in this freak accident. However, with that said: I agree with you. The half-sheild or visor should be mandatory. (If not an entire “cage” style face protector.) Intentional or not, he’s now blind in one eye and at the end of his career instead of the beginning. * * * My fate keeps getting in the way of my destiny. ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-opinion-question-b-berard/14812/3 "2000-03-13T17:37:00Z")
drollman, Thanks for the info concerning analysis by the Ottawa eye-specialist. I was not aware of it, and was basing my statement on my own observations of the accident and my first hand experience of seeing pucks and sticks bouncing off my own half-shield. It’s a shame his career will be over, if I recall correctly he was only 23. * * * The Sleeper has AWAKEN! ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2000, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-opinion-question-b-berard/14812/4 "2000-03-13T17:39:00Z")
The Berard situation is really a tragedy. I play a lot of roller hockey and a little ice hockey with a mask-less and visor-less helmet, and it sends a chill through you to realize that that could happen to you at any time out there on the rink, almost any swing of the stick. I guess some players don’t like the distortion that comes with a visor, or the vision-limiting qualities of a wire mask. A stick, swung just so, can get up under a visor and be very damaging, too. A thought I had on this just this weekend after the Berard incident: How about goggles, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar style glasses, to protect only the eyes in a very direct, less distorting way? Never heard of any hockey players trying that, and I’m not sure why. * * * “Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known” - Michel Gyquem de Montaigne ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2000, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-opinion-question-b-berard/14812/5 "2000-03-14T03:13:00Z")
From an article by Al Strachan in the Toronto Sun > [@](#): > > There, immediate surgery was performed. The operation continued well into the morning but the damage was too great. The heel of Hossa’s stick had smashed into Berard’s right eye socket at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. Coming upward, as it was, and making contact at that angle, it’s quite likely the injury would have occurred even had Berard been wearing a face shield. The shaft of the stick cut Berard’s face below the eye and the bottom of the blade cut his face above the eye. The heel of the stick hit the eye itself, inflicting a 15-millimetre cut. A similar thing happened a few years ago. A guy playing in the QMJHL and in his draft year lost an eye to a freak incident with a stick. He was wearing a full face shield at the time of his injury. NHL players realize that there are certain risks that they face when they play the game. Most players will tell you that they are more concerned about getting hit from behind than anything else. * * * Sometimes you feel like a coconut, sometime you feel like a yak. ---
**Author:** ![spankboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@spankboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spankboy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2000, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-opinion-question-b-berard/14812/6 "2000-03-17T12:48:00Z")
I think that more protective equipment is the last thing that would help. As it is, with helmets, players are bringing the stick up around the head and face a lot more than 10 years ago. Concussions have become a lot more common than the years without helmets. Also, compare the pads that players wear today to the pads that were in fashion a while back. Old number 99’s shoulder pads looked like a bra with shoulder caps, while today, big linebacker-style shoulderpads are the norm. What the problem is, is that players are a lot more reckless than they were ten or fifteen years ago. Look at the replay of Hossa’s shot. His follow through was ridiculously dangerous, and he missed the puck completely to boot. However, it’s my opinion he would not have attempted such a foolish and dangerous shot if he knew folks around him had no head protection. That’s the problem-players think that all the extra gear that’s being worn will magically protect them from stupid stuff, and it won’t. Players have to play responsibly, and respect their opponents, otherwise, this is only the tip of the iceberg. If more protective gear is required, that makes it that much _worse_ because that false sense of security gets bumped up a notch again. When I play, I wear a full cage, because I know that I skate poorly, and I wear glasses-not to mention that the folks I play with aren’t exactly NHL candidates and mistakes happen. But, if I were a professional, I would wish that I could go to the rink with the knowledge that other players were as concerned for my welfare as I am with theirs. Without that, all the padding in the world is useless. -sb * * * “This is going to take a special blend of psychology and extreme violence.”