By TOM JONES, Times Staff Writer
Published October 9, 2005
Another player goes down with another severe eye injury and still players say wearing a visor should be their choice.
When are they going to get it? Is it going to take a player's eye actually popping out of its socket to agree to a league rule to make visors mandatory?
On opening night, Maple Leafs star Mats Sundin was struck near his left eye with a puck. He fractured his left lower orbital bone and could miss three to six weeks.
And he was lucky.
A few years ago, Sundin's then-teammate, Bryan Berard, lost sight in one eye after being poked with a stick. Berard still plays, but now with a visor.
"My mind was racing," Toronto's Darcy Tucker said after the game. "I was on the ice when Bryan got hurt. Eyes are a precious thing. I really hate this. I really do."
Here's the laughable part: Tucker does not wear a visor.
For years, the NHL has wanted a rule to force players to wear protection over their eyes. The NHLPA executive board was all for it in the recent CBA negotiations, but the majority of the players were pro-choice.
"I would still rather have the choice," Toronto's Eric Lindros said. "I know it's smart to wear (a visor). I just don't like it. I still can't see out of them."
He saw out of it just fine when he racked up a zillion points in juniors and became a No.1 pick in the draft. Canadian junior leagues and U.S. college and high school leagues and all leagues in Europe require either partial or full-face protection. So every guy in the NHL, at one time, wore a shield and played well enough to earn his way into the NHL.
The problem is there are still too many old-schoolers.
"I played in an era that had no helmet," Leafs coach Pat Quinn said. "We did it because that's the way we did it."
That's just plain stupid. When Quinn went without a helmet, there were no seat belt laws either. You could plop a 2-year-old in the front seat of your car with no seat belt and roll on the interstate. But times change. Saying "well, we've always done it this way" is just not good enough anymore.
Players need to be protected. From sticks. From pucks. And, apparently, from themselves.
If the players don't see wearing visors is the right thing to do, some of them might end up not seeing at all.
MORE TROUBLE: Remember Dan Kesa, who played 50 games for the Lightning in 1999-2000? His most notable moment with the Lightning came when he was kicked off a team charter after getting into an argument with former coach Steve Ludzik.
Anyway, another argument ended with Kesa, a 33-year-old assistant coach with the Western Hockey League's Vancouver Giants, being charged with assaulting an 18-year-old woman, who said she had dated Kesa since April.
The woman was ejected from a Giants game for using profane language. She and Kesa met at his home after the game and started arguing. She said Kesa got physical, and she was treated at a hospital for undisclosed injuries, according to the police report.
Kesa is scheduled to appear in court Nov.7 in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. The Giants are doing their own investigation.
IT'S MONEY THAT MATTERS: What's up with Boston defenseman Nick Boynton? A restricted free agent, Boynton still hasn't signed with the Bruins. He's 26 and this is his third contract dispute. He was drafted by the Capitals in 1997, but refused to sign and went back into the 1999 draft. He held out of training camp in 2002. He wants $1.9-million a year, and the Bruins are offering $1.7-million, but neither is budging.
ICE CHIPS: Calgary is not happy with the play of former Lightning defenseman Roman Hamrlik. He's pinching too much and getting burned too often. ... Former Lightning forward Fedor Fedorov, who was traded from Vancouver to the Rangers Friday, turned down an offer to play in Russia this season. Federov, who requested the trade and was assigned to the Rangers' minor-league affiliate in Hartford, still has hopes of playing in the NHL. ... Former Lightning defenseman Adrian Aucoin was named captain in Chicago. "I'm just the guy with the letter on the jersey, a little symbol of who might have to talk to the referee," Aucoin said.
Information from the Toronto Star and the Arlington Heights (Ill.) Daily Herald was used in this report.
