When Safety Trumps Showmanship

We all love to see our favourite NHL players up close. In fact, some players, including Chatham’s own Ryan Jones, have in part built a name for themselves by the on ice showmanship that starts with their helmetless laps in warmups.

Without the restrictions of a helmet in warmup, fans can get a better look at their favourite players, and the athletes can show off their “flow.”

But really, what does the helmetless warmup accomplish? For Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers it gave him 30-stitches, and cost the Edmonton Oilers their best player for multiple games. At some point, safety is going to need to trump this showmanship. In case you didn’t see the incident, Hall slipped in warmup before a teammate accidentally stepped on his face with his skate

I get it. As a junior hockey player, although forced to wear a helmet, I usually took warmups without shoulder pads, something I wouldn’t dream of playing without. It was more relaxed. At the NHL level however, these players are massive investments. Taylor Hall, has a cap hit of $3.75 million with the bonuses he accumulates on top of his $900k entry level deal. In the long run his worth on the ice for the Oilers’ bottom line is far greater.

I’m surprised no player has been seriously hurt in warmups from a puck to the face or head before. Each year we hear about freak injuries in warmups, but at the very least, a helmet will help prevent the ever dreaded concussions that are riddling the NHL, and will at least in part protect players from errant sticks and skates.

Think about it. How many shots is the average NHL player on the ice for in a game? If a team faces 35 shots in a game, and another 25 that are taken but miss the net, that’s 60 shots. If the player is a star and plays 20 minutes per game, they might face a third of these shots, or 20. If you’ve ever watched an NHL warm up, 20 shots takes about 30 seconds, and each player is on the ice for all of these.

Add to this the cramped space by putting a full team within one zone, and the odds of getting hit in the face or head by a puck off a post, or directly, start to go up.

These players grow up wearing helmets, and at no point, other than National anthems, do those helmets come off. In minor and junior hockey, your helmet must remain on even when you’re on the bench.

Showmanship is fantastic, and it’s important for the NHL to grow their brand, and promote star players, but when a star is lost for multiple games, and receives such a gruesome cut…from his own teammate…when a game or practice isn’t even taking place; it makes no sense for NHL players not to be mandated to wear helments.

NHL players wear their helmets during practice, and during games, so why should they not be forced to wear them in warm up? It’s simple, at some point, safety needs to trump showmanship. It’s why the NHL has attempted to do away with “staged” fights.

For the millions of dollars these guys are paid, it seems completely irrational to risk their safety in a warm up, simply so players can show off their hair. Because if that isn’t the only reason they aren’t wearing their helmet, then I don’t know what it is.

I think there are a lot of knee jerk reaction rules and policies we face in society today, but this isn’t one. Wearing a helmet is not inconvenient, it’s not even novel, it’s just common sense. This injury and debate has been a long time coming, and with a new CBA around the corner, the debate is just getting started.

Unfortunately for players like Ryan Jones and Ryan Smyth, the flow might soon be caged, because when it starts effecting the bottom line, and the top scoring line, you can bet safety will trump showmanship.

Let the games begin.