The Conn Smythe Trophy winner became the face of the St. Louis Blues’ Stanley Cup victory last season – in part because he’s one of the few players remaining in the NHL whose face isn’t protected by a visor.
“There’s not many guys left that don’t wear them,” O’Reilly said this week.
Six seasons after the NHL and NHLPA made the use of face shields mandatory for every player entering the league, more than 97 per cent wear one, according to a study of rosters conducted by TSN.
Only 19 of the 672 skaters to appear in an NHL game this season are skating sans visor. Down from 34 at the start of the 2017-18 campaign, the number has nearly been cut in half over the last two seasons.
In other words, the race is on to see who will be the visor’s version of Craig MacTavish, famously the last man to skate in an NHL game without a helmet.
“I got a lot of cuts [from] my visors in battles, the visor is always coming down on top of my lips and stuff like that,” said O’Reilly, who wore one for his first season and a half in Colorado, but took it off when he got more comfortable in the NHL. “I think it’s just easiest for seeing. You don’t have to worry about something getting in the way, especially with all of the sweat off my face and my beard. I think, visually, it just gives me the biggest advantage."
More than half of the NHL’s teams (16) have all 20-plus skaters wearing visors, including four of the seven Canadian squads, meaning that it’s not unusual anymore to see a game contested between two teams with every player partially protected facially.
That has created an acute awareness among the players left without a visor. It’s almost a brotherhood, where one player can rattle off a list of similar players from the top of his head.
“Ryan Reaves, Jamie Benn, Ryan O’Reilly, Deryk Engelland, I saw Prouter [Dalton Prout] not wearing one the other night,” Devils winger Wayne Simmonds said. “[Bleep], you can probably name them all on two hands.”
The number of fingers required dwindles every year. At least eight players who didn’t wear visors last season are currently out of the league: Dustin Byfuglien (suspended), Kyle Brodziak (long-term injury), Cody McLeod and Zac Rinaldo (minors), Matt Hendricks, Marc Methot and Chris Thorburn (retired) and Jason Garrison (unsigned).
More than half of the NHL’s current 672 skaters made their debut after the 2013 mandate, meaning they don’t have the option to play without a visor. Most have been conditioned to wear one anyway, rising through the junior and minors ranks, where visors are also mandatory.
Over time, previous stalwarts like Pittsburgh’s Erik Gudbranson have also begun wearing one.
Simmonds has actually gone the other way. He wore a visor last season with the Philadelphia Flyers and Nashville Predators, but took it off this season after signing in New Jersey.
Why?
Simmonds said that he was pressured by then-Flyers GM Ron Hextall to wear one two seasons ago. (Hextall also pressured Flyers players to wear protective knee braces, even the players who did not have previous knee injuries, according to multiple sources.)
Now with the Devils, Simmonds said he removed the visor not because there wasn’t the same limitation imposed by GM Ray Shero, but because he wanted to get back to his old self.
It’s the old, “look good, feel good, play good” mentality.
“I had a couple tough years there in Philly and I had my visor on while I was doing it. I didn’t have my visor on and I was doing pretty well,” Simmonds said. “Honestly, I don’t think the visor had anything to do with it, but moving to a new team, new surroundings, I’m trying to recreate myself, I guess.”
Simmonds said he was enthralled recently watching a clip of MacTavish playing in the 1994 Eastern Conference Final against the Devils as the only skater left without a helmet.
Who will be the MacTavish of his generation with the visor?
“Whoever plays the longest,” Simmonds said, laughing.
The smart money then would be on O’Reilly, the youngest player to not wear one at 28, who has the Conn Smythe pedigree and the ability and drive to outlast them all.
“I don’t really think about it like that,” O’Reilly said. “I don’t plan to use one, knock on wood, as long as I don’t have to. Yeah, I don’t plan to put one back on.”
A list of current NHL players without a visor:
Jamie Benn (Dallas)
Jordie Benn (Vancouver)
Brian Boyle (Florida)
Zdeno Chara (Boston)
Deryk Engelland (Vegas)
Ryan Getzlaf (Anaheim)
Micheal Haley (N.Y. Rangers)
Zack Kassian (Edmonton)
Milan Lucic (Calgary)
Matt Martin (N.Y. Islanders)
Ryan O’Reilly (St. Louis)
Roman Polak (Dallas)
Dalton Prout (San Jose)
Ryan Reaves (Vegas)
Andrew Shaw (Chicago)
Zack Smith (Chicago)
Wayne Simmonds (New Jersey)
Chris Stewart (Philadelphia)
Joe Thornton (San Jose)
Contact Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @frank_seravalli
The last player without one, Craig MacTavish, retired in 1997. The NHL has also started cracking down on how a player wears his visor, with Toronto forward Leo Komarov being handed a minor penalty for equipment violation in Wednesday's season opener against Winnipeg.
In the end, it's the player that will have to live with the consequences. Some of the best players today like Ryan Getzlaf, Zdeno Chara, Chris Pronger, Shea Weber and Johan Franzen play without visors, while others like Alex Ovechkin, Corey Perry and Drew Doughty wear visors.
McTavish isn't related to Craig MacTavish, a three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Edmonton Oilers, who played 1,093 games in a 17-year NHL career, but his dad is a former NHL pivot.
Ovechkin still wears a tinted visor, something he has worn over the course of his now 18-year NHL career, and he also sports yellow laces. His style isn't common, as the majority of the league's players now wear classic white laces and regular visors.
The subject today is Andy Brown, the last NHL goalie to play without a mask. Andy Brown's nickname was "Fearless." It was well-earned. Brown turned pro in 1965 and for the next dozen years guarded his crease without wearing a mask.
And Marcus Pettersson was put in a position to make an instantaneous decision, the results of which ultimately led to the New York Rangers' late third period tying goal in Game 7. “It stinks,” head coach Mike Sullivan said of the rule after Game 7. The NHL rulebook forces a player without a helmet to leave the ice.
“Tinted visor is just my style,” Ovechkin said in a Hockey News Q&A in December 2005. “I only wear it for that reason.” A year later, however, the mirrored visor was gone and Ovi wore the smoky visor that is featured in option 2.
The Stanley Cup playoff beard has been an NHL tradition since the early 1980s, when the shaggy New York Islanders won four straight championships. It represents the players' singular focus, as if even personal hygiene is sacrificed in pursuit of hockey's holy grail.
The clan name MacTavish is an Anglicised form of the Gaelic Mac Tamhais, which translates to Thomson or Thom(p)son in English. This name is a patronymic form of the Gaelic personal name Tamhus (pronounced Tavus or Tavis), which is translated to Thomas in English.
“It was more comfortable without one,” he said. “I never had any injuries where a helmet would have helped me. The guys who wore Jofa helmets – that's no more protective than what I was not wearing.” By 1993-94, MacTavish, then 35, was the only player in the league without a helmet until he retired at 38 in 1997.
Believed to have arrived in Scotland from Ireland during the Scoto-Irish settlement era, the MacTavish clan are closely associated with the Scottish Highlands, particularly the district of Argyll. The historic seat of the clan is the caste of Dunadry.
Mason McTavish (born January 30, 2003) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre for the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League (NHL). McTavish was selected third overall by the Ducks in the first round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. He made his NHL debut with the Ducks in 2021.
NHL clubs do not win the Stanley Cup without having a superstar player lead the team in spirit or as captain. This would take into account the aforementioned '89 Flames and '70 and '72 Bruins who each had a number of superstar players on their roster.
The Brooklyn Americans was the last team to become defunct in the NHL. The franchise was struggling financially and, due to the lack of players because of World War II, was suspended prior to the 1942–43 season. The franchise formally ceased in 1946.
Does anyone remember when that Monday Night Football game, when Marshawn Lynch was spotted wearing a Tigers Blood Visor for the first part of the game before later on switching for the Smoke 40%.
I want to play football.” Under NFL rules, any player may wear a visor but is not mandatory. If a visor is used, it must be clear unless prescribed with a doctor's prescription for a tinted version.
Key Facts. Denver Broncos' Vic Fangio, Seattle Seahawks' Pete Carroll and San Francisco 49ers' Kyle Shanahan were fined $100,000 each for failing to wear their masks, sources told ESPN.
Jacques Plante was the first ice hockey goaltender to create and use a practical mask in 1959. Plante's mask was a piece of fiberglass that was contoured to his face.
Beginning with the 1996-97 season, the NHL decreed that Nos.0 and 00 could no longer be worn since they confused the League's digital database; today, only No. 1 through No. 98 are allowed, No.
Players taking warmups without a helmet will officially be a thing of the past. As first reported by TSN's Chris Johnston, the NHL is making it mandatory for players who entered the NHL after the 2019-20 to wear helmets during warmups.
As technology continues to develop, we're starting to see coaches communicate directly with their players by using speakers and microphones. Only professional football players are allowed speakers in their helmets.
"Changing things up, I guess," Prescott said of his decision to wear a visor, via ESPN's Todd Archer. "I threw it on to see if I liked it, to see if I want to keep it. I've worn one before.
helmetstalker Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill is now using a Schutt F7 with a clear Under Armour visor, last season he used a Schutt Air XP Q10,... stormtrooper.st Hey @helmetstalker the f7 kinda reminds...
Oilers forward Zack Kassian describes all the details about his broken orbital bone in his cheek, wearing the fishbowl visor to cover his face, and jokes with reporters about why he decided against the cosmetic surgery, allowing him to return sooner.
While the NHL mandates just half-face coverage with the use of a visor, most amateur and school leagues across the world insist that players wear full facial protection.
Jochen Hecht of the Buffalo Sabres, Dennis Seidenberg of the New York Islanders, Marcel Goc of the Nashville Predators, and Christian Ehrhoff of the Buffalo Sabres are NHL players who use T-Blade skates.
HELMETS: Subject to further consultation with the NHL Players' Association on precise language, a Player on the ice whose helmet comes off during play must (a) exit the playing surface, or (b) retrieve and replace his helmet properly on his head (with or without his chin strap fastened).
There are no known beards among NHL referees. Since all hockey referees and linesmen wear long sleeves, any tattoos would be easily covered up unless they were on the face or neck. Players growing beards has become a tradition during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The surname MacTavish or McTavish is a Scottish surname, it is one Anglicised form of the Gaelic "MacThamis","Mac Tamhais", or "Mac Thamhais" (in different eras) which is derived from the Pictish word for twin, TUUS. . Tavis or Tavish is synonymous with the Lowland Scots name "Tammas".
How many clans of Scotland are there? Scotland has approximately 500 clans with members from across the world. Many clans still hold gatherings and social events to continue their traditions.
Johnny "Soap" MacTavish is mentioned in the 2019 reboot of the Modern Warfare series, as Captain John Price considered to bring him into his new task force called 141 due to his skills in sniping and demolition within the SAS.
For that reason the NHL has a clear rule on what is legal when a mask pops off. According to Rule 9.6 (Helmets), "When a goalkeeper has lost his helmet and/or face mask and... the opposing team has control of the puck, play shall only be stopped if there is no immediate and impending scoring opportunity."
Rule 9.7 – Visors: Beginning with the 2013-14 season, all players who have fewer than 25 games of NHL experience must wear a visor properly affixed to their helmet. Visors are to be affixed to the helmets in such a fashion as to ensure adequate eye protection.
Ovechkin revealed the mirrored visor that he wore his rookie season was his favorite when the Capitals conducted a poll on its Instagram in 2020. “Tinted visor is just my style,” Ovechkin said in a Hockey News Q&A in December 2005. “I only wear it for that reason.”
Hats provide more coverage than visors. Because hats have a full top, they cover more than a visor does–nobody wants a sunburned scalp, after all. Hats holds short hair in place better than a visor. Because the cap has full coverage, short hair is less likely to move around.
He just wears his tinted visor for style points—along with his signature yellow laces. According to a tweet by Theo Fleury, Ovechkin wears it because of him. “Went down to the Dome this morning and found out Ovi is a big Theo Fleury fan.
In 1998, the league banned dark colored visors because medical personnel could not see a player's eyes once they attended to him on the field when an injury would occur, especially if the player was knocked out or concussed.
In certain leagues (including in women's hockey), and up to a certain age, players are required to wear full-cage helmets. In the pros, however, you have to be at least 18 years old to wear a visor.
He sported a full face shield to protect the cheek, something he anticipates he'll wear for “a week or so.” “I haven't worn anything over my face in 15, 16 years,” Kassian said. “You've got to do what you've got to do to play. “It feels different, for sure.
The Coyotes acquired Kassian, the No. 29 pick (used to select defenseman Maveric Lamoureux), a 2024 third-round pick and a 2025 second-rounder in exchange for the No. 32 pick during the first round of the 2022 NHL Draft.
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