Nuggie Nuggie:
You're kidding right?
Kidding? No. Exaggerating, yes.
Nuggie Nuggie:
You want to take helmets out of hockey?
Not per se. I'd like to see fewer concussions though.
Nuggie Nuggie:
Ever played the game?
Nuggie Nuggie:
Helmets are there to protect the players from impacts, ie pucks, sticks, the ice. They don't protect your brain from rattling around inside your skull.
Wrong. The old 70s/80s Gretzky-style Jofa helmets were designed, as you say, to prevent injuries from errant pucks and sticks. Modern insulated, molded Robo-Cop helmets are designed to prevent brain injury. And what they've done is just increase the severity of head contact in the game.
Nuggie Nuggie:
Watch some old hockey videos from the 50's and 60's and see how how many guys got cut up by stick work, it will shock you at how brutal it was.
Where were "stick work" injuries suffered? The face, which remains unprotected today. The helmet does nothing to prevent facial injury. Compared to today's game, 50s and 60s hockey was a non-contact sport. Sure, sticks caused cuts, but nothing compared to the degree of injury today. I'd sure as hell rather have a few stitches than my bell rung.
Nugggie Nugggie:
By your reasoning, the goalies should take teir masks off as well, thatway the players won't shoot the puck as hard.
We're not talking about goalie injuries, are we? But before goalie masks, the puck was kept down. Players took more care in shooting the puck because of the vulnerability. In today's game, the equipment has taken away the fear-factor and the respect for the other guy's safety. In that sense, the old ways were better.
So you're saying guys like Gordie Howe, Boom Boom Geofferion, Maurice Richard et al, who were paid to score goals, wouldn't shoot the puck as hard as they could because the goalies didn't wear a mask??? They would be out of a job!! Again I ask you if you've ever played hockey? Even in beer league hockey you shoot the puck as hard as you can.
