That rule forced six other Canadian Olympians - Joe Thornton, Brenden Morrow, Eric Staal, Shea Weber, Brent Seabrook and Ryan Getzlaf - who don't normally wear a shield to put one on for the tournament. At the recent Vancouver Olympics, veteran defenceman Chris Pronger was the only member of Team Canada not wearing a visor because international rules dictate all players born after Dec. The NHL is virtually the only league where players still have a choice about eye protection. "There's a perfect example of, if you're wearing a shield, that stick probably doesn't hit you in the face."
"I've said to him, `I have no idea why you don't wear a shield,"' Wilson said of Brent. Many around the game believe visors should be mandatory, including Leafs coach Ron Wilson, who has repeatedly shared that view with members of his team. The topic will be broached once again at the NHLPA's player meetings over the summer. The NHL Players' Association has had an ongoing discussion with its membership about possibly making them mandatory for all rookies but the idea has yet to generate enough support. Roughly 60 per cent of NHL players wear a visor and the numbers continue to grow each year. Malhotra underwent his second eye surgery in New York on Tuesday and the Canucks called the procedure "successful." However, it's still not known what his prognosis is for the long term. "What happened to Manny so shortly after really kind of put things in perspective, you don't want to see that happen to anybody." It was something that scares you when it happens and you can't see out of that eye for a certain period of time. "I feel very fortunate that it wasn't anything too serious. "That's obviously something that happened shortly after I had a little bit of a scare there," said Brent. It isn't lost on him that Vancouver Canucks forward Manny Malhotra had his season ended just days later when he took a puck to the eye. Brent lost vision in his left eye for about 10 months after Ennis's stick got up and caught him square in the eyeball, resulting in scratches and a bruised retina.Īmazingly, he was able to return to action right away and played his eighth straight game with a visor when Toronto beat the Sabres 4-3 on Tuesday night. It could all have been taken away on March 12.
Invisor life insurance full#
So they're pretty happy that it's on now."Ī career minor-leaguer, he scratched and clawed his way through more than 300 American Hockey League games - the majority with a visor, which have been mandatory in that league since 2006 - before finally getting his first full shot in the NHL this season. "It seemed like all the women in my life were all over me about it. "My grandmother and mother were hounding me, the same as my girlfriend," said Brent. Had the Toronto Maple Leafs forward just listened to his mother, he would have been wearing one long before an accidental high stick from Buffalo's Tyler Ennis gave him a scare earlier this month. TORONTO - It probably shouldn't have taken a stick to the eye for Tim Brent to put on a visor.