The Importance of Wearing a Face Masks during a Hockey Game

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Imagine that you are a hockey player and are skating down the ice without a visor on your helmet, and suddenly a player from the other team shoots the puck and it hits you in the eye traveling at 70-90 miles per hour. Your face is covered in blood and you can’t see to skate off the ice. As the athletic trainer cleans the blood up you wonder if you will ever be able to see again. After a trip to the doctor you learn that you will have cloudy vision in that eye for the rest of your life and will never be able to play hockey again. If you had known that this was going to happen, would you have worn a face mask or even a visor? It is possible to go completely blind if you get hit in the eye with a hockey puck, yet many hockey players chose to play without a visor or face mask. A visor will keep players safe, it will not make them any less manly, and if they wear one all the kids who look up to them will want to wear one. Because of this all professional players should have to wear a visor and have a face mask as an option. A visor or shield is a piece of plastic that attaches to a hockey helmet and goes to about a person’s nose. A visor can protect a player from getting hit in the eyes by pucks, and lose sticks (Ask). A face mask is a cage that covers the players face completely and prevents pucks and sticks from hitting a player in the face. The most common hockey injuries are cuts by a player’s mouth and chin form sticks and pucks. A face mask protects against these while a shield does not (Ask). Face masks are required in all levels of hockey except professional, if professionals had the option to wear one they could protect themselves from flying pucks.

Safety is the main reason that hockey players should wear face masks and sh...

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