BC Hockey announced Tuesday that as of the 2018-2019 season, all junior B hockey players will be mandated to wear full face protection.
The Comox Valley Glacier Kings, who play in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League, is one of the dozens of teams affected by this ruling.
In addition to the VIJHL, the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL), Pacific Junior Hockey League (PJHL), as well as the two B.C. teams in the North West Junior Hockey League (Fort St. John Huskies and the Dawson Creek Junior Canucks) will adopt the policy for next season.
Bravo BC Hockey.
The decision follows that of the VIJHL Peninsula Panthers, which adopted its own full face shield policy at the beginning of this season.
鈥淓verybody in this league 鈥� can think of a time when a visor or face cage could have prevented an injury,鈥� said Panthers鈥� general manager Pete Zubersky, upon announcing his team鈥檚 decision.
I can relate to that comment more intimately than most.
I lost my eye to a hockey stick in June of 1990.
I was playing in the Edmonton Ball Hockey League at the time.
Face masks had not yet been introduced when I played minor hockey, so when I moved to the senior ranks, I did not bother upgrading my equipment.
I have no one but myself to blame for the accident. It happened on the follow-through of a slap shot. I got a little too close, trying to deflect the shot. I was slightly bent over, trying to poke-check the shot, and the blade of the shooter鈥檚 stick hit me in the face. It slashed open my cheek, deflected off the cheek bone, and sheared off the outer third of my right eyeball.
The young man who took the shot did not even realize his stick made contact with my face.
It was a tough way to learn a lesson.
I still recall the only two teammates of mine to wear facial protection that season. One was a doctor. The other was a pilot. They both said they couldn鈥檛 risk injury, as it would affect their careers. And that鈥檚 the bottom line.
The overwhelming majority of junior B players are never going to make hockey their careers. Other than the odd post-secondary scholarship, this is the final step for them. Yes, some of them will go on to play senior hockey; the majority of them will continue to play 鈥渂eer league,鈥� but the prospect of the game paying the bills is long-gone - at least from a playing perspective.
That said, all these young men will be contributing to society in some form or another, and it鈥檚 BC Hockey鈥檚 duty as an umbrella organization to do everything in its power to ensure safety.
The arguments against full face protection are antiquated and non-sensible.
Eventually, the protection will be mandated at every level of hockey.
It鈥檚 puzzling to think that the National Hockey League took until 2013 to adopt even a partial face protection policy.
The argument heard around the league at the time was that visors impede vision. This argument was echoed by players who all wore full face protection throughout their minor hockey careers, then visors throughout their junior careers. They excelled so much at those levels that they reached the pinnacle of the sport. It鈥檚 hard to rationalize that argument, based on their successes.
It鈥檚 even harder to rationalize how the players鈥� union does not demand its members wear all the protection available to them.
Imagine Teamsters telling its construction workers 鈥渨e know steel-toed boots are designed specifically to make the job safer, but we understand how cumbersome they can be, so while we strongly suggest you wear them, we will leave that decision to you.鈥�
Unfathomable.
Would the local Boilermakers Union ever declare eye protection voluntary?
Absolutely not.
But for some reason, when it comes to the sport of hockey, every move made to further protect participants comes with pushback.
In time, full face shields will become as much a part of the sport as gloves and shin guards.
It can鈥檛 happen soon enough, from my standpoint.
Terry Farrell is the editor at the Comox Valley Record.
