The cut was significant enough that Ryan O\u2019Reilly needed multiple stitches just under his left eye after taking the blunt force of an opponent\u2019s stick to the face.<\/p>\n
However, it wasn\u2019t enough to scare him straight.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Reilly briefly donned a visor after being knocked out of a March 3 game against the Columbus Blue Jackets by an accidental butt end from Charlie Coyle off a faceoff, but he\u2019d already ditched the eye protection by the midway point of Tuesday\u2019s visit to Seattle.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s basically standard operating procedure for the four visor-less players remaining in the NHL \u2014 O\u2019Reilly, Minnesota Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian, San Jose Sharks tough guy Ryan Reaves and Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn \u2014 each of whom has brushed aside pleas from loved ones and scary on-ice incidents to be among the final handful of skaters who will ever play in the league without one.<\/p>\n
Consider that Benn missed three Stars games in January after suffering a broken nose when he smashed the left side of his face off the ice. The 36-year-old put on a visor for his Jan. 12 return in Los Angeles and hasn\u2019t worn it again since.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s probably it for me,\u201d Benn told reporters<\/a>. \u201cBack to normal tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n The Final Four earned the right to choose courtesy of NHL careers that extend back at least 14 years. When the league introduced a visor mandate in June 2013, it grandfathered in anyone with at least 25 games of experience on his resume.<\/p>\n By that point, the debate about the need for eye protection in hockey was already three decades old.<\/p>\n Today, it\u2019s virtually forgotten.<\/p>\n O\u2019Reilly, Benn, Reaves and Bogosian bring the NHL\u2019s visor-less population to .0046 percent of current skaters. That number stood at 32 percent of players during the 2011-12 season and 27 percent in February 2013, according to numbers provided by the NHL Players\u2019 Association at the time.<\/p>\n Reaves was a fifth-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues in 2005 and remembers ditching his visor before his first preseason game at the urging of teammates Cam Janssen and David Backes.<\/p>\n \u201c(They) said, \u2018If you want to be a tough guy in this league, you\u2019re not wearing a visor,’\u201d Reaves said. \u201cThe visor came off that day. That was it.\u201d<\/p>\n For Benn, O\u2019Reilly and Bogosian, it was a personal choice laced with symbolism. They each made the jump directly to the NHL from the Canadian Hockey League, where visors were mandatory, and viewed it as a sign they\u2019d truly made it.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, that was just the NHL growing up,\u201d said O\u2019Reilly, who was 18 when he debuted with the Colorado Avalanche in 2009.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know why,\u201d said Bogosian, who broke in a year earlier with the Atlanta Thrashers after going No. 3 in the 2008 draft. \u201cI think it\u2019s something I always wanted to do. It was definitely obviously a lot of guys back then that didn\u2019t have them on.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though any perceived stigma about toughness that once came with wearing a visor has long since disappeared, some habits are difficult to break.<\/p>\n O\u2019Reilly said he loves seeing the ice unimpeded and found it difficult to deal with the sweat and water that pools on his visor when required to wear one by international rules while representing Canada at multiple IIHF World Hockey Championships. Reaves was forced to put one on for three games with the Toronto Marlies in the AHL last season and found a comical workaround by tilting it so high that he could see clear underneath it.<\/p>\n Ryan Reaves’ interpretation of the AHL’s rule requiring use of visors on helmets with the Toronto Marlies in some school day hockey today vs Utica \ud83d\ude06<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcf8 from @TorontoMarlies<\/a> Flickr page pic.twitter.com\/fyE1TCl9WO<\/a><\/p>\n