Eye injuries in the NHL would decline fourfold if players wore visors, according to a recent study.
Furthermore, the study found that eye injuries over the last 10 seasons
have cost the NHL and its associated franchises more than $32 million in missed games. While
eye injuries have ended careers, visors remain optional for NHL players. This is the first study
to examine the mechanism of injury, the incidence of eye injury across
multiple seasons, and to calculate the associated financial loss. The researchers, based at the University of Toronto and Harvard Medical School,
examined data from The Sports Network (TSN) and The Hockey News annual
visor survey over the last 10 seasons from 2002 to 2013 in the NHL.[i]
They found that the 149 eye injuries identified to have occurred in the
study's timeframe cost the NHL more than $32 million in missed games. In addition, the risk of eye injury is 4.23 times higher for players who do not wear a visor. The
study also found that the majority of eye injuries are caused by being
hit by the puck or struck by a high stick (37 percent and 28 percent,
respectively). Only 18 percent of eye injuries were caused by a fight or
scrum, while the researchers could not identify the cause of injury for
17 percent of eye injuries. Additionally, players without visors had a
more aggressive style of play, measured by penalty minutes, hits and
fights in a case-control study. There was also a weak, but positive
correlation between eye injuries and penalty minutes. Read more.
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