Ryan O’Reilly has had the conversation a number of times.
Family members will often call or text to let the veteran NHL centre know, again, it’s finally time to put on a visor.
Sticks have nicked O’Reilly’s face. Pucks and skate blades have come perilously close to his unprotected eyes. There have been plenty of close calls.
Those moments haven’t changed his thinking — despite the coaxing from loved ones.
“Every time I get a little stick or anything, even a little scrape, they’re always looking at me,'” O’Reilly said. “But hockey players are creatures of habit. It’s just something I’ve been so used to.”
The 34-year-old Nashville Predators forward is among a handful of NHL skaters without facial protection.
The league instituted a rule change ahead of the 2013-14 season that stated all players with fewer than 25 games of experience at the time “must wear a visor properly affixed to their helmet.”
The dwindling list of competitors without “windshields” to suit up in the NHL this season includes O’Reilly, Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn, Minnesota Wild defenceman Zach Bogosian, New York Islanders tough guy Matt Martin and Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Ryan Reaves.
The 35-year-old Martin hasn’t dressed since the mid-January because of injury after a limited role coming out of training camp, while the 38-year-old Reaves cleared waivers last week and was demoted to the American Hockey League.
The clock, in short, is ticking on players of the visor-less vintage.
“My mom is always telling me to put it on,” Benn said. “But I’m not gonna change my ways.”
The NHL has unfortunately seen significant eye injuries in the past, perhaps most notably when Toronto defenceman Bryan Berard, who wasn’t wearing a visor, took an accidental high-stick from Ottawa Senators forward Marian Hossa on March 11, 2000.
The blueliner was effectively left blind in his right eye — Berard could only distinguish between light and dark — but eventually returned to action and played seven more professional seasons.
Bogosian said despite the risks, he “wouldn’t know any different” when it comes to his unimpeded view.
“Something I’m used to,” said the 34-year-old. “There’s certainly some close calls, but I don’t really think about it.”
A couple of scary moments spooked Predators head coach and former NHLer Andrew Brunette to don a visor partway through his career.
“We didn’t know any different,” said Brunette, who started playing pro hockey in 1993. “You could say it was a little bit of the culture.”
Players in junior, the NCAA and the AHL wear visors or full cages, so why take the gear off under the hockey’s brightest lights?
In an interview earlier this season before getting waived and sent to the minors, Reaves said he was stopped by teammates before his first NHL game with the St. Louis Blues in October 2010.
“I had a visor going out for warm-ups,” he recalled. “David Backes and Cam Janssen said, ‘If you want to be a tough guy in this league, you can’t wear a visor.’ They ripped it off my helmet and I never put it back on.”
“I’ve taken a few sticks by the eye,” Reaves added. “My mom, all the time, wants me to put one on.”
Benn captured the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer in 2014-15. He’s mostly made his money with pucks on his stick. He can’t recall why he became anti-visor.
“Thought it was cool, I guess,” said the 35-year-old forward.
Dallas centre Matt Duchene, who also played alongside O’Reilly in Nashville, has respect for the old-school approach.
“The game’s fast and stuff happens out there,” said the 34-year-old Duchene, who remains eligible to play minus a visor. “You’ve got to protect yourself, but I love to see (them) with no visor.”
He also cautioned: “You can fix everything south of your eyes.”
O’Reilly didn’t feel pressure to shed the visor when he entered the league with the Colorado Avalanche in 2009. But there might have been a subconscious, ulterior motive.
“Maybe it helped me look a little tougher than I actually am,” he joked. “Maybe I felt I had a little more grit to my game taking it off.”
FILLING THE NET
Nick Lardis added to an impressive resume over the weekend.
The Chicago Blackhawks prospect scored his 70th goal of the season for the Brantford Bulldogs, becoming the first Ontario Hockey League player to reach the mark since John Tavares in 2006-07.
Lardis, selected 67th overall at the 2023 NHL draft, is also just the third OHL player in almost 40 years to hit the mark after Eric Lindros scored 71 times in 1990-91.
The 19-year-old from Oakville, Ont. — the same hometown as Tavares, who finished with 72 goals in 2006-07 — has five regular-season games remaining on the schedule.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2025.
Joshua Clipperton’s weekly NHL notebook is published every Wednesday.
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press
