Leo Komarov needs to fully commit to his visor.  He never has before. In fact, look up, and you’ll see a visor that would protect him in Philly if the fans started throwing something, but not much else.

Last night before the second game of the Leafs pre-season began — Komarov’s first appearance in the lineup — he was told he had to wear it down where it belongs.  The trainer got out his screwdriver and fixed it.  Komarov wore it for one shift, and then demanded that the trainer take it off.  He finished the game without any visor.

The Rules

The league brought in mandatory visors in 2013. It seems longer ago than that, but at the time they were introduced, three quarters of the league already wore them according to the NHL.  This makes it seem like you have to be quite old to be qualify for the exception that was built in to the rule.  A Toronto Star story from that summer says that players with more than 25 games played (regular season or playoffs) before the 2013 season began could opt out.

So Komarov can simply choose not to wear one at all if he likes.

The Suggestion

Mike Babcock in his post-game comments said, “You’ve got young kids at home. You got your eyes. Pull your visor down and get used to it in practice and put it on.”

Komarov’s Opinion

Komarov has repeatedly claimed he can’t see through it, and yet he said during last night’s game he doesn’t feel safe without it.  That seems absurd, because it was never doing anything for him.

Why now?

Why is this all coming to a head now? Well, it’s not. A better question is why didn’t the Leafs get the memo on this sooner, but maybe they wanted the ref to be the bad guy who told Komarov how it is.

Back in June, seldo looked at this issue after Elliotte Friedman reported that the GMs were discussing this issue and Komarov specifically.  If they issued a ruling on this, the teams were informed.  If Komarov is surprised, he has no more right to be than Brad Marchand is entitled to shock over the slashing calls and faceoff violation jamboree going on right now.  Teams were informed. They always are.

Check out seldo’s great photo essay on the absurd visor of Leo Komarov:

Leo Komarov needs to lower his visor

So now my question.  Why not remove the three-year-old exception, and say sorry to the last few holdouts and tell them to put on a visor?  As said on the broadcast last night, a visor is not slowing down Connor McDavid any.

Should the NHL remove the visor exception and just make mandatory really mean mandatory?

Yes, it’s time everyone listened to Babcock’s suggestion.402
No, let the players decide for themselves if they want to be blind in retirement.359
The status quo is fine, but Leo needs to either wear it or not, no halfway. 160