Top Finnish league makes full face-shields mandatory, NHL to follow suit?

Would you play hockey with a mask on? Has anyone tried it?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Top Finnish league makes full face-shields mandatory, NHL to follow suit?
Zuma Press

Last week, Finland's top professional league, Liiga, announced that it was officially shutting down operations until December 19th due to escalating cases of COVID-19 in Finland.

From Liiga's official website translated from Finnish:

The coronavirus situation in Finland has deteriorated in recent weeks. Regional authorities have imposed stricter restrictions this week to prevent the virus from spreading. Due to the given audience restrictions, the Board of the Hockey Championship Oy today decided to pause the series for the period from December 3 to December 19, 2020.
“We have done a lot of work during the autumn to ensure the safety of the public, players and employees at match events, and we succeeded well in that work. Now, however, the viral situation has changed for the worse in several areas, so the limitations are understandable. However, it is not financially possible for us to play without the audience, comments Heikki Hiltunen, Chairman of the Board of the League
“We believe that the disease situation will be brought under control quickly with these measures and we will be able to continue the regular series. The intention is to continue to play the full regular season, he continues
All matches marked for play in the above time frame will be postponed. The league and teams will announce new match dates for the postponed matches later. If the current restrictions are lifted earlier or continued, the League will notify you of the possible consequences immediately.

Now, according to a report from NHL insider Chris Johnston of Sportsnet, players will be forced to wear full face shield covering when play resumes on Dec. 19th.

Check it out:


An interesting concept and, frankly, I'm not sure why we haven't heard more about this from the NHL and the media covering the league. I suppose the argument would be that with the players getting tested multiple times a day that there's no risk of someone catching COVID-19 during the course of a game. If you're on the ice, you've been cleared multiple times already so the mask is kind of irrelevant. Still, it's something I could see catching on with lower level leagues or with minor/youth teams across North America and Europe. Thoughts?