TSN analysts weigh in on Monahan not wearing helmet, taking a puck to the head in warm-ups

The past tradition of players warming up without helmets, letting the lettuce flow in the wind as they breeze around the ice, has given way to the more modern "safety first" approach, in large. Still, there are a few teams around the league who allow players to take those first few laps and fire some pucks at the net without a bucket on.

Perhaps you'll remember the scary incident in 2012 when Taylor Hall, then with the Edmonton Oilers, took a skate to the head while not wearing a helmet during warm-ups, leaving him with a nasty gash that needed 30 stitches to repair the damage.

You'd figure by now that players would know not to leave anything to chance, but here we are in 2021 with Calgary Flames forward Sean Monahan taking laps without a helmet and catching a puck off the side of his head while skating in front of the net, due to a stiff backhand from teammate Johnny Gaudreau.

According to TSN's Gord Miller, Monahan was able to avoid any serious injury, but Miller, too, is baffled that teams still allow players to take part in the warm-ups without a helmet.

While Miller's tweet seemed to elude to the fact that he feels it should be mandatory for players to protect themselves, even during the pre-game skate, fellow TSN analyst Jeff O'Neill decided to weigh in on the issue and poke a little fun at Miller in the process.

"It's worth the risk IMO" tweeted O-Dog in his reply, suggesting that the vision of a player channeling his inner-Guy Lafleur makes up for any potential mishaps.

Classic O-Dog.

Glad to hear that Monahan is okay. It could have been much worse. I suppose we'll see if the Flames make any changes to their pre-game routines in the future.

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