NHL Is Not Happy About Teams Being Really Cool And Taking Warmups Without Helmets

Ask any hockey fan or player, and I bet they will agree that there are few things cooler on this entire planet than not wearing a helmet to warm up.

I mean, great white sharks, B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, and getting a pull-through parking spot are all cool too, but not as cool as no-bucket warmups.

However, the NHL doesn't see it that way, and that's why the league is dishing out reminders and even fines after several teams hit the ice sans helmets.

In just the last week or so, three teams had notable no-bucky moments. One was the New Jersey Devils, who hit the ice in warm-ups wearing hats celebrating D-Man Brenden Dillon’s 1,000th NHL game.

Meanwhile, the Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks both left their helmets in the locker room for games in Las Vegas.

The New Jersey Devils were one of several teams that took team-wide no-helmet warmups.  (Photo by Rich Graessle/NHLI via Getty Images)

While it looks cool as hell — I mean, do you even have flow if you don't let it flow before the game? — there is a rule against it. The NHL introduced a rule ahead of the 2023-24 season requiring all players who enter the league during the 2019-20 season or later.

Which means, yes, someday there will not be any more players taking warm-ups without a lid, and the league means business when it comes to enforcing it.

"We intend to send a reminder to all Clubs as to the applicable rules as they apply to the use of helmets in warm-up," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Athletic.

I get why the league wants helmets during warm-ups. I like a helmet; I've often wondered why we don't wear them more, but helmetless warm-ups are just so cool.

Sure, coolness doesn't outweigh safety. If it did, I'd be smoking a cigarette right now, and so would you.

But it's also not like there's an epidemic of injuries in warm-ups. I spent most of today trying to think of warm-up incidents (it's part of my job, so it's okay), and the only one I could think of was maybe like ten years ago when Taylor Hall fell and got cut by a skate.

Maybe it's an optics thing, maybe they really are concerned, but whatever the case, the NHL really wants to kill off no-bucky warmies.

Sad.