Matt Calvert’s pink visor isn’t a style choice; it’s a necessity

Avalanche forward Matt Calvert turned some heads on the ice and on social media when he debuted his pink visor to the world during Wednesday night’s game against the St. Louis Blues. The visor, though eye-catching, is not a matter of style or swag. Rather, it’s a necessity for the Avs winger.

“Not just style,” Calvert chuckled. “I was a little unsure how it was going to be perceived. A few guys were chirping me about it during training camp. But it seemed to go over pretty well.”

Beyond seeing the world through rose-colored visor, Calvert’s pink-hued face shield serves a more important purpose.

The Avs forward has had a number of concussions in his playing career. As a result, he’s had to deal with chronic light-sensitivity issues. The pink visor helps filter out those bothersome bright lights that illuminate a hockey rink.

“It’s basically like wearing blue light glasses at night or in front of screens, in that it limits the exposure,” Calvert explained. “There’s bright lights in the building, so anything that can help.”

He’s wore darkened visors in the past, but it’s been awhile. Since his time in Colorado, he’s dealt with a couple more concussion-related issues, one of which kept him out of returning in the 2020 playoffs.

Through some prodding, Colorado Hockey Now was able to confirm that Calvert’s mysterious exit after taking warm-ups in Game 1 of the Dallas-Colorado playoff series was, in fact, concussion-related.

“Yeah, I guess,” Bednar said, as he nervously looked beyond the Zoom camera.

“If he’s kinda mentioned that to you, then I guess so,” he added shyly, as if he was unsure he was allowed to say anything about it.

It was previously unknown why he mysteriously exited the Game 1 warm-ups and never returned for the rest of the postseason. It now seems, unfortunately, he must’ve been dealing with some symptoms of Post-Concussion Syndrome.

“Our goal with him is the same as the rest of our team: We need to be durable; we need to stay healthy, and that was an issue for us last year,” Bednar added. “A guy like Calvy, the way he plays and the energy role he plays, the way he chips in on our penalty kill and the different things he finds a way to contribute on our team, he’s an important piece to it. He’s a veteran guy in our locker room; he’s a glue guy and we need him to be in our lineup.

“As the season goes on, we just gotta keep having those conversations and seeing how these guys are doing with their health and make sure they’re getting the rest when they need. We need guys like (Calvert).”