No, I was not implying that or anything negative about Mikita in that respect. However, the media, in covering the NHL, has often tended to portray the headgear as the cure all for the problems regarding injuries that the league has faced over the years.
It was not until 1979 that helmets were legally grandfathered in (new players from that time onward were required to wear them, ones under professional contract at the time were not). This was not done without controversy, as many expressed concerns that helmets do in fact create more problems in terms of an increased sense of invincibility and decreased respect amongst players as well as carelessness with high sticking and other related offences. All resulting in potentially more injuries (particularly concussions and neck and back injuries). This now quite often happens in the game today and these concerns have often been proven to be quite correct. Also, the headgear brought in the era of anonymity amongst players today (compared to when you could easily see a Hull, Orr, Howe, Mahovlich, Sanderson, Clarke, Lafleur, Duguay, Langway,etc).
I am not THAT old... and I remember Craig MacTavish playing sans chapeau. I believe he was the last one.
I have thought that if there was a way to make clear plastic helmets it would help the anonymity problem.
And I also wonder if helmets have done more harm than good, at least at the NHL level regarding your comment about the invinvibility level. It was fun watching MacTavish play for the Blues being the only player in pro hockey sans helmet.
Nowadays I can’t even do warmups for an old man huff and puff league without being ordered by the ref to put a helmet on.