Great Picture of ‘ back in the day” when there were no helmets, no face masks and no teeth.
For the life of me I still can’t understand why it took so long before goalies started wearing helmets with masks
Helmets were brought in with safety issues in mind (awkward falls, errant sticks and pucks, etc) in order to prevent injuries. However, they still did detract from the game in terms of fans being able to identify the players as shown in the photo.
You would have to go back to the 1930s or 40s to when NFL players did not wear helmets, but it is interesting to note that many NHL players continued to play helmetless well into the modern TV era (1960s to ‘80s era) and that helped, IMHO, the NHL become popular as a result.