Thursday, August 07, 2008

Changes to the NHL goalie equipment...


I have always thought that the size of the goalie equipment in the NHL was way to big. This is a good thing, if scoring is down in the NHL it seems only logical to look at the size of the goalie equipment. I like many fans in the NHL do watch a game to see a goalie stand on their heads, scoring and hard hitting make the games exciting in my opinion. The 2008 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs show cased how great the sport of hockey truely is.

The part that amuses me is Don Lucia's favorite NHL GM Garth Snow is on this comittee, Snow used to have some of the most over sized goalie pads in the NHL and now he is on a comittee to look at reducing the size of pads in the NHL. If you think I am kidding check out Garth's picture enclose in this blog post, those are some really big leg pads, while the picture doesn't show it, Snow also had some really big shoulder pads as well. Hell even I can stop the puck with pads that are that big. Look for scoring to go up this year in the NHL.






Addressing the goalies Clavicle protectors and pads trimmed
By Fluto Shinzawa
Globe Staff / August 3, 2008
Last season, when the NHL rolled out new Reebok uniforms, the "upgrade" flopped. They were too tight. They ripped. Sweat rolled off the jerseys and drained into gloves and skates.

This year, the NHL is hoping the next round of equipment tweaks will be more successful.

On June 11, the Goalie Equipment Working Group - general managers Doug Risebrough (Minnesota), Garth Snow (Islanders), Jim Rutherford (Carolina), and Brett Hull (Dallas); goalies Martin Brodeur (New Jersey), Rick DiPietro (Islanders), and Ryan Miller (Buffalo); and skaters Dany Heatley (Ottawa) and Mike Cammalleri (then Los Angeles, now Calgary) - convened in Toronto to address what could be done to shrink goaltenders, without resorting to hunger strikes.

The result? Knee pads and clavicle protectors will be trimmed for the 2008-09 season.

Because most goalies play the butterfly style, shooters would see the following: a netminder standing tall with his legs spread, inviting them to go five-hole. But as soon as a player shot the puck, the goalie would drop into the butterfly and close the opening, aided by 6 or more inches of knee protection on top of 38 inches of pads, all to protect a net that is only 6 feet wide.

"A lot of goaltenders wear extraneous flaps," said Glenn Healy, the director of public affairs for the NHL Players' Association. "It's like an airplane wing. You push a button and, 'Whoop.' It all accordions down so there's no room to score down low. Take a pad that's 38 inches. Put two of them back to back and you're covering the entire bottom part of the net plus 4 inches."

The group concluded that the knee pad could be limited to 2 1/2 inches in length without compromising goalie safety. With less blocking area low, skaters have a better chance of scoring five-hole.

"Particularly with goaltenders, the cardinal rule is, 'Don't get beat five-hole,' " said Healy, a former goalie. "You get beat once, fine. If you get beat twice, you're done. You're sitting on the bench. If you can plant a seed of doubt in the goaltenders that you can get beat there and you're vulnerable in that spot, the head worms start going. And once they start going in a goaltender's game, he's in big trouble."

Meanwhile, torso protection will be contoured. The clavicle protector, previously allowed to be 7 inches long, will become smaller, although Healy didn't have exact dimensions of the new piece. All goalies have been apprised of the changes and equipment manufacturers are making the alterations so net minders will have their new gear for training camp in September.

The reduction of the Michelin men won't be the only advantage for shooters in 2008-09. In the next few weeks, more than 100 NHLers will test the Thermablade Elite II, the heated blades that were introduced in February to a 10-player group. Four Bruins are taking part in the trial run. Marc Savard, who had expressed interest in the system previously, is expected to be one of them
<-read the rest of the article here->

1 comment:

  1. I've heard rumors that those pads were 42" in length... even with them it looks as though his career GAA is near 3!

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