NHL Shrinks Goalie Pads

New rules will come inlimiting the size of goaltenders' knee pads will give shooters more of a chance to find the five-hole.


"Particularly with goaltenders, the cardinal rule is, 'Don't get beat five-hole," Glenn Healy, the director of public affairs for the NHL Players' Association and a former NHL goalie, told the Boston Globe. "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."

The NHL's goalie equipment working group has mandated the length of knee pads will be limited to 21/2 inches -- in the past some goalies have worn up to six inches of knee protection.

"A lot of goaltenders wear extraneous flaps," Healy said. "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 four inches."

Source: Canwest News Service