On Wednesday night’s To The Point segment, Nick Kypreos and Darren Pang debated which piece of goalie equipment needs to be reduced in size.
Pang argued for the chest and arm protector.
“Basically, this is huge,” he said, wearing the offending pads. “I’m 145 pounds, I’m going to prop it up like this … and basically we can make this a little bit smaller if we can.
“We can definitely streamline this a little bit, we can definitely make it so that there’s more room for these shooters that can’t hit an open net, because we have to help the shooters because they’re not sharp right now.
“There are a lot of empty net situations that they can’t get to right now.”
Then it was Kypreos’s turn, and he clamoured for a time when the glove was used as…a glove.
“Once upon a time, this was just about catching a puck,” he said. “Remember when we were kids, Bernie Parent, Rogie Vachon, this is not about catching the puck.
“You know what it is now? It’s a blocker, now goalies have two blockers, not one. It’s not about catching the puck anymore, it’s about blocking pucks. Let’s go back to the old Bernie Parent days.”
Both pieces of protection have increased in size over the years, as have the rest of goaltending apparel.
The leg pads in particular have come under fire several times in the modern era.
Coming out of the 2004-2005 lockout, the new CBA reduced the size of all goaltender equipment by approximately 11 per cent, with a 28 cm limit on the width of a leg pad.
Just prior to the 2010-2011 season, the league passed a rule where no leg pad could go higher than 55 per cent of the distance between the centre of a goalie’s knee and his pelvis.
Three years later, that number was decreased to 45 per cent.
