Comments on: The Goalie Mask: Saving Grace or Losing Face

By: Lee

Lee — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:12:21 +0000

I wear a cage helmet set up, old school. Just two games ago, I took 3 to the head. same guy each time, trying to go up stairs. No damage to either the head or cage. I wish there was an official cage helmet set up. I feel that I am in a cave with the mask.

By: Ben Jones

Ben Jones — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:42:32 +0000

The reason I wear a Mission/Itech cage and helmet combo is because whenever I take a puck to the head or get bumped over and I wear a mask it falls off but my cage stays on.

By: Kris

Kris — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:34:19 +0000

Not Mega hard per se, just where it hit me in the forehead it had enough force to take the mask off! And I can say if it would have hit me square or solid enough I bet it would have cracked the mask.

By: paul szabo

paul szabo — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:41:29 +0000

Hi Kris;
Interesting observation you make. You must play in a league with mega hard shooters. However, I am not sure whether the mask coming off due to impact lessens the blow to the head. I used to be a motorcycle safety course instructor and I know that we never wanted our helmet coming off at impact, even if our head wasn’t slamming into the pavement! Impact force is absorbed at the point of impact and and distributed throughout the structure, aided by the foam. That’s why the shell needs to be so stiff and that’s why fibreglass is more expensive than (zytel) polycarbonate. In any case, keep your lid on! A friend of mine got hit in the forehead playing in my garage league. Cracked her mask (KOHO 570) and she has had concussion trauma symptoms for the last several months…

By: Kris

Kris — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:32:23 +0000

I’ve had several shots hard enough to rip the mask clean off of my head in my playing time, and I will say this, I am glad there was no strap on there to hold it on. I was lucky that it took the mask off, or all of that energy would have been taken out directly on my head.

Straps are a good thing, and they are required by USA hockey and the NCAA. When you get to the Pro ranks you are allowed to chose. If you don’t have a strap and you lose your mask a lot, that is a fit preference not a masks fault. (Those traps can be worn tight enough to make sure the mask rarely comes off)

And if you do have a custom mask, 2 drilled holes and 2 snaps inserted in the mask and you can add a strap if you really want to.

All I am saying is that when you are a pro you do what feels right, strap or not, tight or loose thats your choice, but as an amateur safety is obviously a very serious issue (that is why you see the itech masks with the straps on them)

By: Paul Szabo

Paul Szabo — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:10:42 +0000

Thanks for your comments to my article. In response to Nick, I would concur that I don’t think a shot would cause my mask to fall off either. I think the real danger is from getting rammed by players crashing the net. This happens in the NHL frequently enough, at which point there is a legitimate danger of the goalie getting his head smashed into the goal, the ice, the boards, etc. To follow up Dan’s comment, NHL goalies pretty much have their masks all custom fitted perfectly to their head, so if theirs can fall off I am not sure why an off-the-shelf mask can’t. When you see how easily most goalies flip up their lid with one hand to take a drink, then just nod their head forward to lower the mask, it seems pretty obvious that the same thing could happen from the force of an impact.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:54:01 +0000

I have never had my mask come off and I don’t wear a chin strap. I find that if the chin cup is fitted properly and the mask straps are adjusted properly (not too loose) there is virtually no chance of the mask slipping off.

By: JR

JR — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:50:00 +0000

No chinstrap for this hack.

By: Heather Galindo

Heather Galindo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:26:55 +0000

Great post! My Hackva has a strap but it took me forever to figure out what it was for when I got mine. I’d only ever seen goalies just easily lift their mask up.

I don’t fasten mine but maybe you’ve convinced me to start. I don’t lift my mask up much anyway because then I end up with hair in my eyes, plus it doesn’t stay up very well since Hackva makes a pretty heavy lid. As long as it doesn’t touch me, and it shouldn’t, why not?

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:15:12 +0000

I wear an Itech 2500 and I use the chin strap, although it’s loose enough I can slip my mask off if I want, but not to get a drink. Instead I have one of the Nike water bottles with the funky no-drip tops that doesn’t leak; you squeeze the sides and you get a burst of refreshment. Very handy when you don’t want to bother with taking off your glove or blocker. I shoot it through my cage.

I don’t think that the force of the shots that I see have the potential to force my mask off even if I didn’t use the chin strap considering 1) I play roller and beer league although the kids are pretty good and 2) the weight of the mask and 3) the angle and speed a shot would have to come in at to force it up and off my head. From personal experience, my mask has a better chance of coming off from me scrambling around fighting to smother a puck amidst a bunch of bodies. But I’ll continue to wear my chin strap nonetheless.