Hockey Canada making change official – Parents, players should be up to speed and down to size for next season
NHL Goalie Gear regulations are about to hit hockey players, parents. Be sure you are aware of the implications in your league before buying any new (or more importantly, used) gear. CBC reports on the change noting that Hockey Canada has given players, their parents and of course equipment manufacturers two years to prepare for the change. However, retailers are approaching the change with different philosophies. Some will carry only regulation gear, while others carry the old sizes for players outside Hockey Canada jurisdiction.
Perhaps most important – parents of minor hockey players who try to save on the hefty cost of goal equipment by buying used gear. Any gear that is more than two years old is likely to be too large, and even more recent equipment is not guaranteed to be of regulation size.
see the full article at CBC.ca
photo of regulation 11″ pads courtesy of Smith Hockey
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2 Responses to Goalie gear officially shrinks in September
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Many may not share my opinion, but I think the whole debate is ridiculous and smacks of political correctness in the extreme. NHL goalies send their equipment in to get it tested at the start of the season. Who is going to do that for the thousands of minor hockey goalies? Imagine the bureaucratic and practical nightmare when teams start finger-pointing and complaining against each other’s goalie gear 5 minutes before the puck drops.
The sport already costs a fortune, and for goalies it is double that. The only way to pare down costs is to recycle equipment. An Atom pair of pads could last 3 or 4 kids in a row; years before they wear out. What, so now all we need to do is throw it all away and buy new, of course! Seems like the hockey equipment lobby must have had their say on this one. What about the parents’ lobby? If Hockey Canada is going to impose these rules they should be poneying up the cash to allow minor hockey associations to provide this gear to the minor goalies.
Worst of all, having coached minor hockey and played on a dozen garage league teams, I would suggest that it is not the nit-picky measurement of equipment size (those who know the details of the new criteria can attest to how silly they are) that has any huge impact, positive or negative, on the outcome fo the game. The best goalies are the best because of practice, skill and effort.
If all these equipment rules were as critical as we are told they are, our “new” NHL would feature lots more scoring. Other than for a short period after the lockout, that is unequivocally not the case. Pencil pushers, please stop blaming the goalies!
Great article…totaling agree… and what is even more interesting!
The Goalie Crease rule
The amount of injuries this years is up and we don’t understand why the players are allowed in the crease?
If that is how the players of today can score.. then we have a problem…
“drive the net and follow the puck into the crease”
That takes NO skill..
But as Gary Bettman states: “it is the entertainment value” of the game…
Goalies today need to be cross-checking more in there crease….
Maybe that will stop the goalie injuries…..
Michael