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It’s Proportional, But Is It Really Fair?
by SENShobo on 11/25/08 at 11:43 AM ET
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Yesterday, Paul posted an NHL.com article about the changes that have happened to goalie equipment, and the changes still to come, such as the ability to customize goalie pads. The biggest target on the list: proportional sizing.
Is it a good idea? Maybe. But the discussion seems fairly one-sided, as if goalies are nothing but abusers, and the rest of the players, the League even, is being robbed. Sounds like a very nice side of the pool for swimming, I believe I’ll dive right in.
On the other side of the pool, though.
First, in case you’ve missed it before, here is the NHL.com video which explains the latest equipment changes. Watch for highlights of goals that may have been stopped by old equipment, and goals that may have been allowed by the new rules. Sens fans, be warned: There’s a very nice example of the latter on Gerber.
The key thing to take away from this is that the change affects all equipment in the same way. Whether you’re 5’10 Legace, or 6’5 Auld, whatever equipment you choose will have the inner knee-area flaps thinner, the inner calf flaps sewn down and streamlined, and the chest protector rounded and made less blocky, in both senses.
What sets the proportional equipment apart is that the changes impact different goalies in different ways.
Proportional equipment means that, while 6’5 Auld gets to wear very long pads, and a 250lbs goaltender can wear pants and chest protectors to fit his extra body size into, 5’10, 200lbs Manny Legace cannot.
Didn’t we already go down this road? Rule changes came into effect to get rid of clutch and grab hockey, and to more stringently punish slashing and hits from behind. Without these and other changes, the game would revolve a lot more around size, and you wouldn’t see many players in the League today. Rafalski might be too battered to be as useful as he was, Alfie himself thought that pre-lockout hockey would force him into early retirement, and he almost certainly would not have announced (generously listed at) 5’11 defenseman Erik Karlsson.
Those rules changed, and opened up hockey to a much wider range of players. Instead of being up near basketball and football in terms of height and weight exclusivity, respectively, it came down close to baseball, soccer, and racing, where size can play certain roles but virtually always finds itself in the backseat to skill.
Does it look weird to see Legace in pads meant for a player five inches taller, or 30lbs heavier? Maybe, but even the other players on the ice can change their equipment to degrees, including their most important tool: sticks. Children are told to pick a stick that lines up between their chin and their nose while on skates, but many will opt for longer sticks, to help keep their dekes further away from opponents, or to give them that extra inch they need to make their poke check.
Allowing a full range helps keep it even among goalies. Legace may not cover as much of the net as other goalies while standing up, and he certainly won’t compare to Auld’s height while pulling off a butterfly save, but at least right now he can cover the same amount of the net, and somehow that’s un-fair.
In some ways, it even puts him and his brethren at a disadvantage. The bigger equipment may cover more net, but think about the last time you wore shoes an inch too big, pants 50lbs too wide, or a shirt with a few more ‘X’s than you needed. Most likely, it made you feel a bit awkward and you weren’t able to move around or control it as easily.
The goalies will undoubtedly train for this, but there are some losses of maneuverability and speed that can never be fully regained. The goalie might cover that extra inch while in butterfly position, but that won’t save him from having to whip around those overly large pads to go cross-crease for a save, and even the extra large jersey, without the 50lbs. behind it, could well whiff away when confronted with a puck, whilst the goalie who filled out that jersey would have found his body had little trouble in bouncing the puck away. Unfair nonsensical advantages, like the extra pad landing gear and spring loaded shoulder pads, those make no sense and have no place in our League if it wants to be able to look itself in the mirror, just as the League should be shamed to see its reflection if it truly starts putting up meaningful barriers to entry, to exclude players with nothing other than a scale or a theme park you-must-be-this-tall-to-ride sign.
I can’t say that my opinion is the undisputed truth, only that it is a point of view, a consideration, one that deserves to be heard. How much extra scoring do we really need? We’ll never be basketball, with a 100-goal game, and should never seek to diminish the value of that achievement to such a low standard. Even in football, six points on the board is still just a single touchdown, three a single successful kick, and the extra points would be the hockey equivalent of allowing a team a shootout attempt after the full-on battle they wage to score the initial goal.
Do we want to change the game so much that every rookie can eclipse Selanne’s rookie goal scoring record, or lay waste to all of Gretzky’s achievements before being seen as having peaked? That’s not hockey, not what we should want for its future. Give a man a fish, (or a player a wider open net and discriminating crease), and you will feed him for a day (or gift wrap for him duller goals). Teach a man to fish (or work further to open up the game for players, get rid of the truly unfair to all equipment tactics, and continue letting them play a fast, hard-hitting, speed, strength, and skill game), and you feed
Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day — give a player a wider open net or more discriminating crease, and you will giftwrap him more and duller goals.
Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life — keep the game fast, furious, and indiscriminately fair, and you help build a quality game for the future.
Filed in: NHL General, NHL Rules | SENShobo | Permalink
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being a goalie myself i dont understand the “picking on the goalie thing”. I wear the NHL regulation sized equipment now and i stand 5 ft 9 in and i still get stingers from beer league. Stop downsizing the goalie…make the nets bigger, allow ANY curve a player wants, make the rink International sized…Really open up the game instead of just thinking of ways to make players smaller…How long has the standerd rink been 200 x 80…seems like forever…the average player hight and weight of a player is no longer 5 ft 8 in 155 lbs. it is now over 6 ft and over 200 lbs. you cant cram the same amount of tuna into a can build for sardines…The speed of the game has changed also…watch a game from the 80’s and then watch one today…its a huge differance…they say they wont expand the rinks because it will require the owners to remove seats…thus losing the all mighty doller…how can anyone say that when half the NHL rinks dont sell out now!!!! If they want to see Ovechkin, Modano, and St. Louis really fly that give them a rink to work their magic on…not something design from decades ago…also look at goalies from 20 years ago and ones from now, no other position in ANY pro sport has changed more in style than a hockey goalie…none…goalies are more athletic now and are more techniclly sound that 20 years ago…before it was just stick the fat kid who cant skate in net…now its more “who is the most athletic” i am tired of seeing the goalies singled out as the sole problem why scoring is down…but what do i know…im just a fan
Posted by Max from Harriasburg, PA on 11/25/08 at 02:41 PM ET