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11-20-2012, 04:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Lacaar View Post
Shrink the goalie equipment and the player equipment.

I don't want to shrink the goalie equipment just to make more scoring.
I want to make the goaltending position exciting again. It used to be the most exciting. Now it's probably the least.

Watching a goalie get hit with the puck isn't exciting. Watching a goalie kick out the pads, snatch the puck out of the air, etc is.

Watching a goalie put his glove in the air and spread it out like a bloody fishing net before he sees where the puck is going for example. Why are the gloves so massive?

Reality is that goalie equipment is not about protecting the goalies anymore. It's about improving their numbers. It has effectively leveled off the talent differential among goalies. So now we see some no name goalie breaking GAA and SVS records each year.
And yet, even with the goalie gear sizing regulations that have taken affect back at the last lockout, SV% has gone up considerably with smaller equipment.

Leg pads/blockers/gloves are the smallest they have been since the early 90's, while the C/A's are larger. I wear a pro-level C/A and have faced some major stingers through it by some players, if they improve the protection/mobility of the chest piece while slimming it down a tad, sure. In the mean time, it's not going to happen.

Now, more goals =/= a better game. The largest factor of goals going down are simply contributed to two things:

1: Much more emphasis on defense
- Watch the defensive systems NHL teams put in place today as in compared to 20 years ago and it's night and day. Offence doesn't win games, defense does. It's easier to stop chances from ever occurring than to get chances.

2. Goaltending talent/training is leagues better than it has ever been.
- with goaltenders growing up with coaches (which was never the case for back in the day) as well as a much improved training regiment. These guys are full on athletes now. They have a better toolbox in regards to save selections and how they play the game. Acrobatic saves =/= better goaltending. It's generally an occurance of being beaten by good offence or just by flat out being out of position.

What needs to be done is improve the flow of the game. With how everything is being shut down, large offensive opportunities are few and far between. By artificially increasing goals, you're just allowing for a game more in tuned to basketball.

What you need to focus on is allowing opportunities for the players to play the game and earn chances. A fast back and forth game with lots of shots that ends 2-1 is far more exciting than a game with 18-24 shots from outside the circles that barely had a chance to go in in the first place.

While some may come at me with: "lol ur a goaly, u r biased, lol". Think about it.

Give me some proof that the slow down in GPG is based mainly off the size of goaltending and i'll consider it.

But considering that when Goalies inflated their equipment to crazy sizes (Giguerre, Snow, Roy) the GPG were still higher, it's easy to see that goaltending equipment isn't the cause of the lower scoring games.

It's the defensive systems put in place by coaches which are the largest factor.

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