Box lacrosse 1998, the NLL entered into the Canadian market for the first time with the Ontario Raiders. Although 5 of the league's 9 teams are based in American cities, more than two-thirds of the players are Canadian. During play, a team consists of six players: a goaltender and five "runners". A runner is any non-goalkeeper position player, including forwards, transition players, and defenders. Runners usually specialize in one of these roles and substitute off the field when the ball moves from one end to the other. When the sport originated teams played with six runners. However, in 1953 the sixth runner,
Goaltender (box lacrosse) extra layer of padding on the outside of the glove to deflect damaging shots. This extra padding is on both gloves and serves to also protect the inner wrist of the stick-hand, which is often exposed in the crouch position when wearing hockey gloves as a lacrosse goalie. At the same time, lacrosse goalie gloves are required to give the goalie wrist mobility for when he must handle the ball. Box goalies wear two different types of helmets. One type is the standard field lacrosse helmet, the other is the ice hockey mask. Field masks have strongly reinforced face masks,