secondly, i disagree again. thinking that high scoring games are more exciting is a matter of opinion. some love em some hate em. i still believe that a face paced low scoring game with lots of chances is better then a high scoring game any day of the week.

yea pads close off the 5 hole. thats nice. im sorry that bothers you. why dont we just make a rule that says goalies cant go down in the first place, then the 5 hole will be big no matter how big the pads are. i reiterate once again the goalies have adapted to the way the game is played. their job is to stop pucks. i can understand taking away chestgear that, when the goalie is in his stance, takes up more net then a regular chest and arm guard. but cutting down on thigh rises is getting kind of dumb.

how would making the nets bigger screw the game up? well for starters you can scratch all the past records, and their wont be any more legitimate record breaking since the new records would be set using a net with different demensions. some guy who ordinarily woudlnt come close to a guy such as gretskys records could shatter them… but was he really better then the great one? no, he had a signifgant advantage. secondly, last time i checked the goalies are suppose to play a large part in a hockey game. you enlarge the nets and that will be thrown as well. its getting rediculous the way people are always asking for more scoring. ok fine, you want more scoring go watch a high level beer league game.

as a matter of fact, whay dont you go stand in goal at a highj level beer league game, with 70′s size equipment on while a bunch of retired pro and college guys take slapshots at you with comp sticks. then maybe you’l realize how inherently stupid the demand for more goals and smaller equipment is.

this is my last post on this topic as im tired of repeating my self and trying to reason with people who have never steped between the pipes in their life (though for goalies thats probably for the better.) but let me say it one more time, you want exciting hockey get rid of the trap, remove the red line, take care of obstruction and change to tag up off sides. you want to ruin the game, and turn it into a basketball match then by all means cut down on goalie equipment and make the nets bigger. as a matter of fact, why not let the goalies only wear baseball cathers equipment for leg gaurds, and make the nets the size of soccer goals. then you can “tell who the great goalies are by how many bruises they have,” you be able to see a crapload of scoring, which is apprarently all that matters, and all will be good in the world again.

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“hockey has never been a real high scoring game, thats not the way its meant to be” – You must be a new hockey fan. Hockey used to be more widely watched BECAUSE it was a high scoring exciting game. Its rating are dropping like a stone right because its become soccer on ice.

Dude, its a FACT. Longer goal pads close off the 5-Hole. Make them shorter and the 5-hole gets bigger and it forces the goalie to use their stick to close it again. Thats why they wear huge pads.

How would making the nets bigger screw the game up? If the goalies won’t accept smaller gear it would just give the skaters more net to shot at.

if what you say is true about giggy havin some device that props up his chest gear is true, then yea i will agree that is unecessary. but i highly doubt that is going to effect his game much. the leg pad thing i think can be a double edge sword. being a goalie myself i’ll tell you right away its a heck of a lot safer to have pads that are a little taller with thighboards or whatever, as it cuts down on the nasty shots to the knees. the pads arent full proof in the b-fly, though they are good. if you want to score five hole get the goalie moving. i dont care how tall their pads are they arent going to be able to move and keep the 5 hole closed. it just wont happen. let me also say that 9 times out of ten what happens with a b-fly goalie is is that they butterfly, stop the shot and smother the rebound. most goalies in the NHL arent going to let in a goal on the first shot unless it is deflected or they are screened. if the forwards want more goals they should learn where to shoot it so that even a butterfly goalie is forced to give up a rebound. let me give them a hint, middle of the net isnt going to cut it.

right, bruises are a great way to measure the effectiveness of a goalie… i dont kno, thats just a dumb statement to me.

the nets werent made large because people knew it would screw up the game. it will. there is no gettin around it. i stated in my first post how to increase scoring. enlarging the nets is the last thing in the world that should happen.

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Those guys had NOTHING compared to the ‘tenders of today.

In all fairness, the goalies of the 70′s didn’t have to contend with these new composite sticks, which hurl the puck at an ungodly speed compared to shooters of the 70′s.

Should be interesting to see how the NHL handles this…seeing as they did such a great job with obstruction!

Winning fights doesn’t win games. Its just good entertainment and intimidates the opposition.

If a goal has shorter leg pads whenthey do down it leaves the 5-hole open, if the goalie wants to cover it they need to use their stick, which leaves the side of the net more open. Making them shorter would give players more net to shot at.

And yes, goalies are getting lazier, which is why they keep getting bigger and bigger equipment and coming up with new gear like that stick Giggy had in his back. Giggy would getinto a position and sit there, he didn’t have to move to make a save like goalies used to have to do.

Whenever I hear old NHL reporters talking about this they say that 15 years ago you could always tell who the goalie was because they had bruises on their bodys, today they don’t. The pads are too big and the companies can make smaller gear that would protect just as well, but the goalies don’t want to use ti because it doesn’t cover as much of the net.

Watch a game from the 70′s or 80′s. The games were much, much more exciting becuase of more goal scoring. Seeing two teams skate around and score 1 or 3 goals between them isn’t that exciting. If the goalies dont’ want to give up their huge pads the nets should be made bigger to give the players more to shot at. All that would change is that there would be 2-3 more goals scored a game. The nets havn’t been made large before because goalies equipment was never as big as it is today.

the legs pads are arguable, i’ll give you that, but you arent going to see 5 hole goals like you use to. the butterfly style takes care of them very well. no one seemed to complain about roys pads, reason being there was very little wrong with him, the percentage of 5 hole goals just isnt going to be be high as long as goalies continue butterflying. you’re going to have to beat them otherways, ie high glove/blocker.

i hardly think goalies are getting lazy. on the contrary, the goalies have adapted and are on the whole stopping more shots. its the players turn to adapt.

gear really depends on the goalie. most are not wearing huge stuff that can be downsized much without sacraficing protection. i’ll admit, i was angry in my first post and didnt admit that yes some goalies are pushing the limits some, but many are blowing it out of preportions.

the other thing that i find perposterous is the idea of making the nets bigger. sure it would increase scoring, but it would also comepletly cahnge the game. you’d see rediculous amounts of scoring, and greatly decrease the effect goalies would have on the game. in all its years of existence i dont think the nets were ever made larger. there is good reason for this.

all of my arguements aside i’d almost like to see them put a bunch of unesscary rules on equipment size. then when scoring doesnt skyrocket it would prove what an idiot bettman is.

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