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St. Louis • On Monday, the NHL sent out a memo to teams and goaltenders that by Feb. 4, each goalie must be wearing the league's new streamlined pants. The switch is part of an effort to help boost scoring by shrinking equipment to just what's needed for protection rather than have bulky gear aid goaltenders in stopping pucks.
On Wednesday, both Washington Capitals netminders practiced with the new pants for a first time, and the reviews were mixed. Braden Holtby said there wasn't much change.
"I've been one for it all of the time, especially because every time they shrink them or make them smaller, we get better," Holtby said. "The pants that Philipp Grubauer and I wore before these, you can barely tell the difference. We're trying to get rid of the ones that you can tell the difference. I don't think it'll be a big deal if you can play goal."
Holtby said the pants are tighter, so they keep the chest pad up higher. "They might even help in some ways," he said. According to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, goaltenders will be assigned a pant size with an inner circumference six inches greater than their waist size.
"It feels better moving on the ice, to be honest," Grubauer said. "It feels a little bit better standing up because they're tighter up top."
But Grubauer's objection to the pants is that they're slightly shorter, leaving his knee more exposed if a puck hit him there. There's also a question of why make the change mid-season, as some goaltenders have been playing and practicing with the pants longer than others.
Grubauer said he and Holtby just got theirs in a couple weeks ago, and with the All-Star break approaching, they might just have two practices to break them in before they're required to make the change for games. "It almost would've been smarter to do them for next year and not mid-season," Grubauer said. He packed his new pants for the team's two-game road trip to St. Louis and Dallas, planning on wearing them in morning skate on the day he's not playing.
"I mean, it's a good thing for goalies who are wearing stuff underneath or cheating," Grubauer said. "On the other hand, they could've prevented that. They didn't have to make new ones. They just maybe could have sent a couple guys out and make sure there are rules and pulled the guys off the ice once the game is over and check them out. That's how they do in all of the world championships, and it works out. There's no changes every year. It feels like every year, there's something different.
"I understand you want to get the game more exciting for the fans, but there's a fine line between making the gear smaller and also keeping the goalies protected. If too many guys get hurt with those, it's not a good thing. Where does it end up? Where do you want to go? What do you want to take away next? Goalies without sticks? Without skates? Put them on sandals so they can't push off. I get the point: you don't want to make anybody bigger than they really are, but make them sure you check them."
Holtby was one of the goaltenders who had input on the equipment changes at last year's All-Star Game in Nashville by having the opportunity to examine prototypes. Why have some goaltenders had the new pants longer than others?
"It's just companies," Holtby said. "Different companies trying to figure out different ways to make them work. You wear one pant for a long time and companies kind of have to get something together, and it's usually only one option and you're trying to figure out a way to make it comfortable. That's why the chest pads have taken so long to streamline because there's probably 30 different chest pads in the league right now, just what you get comfortable with throughout the year."