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Not here to lecture or judge. Just here to share a worst case scenario. All gloves have "gaps" in protection. It all depends on the angle from which the stick come's from. I have top of the line 1S gloves, and I had the pinky on my bottom hand broken and the tip partially amputated from a slash coming from my right side, while in mid-shot. The result was exactly like what Crosby did to Methot. If you look at your glove, even closed, there's always a small spot right around the tip of the pinky and thumb that are a bit exposed because of the angle when they're facing upward. When you cut the thumb loop, that'll expose the thumb even more because the protection won't move down with the thumb when you grip the stick. It's been about a year since my finger got exploded, and though I've regained function in the finger, it's still not 100% right. I don't think it ever will be. OK, I'll STFU now.

You’re also much more prone to hyper extension with the loops cut. I hate how cut loops feel and the solution is buying gloves with good flex thumbs.

STX elbows and shins have this as a built in feature. It wasn’t something I felt anyway about when I bought them, but love it now. It’s the forearm strap on elbows and the strap above the calf for shins. Rather than just pulling the two sides together, it provides a full wrap and does a good job keeping it locked in place.

When you don't cut the loops your thumb stays with the protection - if it's a lock thumb then it doesn't move and if it's a flex thumb then the protection moves with your thumb. When you cut the loops you're creating a gap in the protection that say a stick blade could fit into if someone was slashing you in the hands. It doesn't mean a stick will find it's way in there, but it leaves a protection gap.

+1

I hope you never say it. Until college I cut the loops. I found that the real danger is two things- you can catch a puck in there and it might just be my poor luck, but somehow pucks tend to find the gaps in my padding. Just Wednesday I took a shot straight to my stomach and I wear Eagle shoulders that don't have any abdominal protection. The more common issue I had was in corners and puck battles, I find that the most common issue is the blade jams or gets whacked and it somehow catches a weird angle on the lower hand thumb and you end up with some bruising and over time it tends to just build up. When the thumbs are attached it seems like they just get held a bit tighter to the glove thumb and you don't get all that repeated impact. It's not like specific shots, it's more that thing where once the whistle blows you're like, oh damn, my thumb hurts and I didn't take a shot and you just try to figure it out. Most of the time I assumed it was just from rough battles in the corner and just catching a bad angle on the thumb. But I tended to have a few a game like that and over time you get these really sore bruises and I just got to the point where it hurt to hold my bottom thumb in the stick. I stopped cutting loops and I haven't really had issues since. Ymmv obviously, could have nothing to do with loops and maybe it's just my grip angle or lower hand position idk, just my .02 Granted, I have bought pro stocks since then with deleted or cut loops and I will still use them. But I have gotten more cautious over the years.

I'm not doubting you, but...I've looked, pried, smacked, and jabbed from every angle I can think of and nothing seems different with regard to protection. What am I overlooking...just so I can say..."Wow! You were right!" later😅