Law Goalie

If ever there was a textbook case of a blue-chip athlete being psychologically mishandled, it's Carey Price. Compare this with how the Pens handled Fleury, who was touted just as highly but had a few skeletons in his closet from the World Juniors and the Q playoffs, and it's night and day. There is a way to let a young goalie play his way into the NHL elite, and this is not it. IMO, it started when they traded Huet for a second; the ultimate cost was Price's safety net. So Huet leaves in the summer via free agency: big deal. Keeping him for that playoff run means Price doesn't have to face it alone. Suddenly the veteran's gone, and a young goalie is thrown from a internally supportive environment into an internally competitive one with Halak. I'm sure there are *some* goalies who would have benefited from such a change - guys who might have chaffed under a veteran presence - but Price is apparently not one of them.

Just wait to see what she does when the rest of the goalie gear starts rolling in!

At least he has the excuse of a couple dozen concussions. Most of the others are just unqualified idiots.

Dom would be proud!

It's a fine line. On the sublimation side (literally), I love Warrior's idea of using the entire lateral gusset as one continuous sublimated piece: saves on weight (no more Jenpro letters sewn on), simplifies construction, and makes the whole pad and its branding look much, much slicker. They certainly could have done more. IMO, the only places you really need synthetic leather on a pad are the medial surfaces, wrapped maybe an inch over onto the face of the pad, and major structural points like the top and bottom bindings, and the vertical roll. Pretty well the entire face of the pad *and* the leg-channel could have been sublimated. Would that have been too radical? Maybe. I think Lefebvre has been incredibly shrewd about how he has developed the Reebok line. Every year, there are only a small number of very specific changes that take the gear forward. He certainly could have gone bindingless on both gloves this year, but he chose to do the glove first and wait on the blocker. Even the jump from the 590 to the original Premier Series pad wasn't that extreme.

I once fought one of my prospective teammates at a pre-season game for doing that in a warmup. It's one of the few things I absolutely don't stand for. My one suggestion, short of actually attacking him (probably not advisable at a public session), is to hit him with a puck when he's unprepared. Make it look accidental, blame the hockey gods, etc., - "Oh, I was just try to fire it off the glass. Maybe we should all do a better job of looking before we shoot, eh?"

Trust me - they don't care if he hits them with it, but if he can place it reliably where he did (14" blocker side), and keeps them honest with the odd fake, there aren't many normal goalies (ie. not full-right) who will be able to answer that bell.

...And you can't stick a sharpener into your goalie's mask bag and toss it on the bench if you forget to lock it in the glovebox. :) I finally got to have a proper on-ice session with my goalie skates on 100/50 (coming from 7/16 ROH), and it was stunning; posted about it in the goalies' FBV thread.

I heard the same thing about Marty St. Louis once - that some huge lurch should just stuff him down the front of his pants and let Marty handle the puck. As ever, grotesque disparities in anatomy make it funnier. :)

That's another great example. They practically fought in shifts on those Bruins teams, and he had to be ordered to keep his gloves on even after he had his jaw broken.

To be fair, Chara was playing hurt in that series, and wasn't half the player he is now: he was still coming into his own. He's far better at managing the physical side of the game now, not to mention about ten times more mobile than he was. I also don't think he's the least bit worried about Colton Orr - he's more worried about getting an earful from Julien if he risks a broken hand to let a fourth-liner take him off the ice for five minutes. Chara's got the same problem Larry Robinson had. He has the credentials and skills to be listed as a heavyweight, and he's built a reputation that buys him a wide berth, but he's too valuable to his team to be taking all comers. This puts him in the awkward position of fighting guys like Lecavalier or Iginla or Doan - who is certainly in his class as a player and leader, but certainly not as a fighter - or career goons like Orr, Laracque and Boogaard. Does anyone think a Norris contender should be risking not only five and a game but his whole season on a guy who pays eight minutes a night?

Exactly the point I made: surely a helmet with a visor is safer than one without. The only counter-argument on that score is, of course, the one that says a visor bolted in at the sides (ie. that can't be flipped up) impedes emergency first aid. This may be true, but Health Canada seemed entirely unaware of it: they told me that as far as they knew, it was a facial coverage issue. They also had no clue about the safety issues involved in an ill-fitted mask. That's the insane part: the government body doesn't even know the standards upon which they're enforcing the law they wrote, since they left the standards entirely up to a private company. It's not the blind leading the blind so much as people willingly putting on blinders and allowing themselves to be lead because they're too lazy and/or ignorant to look where they're going.

Not a retailer, but one did fill me in. It's Health Canada cracking down on certain sections of the Hazardous Products Act that have basically gone without enforcement until now. The change in policy had mostly to do with other products - cosmetics, certain power tools - that are in much wider circulation, but visors, helmets and masks got pulled in too, largely because of the WJD goalie mask certification-fraud fiasco (thanks, jackasses). The HPA has been on the books for years, but it's an enormous set of regulations: it took them a while to get through with the really serious stuff and move on to things like lip-gloss and athletic equipment for adults. Pros have exemptions, but it's unclear how far down the line it will carry. Frankly, it smells like Health Canada budget-justifying to me, combined with a bit of a cash grab on the CSA's part - they are, after all, a private company with zero public interest, which is why their tests on goalie masks have bugger all to do with how the mask actually protects against localised impacts. When I spoke with Health Canada, they seemed completely ignorant of the nature and construction of masks, or of the differences between CSA-approved and non-approved visors. Some of them believed all visors were out, until informed otherwise. Some insisted that only cat-eye cages were being ruled out for goalies, which is in fact wrong; it's any mask that hasn't passed the pointless, expensive, and repetitive certification process, ie. any custom-made or even custom-padded mask, unless you feel like paying $10K every four years to have your personal mask certified. The actual effect will be a serious reduction in fit and thus protection and safety at the high end for adult goalies. Another fine achievement for the CSA.

Mithridates.

...And now it's their #1 Play of the Week - *ahead* of Stamkos' goal. Beautiful goal, David - power and precision.

TSN's reaction: "It's... it's just sexy."

The main reason I wear a full cage whenever I skate out (very rarely) is that I know I don't have the wherewithal to play without one, and I don't play at a high enough level to trust the sensibility of the players on the ice with me.

Gustavsson is starting to show major frustration. It seems to be (erroneously) self-directed at this point, which means it's just a matter of time before he 1) holds himself responsible for goals that aren't his fault all the time, and cracks himself with mental strain, or 2) starts to blame the team, whether he keeps it to himself or not. I would be stunned to see him re-sign in Toronto. I would not be at all surprised to see him start chucking baleful glances and sticks at his D like Aubin did in the McCabe days.

That was an incredible shootout move by Bergeron. I know it looked good, but that's a really, really hard fake to pull off against a goalie like Pavelec who uses the European Y. Great to see him getting his feet back under him.

But is that for 'stick-and-puck', or for semi-organised 5-on-5 shinny with goalies?

For a second, I thought it was live-action Super Mario Bros. Hockey...

Yeah, that really is more an issue of who's in the skate than how many are.

Really? I mean, they wouldn't have had Kessel until early this week anyway... bad run of injuries and some weak performances have hurt them, but are we at the demolition phase? 15 games in, amidst a pack of seven teams with four points (or eight within 5, if we count Florida)...

If it weren't for the concussions, I'd be able to agree with you. :( There are times I can't tell my ass from my elbow; so I spend all day, like Rodin's Thinker, sitting on my elbow until I figure it out.

Yeah... I was getting close to Pythagorean numerology there for a minute... senex mathematicus.