NHL orders Luongo to modify gear

[TBLfan 25]

NHL orders Luongo to get rid of his knee flaps

It's not like Luongo is the only guy with these... And it's not like they're going to stop many pucks. It would be very rare for these to help Luongo stop pucks.

[DCott 0]

yeah those are just nylon flaps filled with thin flimsy foam that I think are supposed to keep the buckles off the outside of your leg. When you don't use those straps, they stick out. there is no way that thing is strong enough to stop a puck.

[Caustic Mick 0]

Are they the pads on the outside at the knee pictured here?

[Sven 1]

I could throw a puck on those "pads" and they'd bend and i could score.

Weirdos.

[TheBert 0]

So does being on the NHL Competition Committee give Turco's whining more weight?

[Andoy 5]

I like how Mike Smith is now wearing his pads where the outside flaps stick out as well...kinda ironic as it was him and turco that made a big deal out of it in the first place by mocking him with makeshift cardboard flaps on their pads.

[Law Goalie 147]

I think Smith had them added to further his point.

edit: which, frankly, isn't much of a point. These flaps don't stop anything - compared with oversized pants, C/A's, and knee-pads (of which Luongo is perhaps guilty), which stop a ton of shots.

[Andoy 5]

yeah....i'm not a goalie but those things look too flimsy to deflect shots.

[hockeyplus 0]

This is so ridicilous...they always try to found something wrong with the goalie in the NHL...

[chshockey30 0]

Are they the pads on the outside at the knee pictured here?

Wait...are they talking about those things on the side, or more of a the knee board things at the top of the pad?

[TBLfan 25]

The outside of the knee. Those blue flaps sticking upwards. There's normally a buckle that goes over that, the flap keeps the buckle from digging in, Luongo doesn't use those buckles so they just flap in the wind.

[timberwolves31 0]

I heard on the radio that the NHL GM's are once again looking at downsizing goal equipment at their meetings

[thehighlife 0]

there main focus will be on the chest and arms and the goalie pant. I think it is a good move. there is no reason that Manny legace should be wearing XXL goalie pants to go along with his 38 inch pads. Pads and gloves will stay the same

[Law Goalie 147]

Ryan Miller has about a 28" waist, and he's wearing pants made for a guy with a 40" waist. That's not even going into his Ethiopian thigh measurements as compared with the thighs on his pants.

Pads are NOT the issue. 11x38 is a perfectly good standard. Some of the biggest goalies don't even use the full 38" (chiefly Luongo). Gloves are also not the issue. The current sizing is just fine - in fact, it's probably better for the goalies now than before, since the new gloves are far less cumbersome.

Bottom line: the NHL needs to see to it that goalies are wearing core-body protection that is *fitted* to them. There are what - 60 NHL goalies at any given time, and you're telling me that Kay Whitmore can't have their tailors' measurements on file? Every pair of pants and knee-pads, every C/A that goes to an NHL goalie has to conform to those measurements. If they want to change the measurements - say, if Miller eats a couple of cheeseburgers - the NHL flies out their 'tailor' to check the player out.

Funny story: I was checking out a few pairs of pro-return Vaughn pants a while back. I picked one up, tried it, then returned it (too bulky/heavy for me), but it was a neat design idea: XL waist with XXL legs. I have disproportionately huge quads relative to my waist, so they fit like a dream. I thought it was a fit issue, no big deal.

Then I saw the pair with a Medium waist and XXL legs. Flat thighs, too. Miller didn't even bother with that - he just got an internal belt that was sized correctly and left the entire outer structure as XXL.

NHL goalies cheat at the core body, period. You thought Giguere's 'Batman' jersey was bad (the one with huge pockets under the arms), there have been guys who bought excessively long jerseys and then velcroed them onto their knees, so when they butterflied, the jersey covered everything from about two inches above the ice. Same thing Tony Esposito did when he sewed a patch of fishnet between his thighs.

[TBLfan 25]

I'm all for putting Garth Snow as president of the board to fix the goalie "size issues." :D

[Law Goalie 147]

Hahaha

"Hey guys, let's staple some shingles to our shoulders!"

[TBLfan 25]

"Is that a box lacrosse goalie!?!"

[Clark12 0]

I'm all for putting Garth Snow as president of the board to fix the goalie "size issues." :D

Surely you dont mean THIS Garth Snow

:lol: :lol:

[Monty22 821]

Why would this not be enforced across the board if Whitmore has an issue with it? This makes no sense.

[TBLfan 25]

Exactly, they are directing it towards Luongo only, THAT is what is BS.

[TheBert 0]

Ryan Miller has about a 28" waist, and he's wearing pants made for a guy with a 40" waist. That's not even going into his Ethiopian thigh measurements as compared with the thighs on his pants.

Pads are NOT the issue. 11x38 is a perfectly good standard. Some of the biggest goalies don't even use the full 38" (chiefly Luongo). Gloves are also not the issue. The current sizing is just fine - in fact, it's probably better for the goalies now than before, since the new gloves are far less cumbersome.

Bottom line: the NHL needs to see to it that goalies are wearing core-body protection that is *fitted* to them. There are what - 60 NHL goalies at any given time, and you're telling me that Kay Whitmore can't have their tailors' measurements on file? Every pair of pants and knee-pads, every C/A that goes to an NHL goalie has to conform to those measurements. If they want to change the measurements - say, if Miller eats a couple of cheeseburgers - the NHL flies out their 'tailor' to check the player out.

Funny story: I was checking out a few pairs of pro-return Vaughn pants a while back. I picked one up, tried it, then returned it (too bulky/heavy for me), but it was a neat design idea: XL waist with XXL legs. I have disproportionately huge quads relative to my waist, so they fit like a dream. I thought it was a fit issue, no big deal.

Then I saw the pair with a Medium waist and XXL legs. Flat thighs, too. Miller didn't even bother with that - he just got an internal belt that was sized correctly and left the entire outer structure as XXL.

NHL goalies cheat at the core body, period. You thought Giguere's 'Batman' jersey was bad (the one with huge pockets under the arms), there have been guys who bought excessively long jerseys and then velcroed them onto their knees, so when they butterflied, the jersey covered everything from about two inches above the ice. Same thing Tony Esposito did when he sewed a patch of fishnet between his thighs.

Great post. So let's start shaving off the C/A:

The elbows and uppershoulders look like there's room for reduction, but how does he compare to Giguere's Batman suit?

[Monty22 821]

I heard an annoucer recently during a game state that Manny Legacee is still wearing a Chest and arms set that used to belong to Mario Gosslen when they were both in Hartford's system. That that was kind of odd.

So is there a back story as to why Kay has a problem with seeminly only Luongo's pads?

[Law Goalie 147]

A few weeks ago, Marty Turco and Mike Smith showed up at a Dallas pre-game practice (with plenty of media present) wearing huge paper-and-pencil cutouts taped to the outside of their pads. They then ran through a sort of improvised press conference about the 'additions' to their pads, particularly citing Luongo as the guy who 'pioneered' them. It was really quite funny and good-spirited, but because it had a little of satire's barb to it, and it was a slow news day, it was reported as a personal attack against Luongo as a cheater. Turco immediately made a statement saying that he and Luongo were quite good friends - largely as a result of their incredible playoff duel last year - but we still had about a week of broadcasters either calling Smith and Turco assholes, or calling Luongo a bastard alongside magnified, telestrated images of his 'cheater flaps.'

The elbows and uppershoulders look like there's room for reduction, but how does he compare to Giguere's Batman suit?

The elbows actually aren't that bad - the joints need a ton of protection, and the 7" elbow blocks barely cover the contoured padding beneath. Again, the issue here is that Luongo is a huge guy, but a twig like Miller still has 7" wide elbows, while DiPietro (who's built like a professional wrestler) gets stung regularly because the block doesn't cover all of his elbow.

The shoulders, yes, could be reduced. The current restrictions on the shoulders are incredibly easy to get around.

Giguere is in a class of his own. Out of his gear, he's a relatively stoop-shouldered guy. When he drops into his stance, suddenly his shoulders are extending three feet out on either side, straight out from his ears. When he drops into the butterfly, his core body clicks together like some ridiculous lego suit: C/A cantilevers up and out to fill the net, pants flare out, knee pads bulge out, and the whole thing is a complete wall. He doesn't even bother with proper technique - he leaves his five-hole gaping in the butterfly (tops of the pads open) because he knows his enormous kneepads will stop anything. All of his gear has been modified by the same equipment guy for years, and all with one purpose: to increase the flat blocking area of his body in the butterfly, and secondarily in his stance.

The only reason he hasn't been railed out as a cheater is that the NHL stupidly gave him a Conn Smythe before they took the time to figure out what he was doing, and they're too afraid to call him out and tarnish that award. If only the NHL had the balls of the IOC when it came to cheating...

[TheBert 0]

Now I'm curious to see a similar picture of Giguere's C/A

[OhMyGodImOnFire 0]

The only reason I can possibly think of for Luongo is that to the shooter, they make him seem "bigger"/take away more net for them to shoot at, even though they won't stop anything. Which, of course, is complete crap.