Why did the goal crease change?

[shooter27 116]

I was watching an old game from the early 80's last night and it reminded me that the goal crease used to be smallish and rectangular. Then in the late 80's it was adjusted to a semi-circle with the old rectangular crease inside the semi-circle. Does anyone remember why the semi-circle was originally added in the late 80's?

I know they truncated the sides of the crease back in the early 00's to take remove some of the skate in the crease issues, but I can't seem to find why the semi-circle was originally instituted back in the 80's.

Thanks.

[DLK 0]

Semi-circle was a '91-92 rule change.

If I recall correctly, they were having issues with goaltenders getting run in the crease. The size of the crease was increased to better protect the goaltenders.

[shooter27 116]

'91-92 was when they removed the inner rectangle and went to a semi circle by itself, but in '86-87 they went from just the rectangle to the rectangle inside of a semicircle.

[DLK 0]

Hmm. I don't remember that.

Sorry, I've no idea if that was the case. Hopefully there's another member with a better memory of late-eighties hockey than me who can answer that!

[IPv6Freely 2096]

the real question is: after they killed the nonsense foot-in-the-crease rule, why did they not put the full semi-circle back? I've always wondered that.