Goalie wearin Itech shield

[shooter27 116]

A friend and I were chatting about vaguely remembering a goalie in the 1988 Olympics wearing a clear Itech shield. We managed to find this picture, which appears to be Andy Moog wearing an Itech in goal.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/olympians/001064-119.01-e.php?&photo_id_nbr=11246&brws_s=1&&PHPSESSID=dlbghk3a8459b5l4vpsjt2nhv0

So that brought up the questions - for anyone that remembers, how did Moog manage to get away with wearing the Itech in the Olympics? And why didn't he continue wearing it when he returned to the NHL? And have any other goaltenders worn the Itech?

[Law Goalie 147]

Yup, Moog did use one in the Olympics. About five minutes before a game, after warmups, the IOC sent a guy down to tell him he couldn't wear a cat-eye cage. He tried on a regular player cage, hated it, and in desperation tried the Itech. Sean Burke opted for a cage. There was a time when visors first came out that a bunch of guys tried them for goaltending. Trevor Kidd used one for a bit. There are a few pictures of some others in Grant Fuhr's book. Mike Richter actually used one in an NHL game or two. That was when Harrison's revolutionary shell, cage, and backplate design was still relatively new, so there was still a fair bit of experimentation.

Then there was that period when Sawchuk and Plante (and maybe a couple other guys) were using big plastic shields that were in reality slightly upgraded versions of a dentist's face visor.

There was no rule or reason Moog couldn't have kept using it, apart from the fact that they were terrible for goaltending. Firstly, those Itechs didn't have correct optics, so they actually messed up your read on a shot. Second, they got incredibly hot and fogged like mad, as all such shields do, but as a goalie you can't just change and have the trainer wipe it down. If it fogs during play, you're screwed: you get to play blind until the next whistle. They were also terrible in how they handled impacts. A moderate shot would leave a nice, big smudge -- great, more visual impairment -- and a hard one could blow it up. You've probably seen plastic danglers explode from shots: same idea, only now those shards of plastic are headed for your eyes.

[shooter27 116]

Interesting point about those original Itechs not being visually correct and having heat/fogging issues. I wore one during college and I think he optics have greatly improved, as have the fogging issues (for the most part). I wonder if a goalie today could be convinced to try it.

[Law Goalie 147]

Maybe... the issue would be building a visor that was sufficiently thick/strong to handle repeated 80-110mph impacts while maintaining the optical properties. It might be more practical for European goalies because of the IIHF rule about instant whistles for headshots: you'd have 30s to go to the bench and have the trainer wipe the smudge off.

That said, I think you'd have a really hard time convincing goalies to trust their heads to plastic shields. Panes of plexiglass in rinks break a lot more frequently than cages, and when they fail, they fail spectacularly instead of the relatively graceful bend of a cage wire. Even if you built an equally effective shield, it would be a major uphill battle rhetorically.

[shooter27 116]

Makes sense. Guess it was just a one-time phenomenon.