Friday's News

Still not much in the hockey newsworld, but some interesting thoughts on both Wade Redden and NHL goalies.

James Gordon's Hockey Capital Blog showed me an interesting Avery quote on Sporting News, regarding Redden. On his thoughts about his former New York Rangers' off-season moves, "New York is a tough place to play. Markus Naslund is going to have a tough time, so is Wade Redden. New York fans aren't going to put up with those guys. I don't think that they're going to live up to the expectations."

Do you mean to suggest that Wade Redden doesn't live up to expectations? And that, when players like Redden don't live up to expectations, we fans don't have to put up with it? Why did you wait so long to tell us this, Sean?

Another KK post pointed me to a Vancouver Province story with some more detail on the new goalie equipment sizing rules. This season, it appears that the tops of goalie pads will be contoured around the knee, shortening their coverage in the butterfly position, and pants with these protectors built in won't be allowed. Additionally, the calf protector will be tied down more strictly, as will the clavicle protector. Finally, when measuring the thickness of 'landing gear' on the inside of the legs, the 2.5" measurement will remain, but it will be a resting measurement, meaning unlike last season you can't compress these flaps down to 2.5" for measuring purposes and still get to wear them.

Not the least bit ironic that it is the Vancouver Providence reporting on these details, since as they point out some of the now-illegal equipment was used by the Canucks' own Roberto Luongo. Once again though, just a little too late with some of these fairly obvious-seeming changes (what Sens fan wouldn't have appreciated tied-down clavicle protectors and these other rules just one June ago?). The mention of the expected change next year to proportionate sizing of equipment (which will keep 5'10 goalie Curtis Sanford from using the same size pads as 6'3 Luongo, as he currently does) could strike a big blow against many goalies. It would represent a departure of sorts from the anti clutching and grabbing rules the League instituted, which made the League a friendlier place for smaller forwards and defensemen. At the very least, it would mean that a battle between 5'11 Gerber and 6'5 Auld would get a little more interesting.