NHL goalies adjusting to smaller pads

With the NHL deciding to reduce the size of goaltender equipment for the upcoming season, netminders throughout the league are doing their best to get accustomed to their new gear.

While the ruling isn't official just yet, it will see pads reduced by roughly two inches in length in order to create a larger five-hole between a goalie's legs.

The previous rule, which was implemented prior to the 2010-11 campaign, is outlined by NHL.com in the following:

"...a goalie's leg pads could not go higher on his leg than 55 percent of the distance between the center of his knee and his pelvis. So if a goalie's upper-leg measurement was 20 inches, which is roughly the average number in the NHL, the pad could not go higher than 11 inches above the center of his knee...That number will now be 45 percent, so the same goalie will be able to wear a pad that goes no higher than 9 inches above his knee."

InGoal Magazine spoke with Corey Crawford, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jonathan Bernier (among others) to get their take on the smaller equipment during the recent Reebok CCM Goalie Summit.

“No matter how much practice you get there are still game situations that you just kind of don’t get a feel for in practice or scrimmage,” Crawford said. ”So once you get in a game that’s when you’ll really get to feel it out. It might affect it or it might not, we’ll see when I get into a game...It’s a little bit smaller, but at the same time it might help us for speed and quickness."

InGoal also included the following photos to illustrate just how much more daylight shooters will see when they look through the five-hole this season.

Even Colorado Avalanche goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere - whose large equipment has been well-documented in the past - will have to get used to having smaller pads.