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How the NHL will regulate ‘form fitting’ goalie pads during 10-11 season

Red Wings Oilers Hockey

The Edmonton Oilers’ Devan Dubnyk celebrates his shoot out win over the Detroit Red Wings after an NHL hockey game in Edmonton on Friday, March 19, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, John Ulan)

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Earlier today, I discussed the fact that the NHL plans on forcing goalies to wear more “form-fitting” pads during the 2010-11 season. The natural reaction is to assume that all goalies would be affected negatively by this change but after picking the brain of The Goalie Guild, it turns out that the changes will be a little bit more complicated than a simple “one size fits all” impact.

Though his percentage was clearly off-the-cuff, it’s interesting that TGG says it’s quite possible that more goalies will benefit from the change if anything else. (Judging by the fact that a huge chunk of NHL goalies are well above six-feet-tall, it makes plenty of sense.)

Yeah. I think I found it was like 70% of goalies are not affected or could potentially wear BIGGER pads ... 30% smaller

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What the goalie pad measurement tool might look like, via TGG

Justin of TGG explains the rule change in-depth in this post, but I think this quick snippet summarizes the rule change reasonably well. (Note: Kay Whitmore is the man in charge - or at least the figurehead - for the league’s goalie equipment mandates).

In a nutshell, Whitmore’s basis for this new measurement term is to measure the distance between two points, in this case the height from the surface of the ice to the top of the pad, as opposed to measuring the actual leg pad’s height.

Here’s a video from Whitmore explaining some of the changes.

It seems like an unnecessarily complicated way to measure pads (Justin shares the formula in that posted link), one that could benefit goalies with unusually long legs. It’s a strange alteration - one I’ve only sort of wrapped my mind around - but the NHL often makes some very odd decisions when it comes to rules. In that way, they’re as consistent as Martin Brodeur’s brilliant career.

Later today, I’ll discuss a few goalies who likely will suffer some negative consequences from the rule changes. Stay tuned.

* - Exaggeration.