hockey looking to make some changes

My search to find my essential question has been quite difficult but I still plan on finding as much as I possibly can. There seem to be numerous changes and proposals but they all seem to generally center around goal tenders and there over sized pads. The other changes that they want to include is increasing the net size and leaving goalies to keep there over sized equipment.

With all the changes with goalie equipment the NHL has been trying to improve scoring without reducing the size of the equipment. There was a meeting with all the general managers, where they met to make decisions about how to improve scoring because of the over sized equipment used by goalies. From an article in The New York Times, by Jeff Z. Klein and Lew Serviss "The decision, made at the general managers’ annual meetings in Florida, came amid the usual flurry of radical proposals aimed at increasing scoring. The most extreme involved enlarging the size of the nets, which have been six feet wide and four feet high since at least 1911." (Klein & Serviss). But if you think about it why would you change the size of the nets when that is not the main problem for the scoring decrease. The N.H.L.’s deputy commissioner, Bill Daly, hinted that such proposals could be adopted if the equipment crackdown failed. Speaking to ESPN, he called it “kind of one last try to try and do something about this, and if they’re not able to do that, they’re going to look at what else they can do — more dramatic changes.” (Klein & Serviss). But instead of changing the net size I think that it is easier to just shrink the pads and to have the pads measured before each game. If you change the size of the net you will be taking away some of the ice. A lot of teams like to utilize the space that they have around the nets and if you make the nets bigger the would lose this space to set up scoring chances.

There are also some other issues that have yet to be addressed. In an article by Jamie Fitzpatrick "Several other size issues have yet to be addressed: Many goaltenders, regardless of physical stature, are said to use the largest available size in jerseys, pants and chest protectors, and some shoulder pads appear to reach up around the ears." (Fitzpatrick). I think that these are not that big of an issues as the pads only because they aren't as noticeable.




Klein, Jeff Z., Serviss, Lew. "As Goals Decline, Calls for Change Increase." The New York Times 24 02 2008 21 May 2008 . (Klein & Serviss )

Fitzpatrick, Jamie. "NHL Goalie Pads: Size Matters." About.com 27 08 2003 20 May 2008 . (Fitzpatrick )