It's worth mentioning also that the Clint Malarchuk incident in 1989, popularized the wearing of neck protection which was mostly inexistent at the time.
@@augustussohn893 Yeah they cut to commercial real quick. They didn't want to show a man die on TV. Paramedics must have done a really good job for him to survive. edit: apparently his trainer served it Vietnam and knew to pinch the artery.
I started playing goalie in the 80s. I stopped playing goalie in 2008 because my knees couldn't take it anymore. The evolution of the equipment has been amazing and I can't believe how light the gear is now. I was the first goalie at my high school to wear a modern day type mask. I got a hard time about wearing one. But I think my senior year GAA still stands today (~1.15). Probably because I felt invincible behind it. :)
You don't have to play butterfly.thdre are still some companies making traditional goalie leg pads like brown Miller and kenesky. Brown will make you an old school pad in 3 weeks. I have 13.25 inch wide pads from brown hockey
Having played since the 60's, I can say that equipment of that era did a lousy job of protecting the goalie! Today's gear is leap years ahead. My current pads and gloves are actually smaller than the gear I wore twenty years ago.
These days it also protects the player wearing it. But if it can both improve your ability to play your role on the ice, while keeping you safe why not?
You should talk about how the butterfly style revolutionized leg pads by incorporating large, padded knee landings and a square profile that lays flat on the ice, and how this led to the adoption of modern styles like the VH and Reverse VH post stances. And, how goalie skates started increasing the angle of attack on the blades to make lateral toe pushes easier to do while in the butterfly.
...aaah ok ... i get it why today they all go kneeling. crawling and creeping on the ice 90% of the time. They look like garden gnomes, they pull themselves up only when the siren will blow. The upper side of the net is always open and free to all, more goals should be scored.... It's not the case ... Strange !! **** A reminder : Glenn Hall has "invented" this " Butterfly style" (for those who think hockey is a robot game) but G. hall was not sleeping laying on the ice 99% of time, he was alert, fast and nimble. A pleasure to watch. That's long gone .... Video game's style of incompetent goalies is the norm today. No wonder why the Vezina today is given only to those friendly with the GMs, goals against don't count anymore.
I was going to suggest this. Lighter materials that don’t absorb water and take on weight allow the up and down of the butterfly without exhausting the goalie. Mask shape has also been optimized to reduce impact of shots allowing goalies to stay down in the line of fire.
The " butterfly style " was " invented "(lol) long ago by Glenn Hall in the late 50s, early 60s and it revolutionized nothing .. lol .. . Today they invented the " bed and box spring " style. There i corrected it, it's more accurate.
To hell with the butterfly style.. be unpredictable and reactive. All this bullshit with going down on every shot I see now. That’s how I play, and it works.
@@lo-fi8558 .. actually today's style it's anything but butterfly because they are + 3/4 of the game crawling on their knees, stuck on ice and logically it should be called the Suction style. Today really anybody could be a goalie even a great goalie because they look like and they are robots, square and large and wide (they remind me of 2 barn doors) and i think they are on wheels too. Even the catcher's mitt is enormous ... lol why so big really ???!!!! The leg pads, those Styrofoam boards, go up to the navel ... so funny .. lol ... They are stuck there real monolith, they move as little as possible because they can't .. Oh yes sure they have great fancy moves sliding on knees from left to right and right to left. Better than nothing ! The only true real improvement today is the mask- helmet, nothing else.
@@spooniiboii Fuhr and several others wore cageless fibreglass masks into the mid 80's (check 1985 Stanley Cup FInal). No relevance as to when modern masks first showed up.
Got my first mask in 94. It was kevlar reinforced fiberglass with metal cage. Felix Potvan had the first cats eye cage like shown in the video, right? I didn't see Plastic masks like Itec come out until ~98-99.
I grew up watching 80s hockey. Many goalies were small and the position wasn’t evolved like it is now so yeah they let in some bad goals. But it was fun as hell because each goalie played a unique style and there were a lot of acrobatics and some amazing desperation saves. Some of those 80s goalies went on to win Stanley Cups in the mid to late 90s when guys like Jagr and Lindros were playing so I guess they weren’t that bad!
5:31 - whait a minute here, in the earlier 80's we saw the introduction of caged-helmets for goalies. They where heavily used on international ice such as in the Olympics and in the World championship tournaments. Heck already in the 1980's Olympics, Sovietunion goalkeeper Vladislav Tretiak used such helmet as seen on pictures. So NHL was just slow to adapt.
That was a cage and helmet combo, vs the cage/mask which was introduced in the 80's and is the standard today. It has also become the standard for baseball catchers.
@@tedlane9877 It was sooo weird the first time I saw that Jays highlight clip on espn, "the eff?! Is that guy wearing?" Irbe and Dominic wore those extended metal face-cages--which swing open on a hinge from where they attached to a regular forward's helmet--as "the cage and helmet combo" well into the late 90's
Lots of misinformation in the comments as well. He said early goal pads were made of plastic and leather, leather yes, plastic as we know it was not invented yet.
For sure. It makes you that much better in newer equipment to cover the whole net and to move around so easily. I played with 80's equipment. It was terrible. I couldn't move because the pads were to heavy and it wouldn't cover a lot of the net.
‘Gerry ‘ Cheevers. His back up goalie was Eddie Johnston. Though I’m a Montrealer I was a Bruins fan when I was 12 and Bobby Orr was my hero. They had Espo Cashman Hodge Green Bucyk Sanderson they were great. I am however a Habs fan now. Lol
John gore thanks for catching Eddy cheevers..I m less forgiving than u. It would be cool to have been to a game at the gaaaden w you. I saw lots of good stuff, Bobby hulls 600th goal at my first game. 14500 fans standing o, except 1 little asshole miffed that game would end in a 5to5 tie. It was me btw.
Awesome video, man! I don't think I've seen one that's gone this in-depth and so far back in history. If this is the first video, I can't wait to see what more you bring.
@3:38 that goalie is gilles Gratton, look him up, he was so crazy he would bark at players and growl at them , he was nicknamed gratoony the loony for a reason. Someone wrote a book about him, you should make a video about him lol
A couple of corrections 1) plastic wasn't invented till 1907, so it couldn't have been used in goalie eq prior to that as stated, 2) the correct name is "Gerry Cheevers" not Eddie, 3) Teiji Honma, of the 1936 Japanese Olympic Ice Hockey team, wore a goalie mask with a cage over his face and eyes. However, it is a nice overview. I started playing goal in 1970 and still play today. I've been more of a "Gump Worsley" model of a goalie, rather than a Ben Bishop model.
*NOTVERY* Obviousguy It's crazy how he went from zero to almost 500 (probably more now, depending on when this comment is being read) with this one video though. Every time I check it's grown by almost 100 subscribers.
There were some changes not documented. Some manufacturers changed the shape of the blocker from a rectangle to one with a parallelograms at the top and bottom. Brian's came up with the toe shield that covered the gap between the boot of the pads to the ice. Both aren't around anymore. Chest protection changed from being two separate pieces, the chest protector and arm protector to one-piece. Goalie pants also evolved and some manufacturers developed the girdle and shell design like CCM. Straps on leg pads went from being leather to now being replaced with elastic straps held on with velcro. Toe straps are gone and toe ties are used. The hole in the front of the leg pad's boot section is gone and is one continuous section of padding in the front of the foot. Skates have changed to from a one piece metal blade like figure skates attached to the bottom of a boot to a cowl covering the bottom of the boot that holds the blade. Now, the cowl has been replaced with a blade holder riveted to the bottom of the boot as goalies. A thicker shell is attached to the skate boot's toe area.
I used to use those old brown deer hair filled pads and waffle board blocker and the equivalent of a Carhartt jacket for a chest protector....those shots hurt! And the pads got wet and heavy! I'm surprised I still keep playing goalie! I must be into pain and punishment....LOL!
Yeah same here minus the carhartt lol. I did use my Vaughn chest protector til i stopped playing. I got that thing when i was in 8th grade and I stopped around 36 year old. I tried to replace it a few times but i HATED how bulky the new chest protectors where and felt they would hurt my game more than help it. I was never very flexable so speed and quickness was my game. Having that old Vaughn allowed me to move fast.
@@beezer5623 I swear my stuff belonged to Terry Sawchuck! LOL! I eventually got modern gear. I just recently gave my stuff to my buddies kid. It was early 90's Bauer/ Cooper and Vaughn gear. I'm 50 yrs old now...a few knee surgeries from being a butterfly style goaltender put an end to my Goalie days....but I still play Forward and Defense though!
@@shawnwhalen8314 48 today, hip replacement 3 years ago, next one is on 6/28. I’ll be back on the ice at some point. Lol can’t stay away. Hockey is like a drug. No more goalie of course but I love skating up front. I’ll just mess around with my grandsons for now 👍
When I started playing goal, we used community-donated equipment that had been used for at least two generations before we got it... this was the early/mid 70’s so the pads, gloves and chest protector/arm pads (separate units) were at least 20 yrs old when we got them lol I got my first set of my own equipment when I was 13 😂
@@melgreier1630 oh yeah I remember those days. Lol they still do that at my local rink. I’m going to donate my stuff so maybe someone will use it one day.
Kids used to write to Cheevers asking for a mask like his. He'd write back, telling them to send him a dollar. The kids would send him a dollar and he'd send them a marker. 😂
Great piece! I've always loved goalie equipment. You missed just one thing- you went from Tony Esposito's hybrid cage/mask to the late 90s when companies adapted the model modern skipping over the birdcage. Russian goalie Vladislav Tretriak was the first to use it, then Billy Smith, Glen Hanlon, Hasek and Osgood wore them too. Smith was also the first goalie that I knew of to use colored pads beginning in 1980 along with a black goalie stick. I guess you can say he was ahead of his time esthetic-wise.
I played goal in the 90s, and pads were nowhere near the lightness and slickness of today where you can slide on your knees and have very light pads. However, my pads were probably bigger though heavy. I was also one of the tallest goalies at 6’0, but would be considered small today.
The biggest change is isn’t the dimensions it’s the mechanics of the goal pads and how they can be used allowing tenders to move while in the butterfly .. therefor they can go down seal the Ice and stay down .. rather than dive or pop up and move across . This is a a why taller goalies have had more success . Once down the taller goalie still covers a good portion of the upper net and can move in that position across the net
Hello from Toronto Canada May l be so bold and ask would you join a friendly podcast with a bunch of great goalie guy’s. No pressure happy to answer any questions.. JP was an innovator. Cheers
Great stuff Sir! I played goalie from 1980-2000. I tried to get back in in 2010. Aside from my body not doing what it used to, the gear and style of play was drastically different. Gone are the days of the two pad stack and skate saves. I was good, key word was. Without $4000 to drop on new gear my $2000 did not buy the best tech in pads and I could feel it. The angles In the he butterfly were just off enough to present a gaps. Also the positioning of the goal and the crease were a big change. A video on that would be cool.( if not already up). I could go on. I was taught it’s not the arrow it’s the Indian that makes a worrier. But in a ice hockey goalie’s case there is a lot in what bow one has. Thanks again for the video.
Ron Hextall was the first to score a goal and the first to place a water bottle on top of the next. Now there is a slot behind the net to store the water bottle. Before these changes, goalies used to skate to the bench to get water, slowing down the game.
In the 70's, our upper body protection was mostly thick cheese cloth, with a baseball chest protector. About every other shot, to the arms, hurt and frequently left a bruise. Modern goalie gear is so protective, that you no longer think of blinking, because you don't expect anything to hurt.
My first 'pro' goalie pads were Cooper GP59s, cow leather stuffed with deer hair. Chest-arm pads were wool felt with little rubber patches sewn onto elbows. They were heavy, got soaked and smelly from sweat but would last a century. First mask was a catcher's cage. No foam, no plastic, no carbon fiber sticks with varying flex. Couldn't believe the difference in weight from the Cooper to the Vaughn foam. Better living through chemistry!
You can see goalies dont do up their pad straps now. They used to cinch them up tight. Now they leave them extremly loose so when they drop to their knees the pads go horizontal without trying.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention how much the butterfly effected equipment design. It changed the design of sticks to have blades that could sit flat on the ice in the butterfly, pads with lips around the outer side of the goalies leg to help with rebound control, thicker padding to protect a goalies inner side knees for dropping in the butterfly, the adaption of thigh and rear leg protection, and the adaption of double netted gloves allowing for more energy to be taken away from the puck to assist in rebound control. I’m also quite surprised you didn’t mention the change in goalie skate design from players. Goalie skates began to be build heavier and with double outer edged blades so that goalies could move more laterally, and have less risk of damaging their skate blades from kicking off the posts. Another one you missed is the hybrid pad type. Butterfly pads are wider and have a much softer surface to aid in rebound control at the cost of speed which is fine because butterfly goalies play a positional game where they can control rebounds and stay square with shooters well. However, the hybrid pad innovation which has recently evolved to also have the qualities of butterfly pads are designed more flexible and lighter allowing goalies to move faster and more flexibly at the cost of rebound control and equipment that needs to be replaced faster. Recently however True and Bauer have been able to make butterfly pads as flexible as hybrid pads without the accordion design in the pad making better rebound control. Lastly, I’m surprised you didn’t mention the brief period where visors and what were basically just player helmets with neck protectors were used. Hasek and Tim Thomas were well known for that old helmet design.
I get wanting larger pads, however personally I wear one size smaller. My style requires as much movement as possible so I need as little bulk as possible. My only complaint about my leg pads is they need to add more cushioning to the landing area for your knees. I get really bad bruising on my knee caps from dropping unless I have volleyball knee pads on under my leg pads. I'm sure they could come up with some type of internal system that cradles and cushions the knee cap area.
Curved goalie sticks were in the NHL by the late 60's- early 70's. I went to a small day hockey camp in 1973 that was run by Billy and Gordie Smith. Billy (yes THAT Billy Smith) had a curved goalie stick.
If you watch highlights from 80's and earlier, so many goals scored along the ice. Today with the "lie-flat" leg pads and prevalence of butterfly/hybrid style those shots have basically no chance.
I think the curved stick was invented by accident in the 60s when a player named Boom Boom Geofreon broke the blade of his stick in practice, putting a bend in it. He kept using the broken blade stick during practice and noticed he could raise the puck way easier with the curved blade. Later players started heating the blades of their sticks to bend them. The curves of the blades got so ridiculous they had to enforce regulations on the extent of the curve
Bit late, but Tony Esposito retired in 84. I remember seeing those cages way before 88. Also modern goaltending owes a lot to the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes as it was essentially invented there.
Nice video! I enjoyed watching it. Just an FYI tho it was Gerry Cheevers, not Eddie Cheevers, of the Boston Bruins that had the white mask with stitches.
"If G went to there knees on purpose or not they would receive minor penalty and $2 fine" LMAO I've been playing hockey my whole life never heard about that, it hilarious😂
