Colander

Does that include stretching for another beer (pre or post game)?

So true!

So going along with your glass half-full outlook: I am assuming he will be at the top of his team skill-wise- this will hopefully allow for more ice time, allowing further improvement - I know a lot of people who said the drop for them was the best thing that happened to them. This may also be an opportunity for him to practice some leadership among the less experienced/ lesser skilled players - that is always a good thing for both performance and life skills...

Nice mask! What about the two that don't line up -are they close or a mile off? If the former, perhaps a custom clip? Can you post a pic with the cage in place (assuming you have it?)

Never played it but would love to try - although I am betting once would be enough for me... So, based on the quoted part of your response, what happens when you return to real hockey? Do you click back into the benchmarks on the ice? Any good or bad habits you bring into the 200 feet rink?

It’s a Canadian problem, that’s the thing. This isn’t new: look at the Avro Arrow. Before anyone starts in on me, no I don’t believe the hype that even though it was designed and built > 60 years ago it would be competitive today. But it was innovative and showed leading edge work by some great minds and showed Canadian leadership in the aerospace field. Proof lies in the fact that after the program was scrapped (in lieu of the US Bomarc missiles and DEW line) most of the Canadian engineers that worked on it went to work for NASA on Gemini and Apollo. The program NRC just started (at the outset of the pandemic they announced the construction of the facility) should have been in action decades ago (there was a program in place in up to the ‘70’s when it was scrapped as that work moved out of country). I’m sure people felt there wasn’t a need at that time, but the middle word in NRC is Research… How many times do Canadians have to shoot themselves in the foot before they stop being happy to plow a field, plant the crops and hand the farm to someone else?

LOL – getting the spouse on board is the key element - kids won’t change the situation… When I was ~ 34/35, had just given up on my first iteration of being a goalie – my kids would have been ~ 2 & 4. A bunch of guys at the company I worked had the ice rented on Friday nights (technically Saturday morning) from ~ 12:30am to whenever the Zamboni guy finished his 2-4 was ready to go home. Great bunch of guys, sloppy hockey (I was playing out) and enough fun that even after I left the place to work elsewhere, I still played with them for a few years after. (As I have said before on playing out – it’s soooo much easier to score that to stop the puck, but then perhaps that’s just a reflection of what a sh###y goalie I am). The deal with my wife was, I could go play, but the kids wanted to go to Kindergym with dad on Saturday mornings, which started at 8:30 am… So I dutifully got up after about 2 hours, sleep, chugged the better part of a coffee pot, got the kids there and then chugged a couple of their pots. In reflection I had a blast on the ice and at the Kindergym with the kids, the parents and the organizers (one time, they were trying to make paper airplanes for the kids – I had to “school” them on the proper way to make a paper airplane and then lectured them on how they had apparently wasted their time listening attentively to the teachers, while kids like me were perfecting the art of the paper dart…) As much as I probably looked like a warmed over zombie on those Saturday afternoons, I wouldn’t change that time for anything. Have fun!!!

Some things never change. When I was in my teens my best friend was a D who was really a “closeted goalie”. It was as obvious as the sunrise this guy wanted to be a goalie, and to that end I don’t know why he never tired the position, he had the bucks and the size. I guess for him it went in the “things I regret not trying” column. Anyway yeah, he was always in the crease trying block shots or “make saves”. I don’t know how many times he slid in, knocked me out of the way, the puck would hit him and then at the whistle he’d look a me and say “I saved you on that one…” I was hoping in my second iteration as a goalie this would go away , but every couple of games I will try to move cross-crease to get set for a shot only to be stopped by a D-man standing pretty well right beside me…And yes @MTH that was my exact thought…

Well, they hung the carrot of possibly opening up hockey here about 2 weeks ago – but instead, yesterday, basically shut down all indoor restaurant facilities, implying that I will probably have to wait ‘til the day after never before I get on the ice again. The one bright spot is, moving into spring, the weather is getting better, so I am turning energies toward some inline skating to get into a bit better shape and ensure I actually remember to skate (in case I ever get to step on the ice again)... As a history, I had a pair of Bauer inline skates about 20 years ago: really liked them and they worked well – perhaps too well. I skated rain or shine and even managed to go for short hops on packed gravel sections while shepherding my young kids along on their first bikes. Needless to say the bearing and wheels eventually disintegrated. The skates were originally ~$120 but replacing wheels and bearings was going to run about ~$150 so I ditched them and never got any replacements (another curse of getting old). I am hoping to get recommendations on what you think is a decent pair. I am not looking for the most or least expensive, not going to play hockey with them, just want something reliable and comfortable. I know this probably opens up a lot of opinions, but hey – Covid is still here and apparently I aint going anywhere fast (well, except for hopefully on my new pair of inlines). BTW what to avoids is as valuable as what you like TIA

Scotty said it best...

Yeah - it certainly looked like he didn't want to take the ref out - let's give him credit for being that smart at least

IDK - In this case I'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt. It looked like one of those struggles you get into when you are battling to keep the puck out and they finally scored nullifying all your effort. In that mental space, I've had some choice words after those and even accidentally hit one of my players with the puck as I tried to fire it off in anger*. Luckily with my shot I don't think they even realized it hit them, but despite that I was embarrassed after. When he went for the boards he checked his swing - perhaps because he realized someone was skating into the path of his intended swing to beat the stick on the boards? You tell me...(I don't want to jump too quickly to start calling hi the Marchand of the goalie sect). *To be clear -in those case I was mad at myself, not anyone else for the GA

Wait'll you get married...

Hilarious - I almost added the "nerd" aspect in my last post. Read a couple of his books - including the one that pre-dates "The Game" that most people don't know about - he co-authored a soft cover book aimed at youth hockey put out by McDonald's just after the '72 Canada-Russia series called "Let's Play Better Hockey". And to complete the history lesson, he and Dave were the only brother goalies to ever play against each other in the NHL (yeah I know they alluded to it in a Montreal game recently, but I watched it...)

All these pics of Dryden make me think... Back in the day a lot of people said Dryden wasn't a good goalie but rather had a good team in front of him. As a former Dryden fanboy I would now say that is probably true to some extent but it is interesting… He was a tall man trying to play a position that was primarily relegated to a smaller man. He was undoubtedly trying to play that style that was stand up combined with a lot of desperation moves - a lot easier when you are under 6 feet tall). With his tall and lanky physique it must have been difficult to move in those manners (I know he had back problems about half way through his pro career) and certainly came off as pretty non-graceful. It would be interesting to see the change if we could transport the 20+ year-old Dryden to this point in time. With his height, modern gear and the style with which a goalie plays today, I suspect it would have been a different outcome.

You mean like this?...

Yeah - I wasn't sure with the title. If you mean flipping as in flipping houses where the goal is to make money off the differential because the market is crazy as it is happening in a lot of places, I don't see it. If you are using the term in a manner where you offset you losses when you try gear and get rid of it in the short term, yes you can cushion the loss, but I don't see it being a money-making venture. I think goalie gear is the same as cars where they lose 25% just driving off the lot. Sure there may be some high end or desirable gear that let's you cut your losses, and pro-return has the mystique of having been used by a pro, so adds value to some (especially if you are a fan of the original owner), otherwise the problem is mass quantity. Looking even at (my) local used market on line a quick glance garners about half a dozen Vaughn V-XX pads. The other issue is, unlike a used car, one size does not fit all. I have seen pads I would love to buy at a reasonable price, but for me a 36+1 is not going to work. Then per @Chenner29there are colour schemes. There have been some beauts out there I would love and I am not looking for specific colours, but when I look at a pair of pads and my first thought is "Were they stoned when they chose that colour combination?", it's a hard pass. Actually - this thread makes me wish there was a thread here, as opposed to the "Deals and Steals" - titled "Most Outrageous Asks". I recall seeing a pair of leather Cooper pads somewhere, that were beaten to crap where the seller wanted ~ $800 because they were "vintage". Yeah, so is the dirt under my basement steps... Edit - rereading this I just wanted to state I am not trying to rain on your parade, but just hoping to avoid having you stock up on gear and then end up with costs you hadn't counted on...

That's because you aren't old enough...

Haha - so true. Can't count how many times I've realized that too late.

It’s funny you say that… Back then you were “coached” by a bunch of forwards who really didn’t know a thing about goaltending. As a kid you just assumed, “hey they’re the coach, they must know what they are talking about…” Over the years, talking to different players (not goalies) I was shocked to discover how little they know about the position. I think goalies have always known a lot about how forwards and D should play because we watch them intently all the time. But the forwards and D – the same guys that “coached” me in my youth - turns out really didn’t know squat about the position. I suppose some of the luckier kids were coached by actual goalies, and they most probably excelled. The rest of us used the extremely efficient “trial and error” method. The challenge was exacerbated because some of the things you were being “taught” you felt deep down inside just didn’t sit right. Probably the biggest one was the idea that you didn’t drop, and if you did, and a goal was scored it was fully your fault. Yet you knew inside dropping and blocking seemed so natural and necessary. There was also no “outlet”. As I have said before, there were two other goalies: the one on the other team, whom you would never talk to, and the backup or starter (depending on where you stood) on your team – you didn’t share secrets with them because they were the other form of competition. So unlike today, there was no way of knowing what others were going through or thought. I am always struck by what I read on these forums, only think to myself “ooooh, so I’m not the only one…” Now we have (real) goalie coaches, we can drop, we have equipment the takes the fear of injury out of the equation (I put on my, by today’s standards, cheap gear and know 90+% of the guys can’t bring any shot that will hurt me) and goalies can experiment with moves, gear… This is the golden age…. *When I say "coached" in my case there was no actual training. I remember being showed how to do a 2-pad stack by another goalie at my first practice - I guess he took pity on me - but other than that - nada

...or shoot it in front of those signs that say "This spot reserved for new or expectant mothers"

Funny – I was thinking about this thread this morning and then after ~ 4 weeks it comes up again. So it must by the omen that I should write what I was thinking about. I am wondering about the return rate. Some here have already hit the ice again, some probably never left. For me it has been 3 games in the past year+ (last regular game was 8 Mar-20.). I would first say this is an “older-persons’” issue, but comments by @SaveByRichter35 make me think maybe not. While I am mentally chomping at the bit to go back, it’s not always so easy to get off the couch once you’ve had too big a supper and the rain or snow is falling and… I also have concerns about what the year layoff has done to my game. Even though I have sent a fair bit of time over the last year analyzing my game and determining key aspects to modify that would probably improve my game drastically – thinking and doing are two separate things. Don’ get me wrong, I am going to get out there, but I wonder what toll the break will take on me. I played 8 seasons straight, winter through summer (actually played more summer games some years than winter) for the sole reason that I knew too long a layoff would be death (shark not swimming analogy). I am wondering what kind of attrition rate we will see among goalies who, like me had too much time to think…

Send 'em my way!

I have CCM V04s which I suspect have the same boot as it has a large opening there as well (it looks closed but the middle "hump" doesn't touch the bottom of the boot). I made toe tie retainers for them - has worked well (as defined by the fact i can't blame it any GA on them specifically). (Edit: sorry - no idea why the images came out soooo big)