Under the standup style of the 80s, you see these very short and narrrow goalie pads. If a modern goaltender were to drop to the butterfly using these pads, they wouldn’t cover as much of the net, and they’d be risking injury as the pads don’t extend to cover the top part of the leg.
The size of pads today, not just width but length too, allows the goalie to cover large parts of the bottom of the net. And also slide to the post and cover a pretty enormous area there too.
Goalie pads today really are unusually and unnecessarily large. Goalies will tell you they need them for safety, but that’s only because they have exploited them to their fullest advantage.
Under the standup style of the 80s, you see these very short and narrrow goalie pads. If a modern goaltender were to drop to the butterfly using these pads, they wouldn’t cover as much of the net, and they’d be risking injury as the pads don’t extend to cover the top part of the leg.
The size of pads today, not just width but length too, allows the goalie to cover large parts of the bottom of the net. And also slide to the post and cover a pretty enormous area there too.
This video is another good example: https://youtu.be/cggFu52LnCE
Goalie pads today really are unusually and unnecessarily large. Goalies will tell you they need them for safety, but that’s only because they have exploited them to their fullest advantage.