Today, the term hockey describes differing games in various parts of the world, but specifically in North America it refersto as ice hockey. In its origin, hockey is one of the oldest games played. The earliest mention of the sport of hockey dates backto 1572, when it was on a list of prohibited games. Hockey’s birthplace is believed to be in Asia and authorities credit Persiawith having devisedit about 2000 BC. People who perfected the game of polo must have known “hockey on the ground” before “hockey onhorseback”.
Certainly though ice hockey originated in Canada. Two theories have surfaced as to who really came up with ice hockey.
The first credits English soldiers serving with the Royal Canadian Rifles at Kingston, Ontario. They improvised the game at therear of their barracks at Tete du Pont, on the iced up harbor on Christmas day in 1855. After sweeping the snow from the ice,the soldiers tied”runners” to their boats and, with borrowed hockey sticks, played a match with an old lacrosse ball.
The other theory gives not soldier’s credit, but students credit. It tells that G.F. Robertson, of Mcgill University in Montreal firstthought of ice hockey. On a visit to Britain in 1879, he had watched a field hockey match and had greatly been intrigued by it.
Himself being a skilled ice skater, he wondered if it was at allpossible to combine the two sports into one, thereby creating something new and exciting. On his return home, he discussedthe idea with a friend and together they worked out a synthesis of hockey and skating, adding for good measure a few footballrules. Enjoyment of the game proved so great that from an initial experimental venture, it soon graduated at their college to aninvigorating sport oftremendous speed, leading eventually to the formation of the McGill University Hockey Club. The first theory is the onebelieved to be the right one but no one knows for certain the originator of the game. We do know that the term “Ice Hockey”was the earliest recorded in a game that took place in Montreal. As the Canadians love and knowledge for the game of icehockey grew, so did the sport. After various problems between teams playing with different rules, McGill University stepped into set up the rules, thus making ice hockey a sport.
The most popular ice hockey league in the world is the National Hockey League (NHL). The NHL began November 22nd1917, and less than a month later on December 19th the first games were held. Four teams took part in the first season: theMontreal Canadians, the Wanderers, the Ottawa Senators and the Toronto Arenas. Then two more teams were added makingthe NHL a six team league; the Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings. In the 60’s the NHL decided to expand theorganization which was limited to six teams and added another six teams making 12 in all and opening doors for more playersto became part of the great league. As the NHL grew into a prosperous league, the game changed from year to year becauseof expansion and rule changes so players had to adapt, especially the goalies!The game of ice hockey is played with 12 players on a 200 feet by 80 feet battlefield of ice. Each team has five players and agoalie; there are three forwards and two defensemen who form the setup of players of that play the game of hockey. And thenthere are goaltenders, the most important position on the ice. Suited up intheir equipment, they are the most essential part of an ice hockey team. But the position of goaltending has really evolved fromwhen hockey was originated or even since the formation of the NHL. Many different parts of the position have evolved overthe years;the equipment used, the physical and mental abilities of thegoaltenders, the style of play, and the rule changes of the NHL which have forced goalies to change the way they play theirgame. In the early years, goalies were not very well protected. Having to stop frozen discs of rubber was a very difficult job butsomehow goalies where able to manage with the limited equipment that they had. There are five basic parts to goalie equipmentthat have been around as early as the NHL are: leg pads, chest-arm protectors and pants, blocker and catching glove, goaliestick, and the Face Mask. These five basic piece have really changed from the start of the NHL. The leg pads are the biggestand heaviest piece of equipment a goalie has to wear, especially in the 1920’s the pads wear made of heavy leather stuffed withfeathers and other flexible yet heavy materials. These types of pads were difficult to use because theywere so heavy, uncomfortable, and stiff which slowed down reaction times of the goaltenders. As the years passed by,companies such as; Bauer, Canadian, Cooper, and Kenesly started making lighter and more comfortable equipment which wasmore flexible. Today, the pads that are used by goaltenders in the NHL are very light weight and flexible, some special featuresare: waterproof, built-in knee slots,rebound control, and very comfortable. Another piece of equipment is the chest-arm protector and pants. This piece haveevolved greatly in since the 1920’s, back then the goaltenders wore leather chest protectors which were very heavy and hotand were separate from the arm protectors. This problem got better and better as the years went by and with new materialsbeing used creating morecomfortable and cooler equipment. Also the chest and arm protector became onepiece which made protection better and setup allot easier. The pants has also were very hot but today they are made to keepthe goaltender protected but not as hot because of built in ventilation. Another set of equipment has greatly changed, theblocker and the catching glove. A blocker is worn by the goalie on his stick hand and is used to deflect incoming pucks. Thebasic shape of the blocker which wasinvented in the 1900’s and still exists today, yet greatly enhanced upon to give the goaltender more protection and comfort.
Also the catching glove has been improved to give more protection. Made of leather, they were very heavy which sloweddown the reaction time and uncomfortable but now the catching glove is one of the most lightest pieces of equipment thegoaltender has. The least changedpiece of equipment is the goalie stick. The sticks were always the same shape and same material and even today, yet todaythere are also sticks made out of graphite or aluminum. The most popular piece of equipment a goaltender has is his face mask,which is the most recognizable and personal equipment they have. Not always in the NHL were masks worn by goalies, in factthe first goalie ever to wear amask in the NHL was Jacques Plante. He decided after many bloody noses that he should have something covering his facebut was nothing more than a piece of wired leather. This sparked a new thing for goaltenders because now they could playharder without risking as much injury. Face masks have come a long way since then, being made from leather to plastic then tolight metals. Now masks are very well designed for protection, comfort, sight of view, and temperature control. Many goaltenders became popular because ofthe masks, like Gerry Cheevers who would make stitch marks on his mask everywhere he got hit on the mask or morerecently, John Vanbiesbrouck who had a head of a panther on his helmet. Goalies decorated the mask to signify them or theteam the played for. These five basic pieces ofequipment have been greatly modified since the start of the NHL and will keep getting better and better as the years go on.
The physical and mental abilities of goaltenders has also greatly evolved. Goalies in the early years were not generallythought of as thinkers, the basic stereotype of goalies is that of a wacko with fragile confidence, chubby kid who you shovedinto the net because he couldn’t skate well enough to play forward or defense. This was basically true in the early years of theNHL, many goalies did not care about what shape they were in or did not try to improve their skating skills or playingtechniques. Gerry Cheevers was a classic example of this, he said the he used to get in shape running around trying to avoidpractice. Also Glenn Hall, who would convulse and vomit before every game just thinking about the possibilities ofwhat was going to happen. As the game changed and speed up, goalies also had to change their game and speed themselvesup. The stereotype above is no longer valid in today’s game, goalies train just as hard as the forwards and defensemen.
Because of the size, speed, and skill of the players have progressed dramatically in recent years, goalies must be great skatersand students of the game, quickthinkers with a keen sense of anticipation. Goalies today also seek help mentally from sports psychologists to better themselvesbecause of the enormous pressure of playing the position. Today’s goaltenders have all the attributes one wants in ahigh-performance athlete: technical skills, physical ability, emotional and psychological management, and intelligence.Another aspect of the game that has evolved is the style of play the goaltender uses. In the early years of the NHL, the goalieshad to make-up their own styles of play because there was no real set styles of play for them to look off of, often changing itfrom game to game to adjust. Today’s goaltender usually has one style of play and sticks with it his whole career. Also in the1920’s, there were no goalie coaches or goaltending schools that young goalies could go to so they can learn the position, theyhad to learn it by themselves and make up their own moves. Now there are goalie coaches on every team from little league allthe way up to the NHL, and also schools that teach young players about the position and what technique is good for them. Inthe 1920’s up to about the 1950’s there were no realdefined styles of play, each goalie used there own stance that they had made up themselves. Since the 1950’s, styles of playbecame more defined and the young goaltenders of the next generation had something to look off of. There are four basicstyles of play that are used today that have evolved from the 1960’s; stand-up,butterfly, hybrid, and traditional. The stand-up goaltender must stand tall at all costs, is very systematic and positional using hisskate to help him out instead of his pads. Meticulously playing every angle giving the shooter nothing to shoot at.
The Butterfly style goaltender has an open stance and is ready to drop and cover the most vulnerable part of the net, thebottom twelve inches. This style of play has a positional approach, getting hit by the puck rather than deflecting it. Anunorthodox style of play is the hybrid, this is the combination of the stand-up andbutterfly to create a full range acrobatic goaltender. This style of play, the goaliefights for the puck and usually ends up in some bizarre positions. Finally, the laststyle of play is traditional. A tradition style goaltender uses all three of the styles ofplay in his technique, plays every situation presented to him on the ice with no realselective movements. Styles of play are very important in the NHL these days andevolved greatly since the early years of the NHL. Another aspect of the game that has evolved and forced goaltenders toevolve along with it is the rule changes in the NHL. There are changes made yearafter year that has changed the ways goaltenders play their game. Before the NHLbegan, there was another league called the National Hockey Association (NHA) inwhich the goaltenders were not allowed to drop to their knees, and every fallengoalie were fined two dollars! Goaltenders were delighted when the NHL was formedand took over the NHA because goalies were allowed to drop to their knees or gointo any other position for that matter. This was probably the biggest and mostloved rule change in the history of goaltending. Other rules were made in the NHL to protect the goaltender, not allowing other players to touch the goaltender was a bighelp to goalies because they could concentrate on what they were doing and notworry about getting hit by the other players. The goalies crease (the semi-circle infront of the net) was often the center of debate as years went on, playerscomplaining that the goalie was given to much protection by the crease. The rule isthat if the opposing team is in the crease as the puck is going in, the goal does notcount. Goalies were greatly favored in this rule because they did not have to worryabout the players that were in the crease scoring a goal. So rule changes on thecrease started taking place, in 1998 the NHL made the crease allot smaller bycutting off the edges of the semi-circle on each side to allow players to get closerto the net without being threatened by the crease. Also the NHL, told the refereesthat players were aloud to be more physical with the goalies so less penaltieswould be called and the game would be more exciting. Goalies had to adjust the waythey played their game again to fit these new rules. Also in 1998, the NHL changedanother part of the game by moving the nets up farther from the back boards so theopposing teams had more room to set up plays behind the net, this was just anotherobstacle that goalies had overcome and adjust to. Goalies had to change theirgame dramatically over the years from the start of the NHL from all the rule changesthat the NHL had made to speed up the game and make it more action packed. Theserule changes are going to keep happening and goalies are just going to have toadjust to them if they like it or not.
In conclusion, the goalies in the NHL have always had to evolve along withthe game. The position of goaltending has greatly evolved since the formation ofthe NHL and even before the NHL started. The formation of the NHL in 1917 opened doors for players to show off their skills to the world and make a living, especiallythe goalies. The equipment that goalies use have evolve to be much lighter, morecomfortable, and more aerodynamic since the start of the NHL and will keepenhancing in time. The physical and mental abilities of goaltenders today is muchmore sharper, stronger, and quicker than what they were in years in the past. Thestyle of play of goalies these days has evolved greatly from the base styles thatwere set by some of the great goalies in the past. Also, the rule changes that the NHLhas set forced goalies to evolve their game to fit the new rules and make the mostout of what situations are presented to them. These are all the aspects of theposition that have evolved throughout the years in the NHL. Goaltenders today arethe most conditioned, sharpest, quickest, and most important piece of aprofessional hockey team and has all evolved from what goalies in the past havedone.
Category: Miscellaneous
