Kolzig Should Be Embarrassed

Just check out the shoulder "pads" on Olaf Kolzig in this picture. In fact, look at his entire chest armor.

Olaf looks like he's been paved over in concrete. He's as big and wide as the broad side of an outhouse.

We all know the NHL blew it when they brought in restrictions for the leg pads and blocker but didn't lift a finger about the chest and shoulder "protection". But at some point the athlete has to look in the mirror and feel embarrassed about himself. Kolzig has had a fine career but this is akin to a basketball player walking onto the court wearing enormous Acme springs on his shoes or a baseball player walking to the plate with a ten foot four by four instead of a bat.

If these goalies have no shame (ie. Roberto Luongo, J.S. Giguere, Martin Gerber), the NHL has to step in and drastically reduce the size of the equipment, and they shouldn't stop at the shoulder pads. The catching gloves need to be reduced by at least 1/3 of their current size. Get those leg pads down another two inches and make sure their pants conform to their body shape.

The fact that we're looking at only 3 players possibly scoring 50 goals is almost incomprehensible considering the talent that the league is stacked with. The game has been tilted in the goalie's favour for well over a decade now and it's no surprise that ratings have fallen in tandem with that fact.

Perhaps the most annoying aspect of all this is listening to announcers and sports radio hosts saying over and over again that a goal "wasn't the goalie's fault".

If they are wearing that much equipment and they still let a goal in, ..... dude, it's their fault. If they happened to let in a tic-tac or an M&M thrown from the stands, it's their fault.