from Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe,

Tuukka Rask does not like change. While other goalies regularly freshen paint jobs on their masks, the Bruins puck-stopper has made a habit of his regular design: Rask on the chin, bear claws around the spoked-B on the temples, the Finnish flag on the back plate.

But so far, an in-season skate swap has paid off.

This season, Bauer released a prototype of a new goalie skate. Most goalies wear skates with the boots tucked into plastic cowlings. The cowlings help to protect goalies’ feet from pucks. But the cowlings also restrict how far goalies can lean into their inside edges before the plastic slams into the ice.

Bauer’s new Supreme 1S did away with the cowlings. Rask first played with the 1S skates in a 3-2 loss to Colorado on Nov. 12.

“It’s a bulky, plastic part. It’s traditional. The way it’s been forever,” said Garnet Alexander, Bauer’s director of development services. “What we’ve done is remove that cowling and just had a built-up toe cap. It allows the goalie to get a better angle of attack on the ice. They’re able to make a better push with moving laterally. Goalies are telling us they can get a foot on each post, get that low, and still have grip on their skates. The cowling was touching the ice, so it was limiting the angle of attack.”

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