from Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette,
The game of hockey has changed dramatically since Hall of Fame goalie Ken Dryden was winning six Stanley Cups with the Canadiens between 1971 and 1979.
“When I was a goalie, the risks were pucks and sticks,” Dryden said Friday night before the start of a Heads Up on the Concussion Issue public lecture at McGill University. “The risks for a goalie now are not pucks and sticks. They are getting run over in the crease.
“A goalie is pretty defenceless,” Dryden added. “You’re focused on the puck, you’re not really aware of those that are crashing the net. Often you’re on your knees and you’ve got somebody coming to the net at a pretty good speed. As you are unprepared and you’re not seeing him, you’re kind of blindsided to the whole thing. That makes you pretty vulnerable.”
Dryden thinks the NHL will focus on better protecting goalies over the next couple of years since it has become clear just how vulnerable they are in today’s game.
In Dryden’s day — and long before that — goalies used a standup style as much for survival as anything else.
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