from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

One year after decreasing the size of goalie pads, the NHL’s competition committee is taking another hard look at netminders’ equipment. Under scrutiny: the chests, jerseys and pants.

There will not be time to institute changes for 2015-16, but there is a desire to have a proposal ready in time for the following season. The idea is to prevent gear that is more about blocking than it is about protection.

The discussions come at a time when the NHL’s average save percentage (.915) is the highest since the statistic arrived in 1983-84 and the mean Goals Against Average (2.52) is the third-lowest in 59 years. (Both figures courtesy hockey-reference.com.)

Apparently, one of the considerations is tapered jerseys, which would make it harder to hide oversized equipment. The tighter the sweater, the easier it is to see how big goalies are in, say, their chest protector compared to how big they are in person. Before last season, the committee shortened the height of pads, from 55 per cent to 45 above the distance between the centre of the knee and the pelvis.

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