>>Scoring is down because goalie pads and other equipment has gotten way to big. Goalies should only be allowed pads big enough to protect their legs, chest and other "vital" areas. Also, keeping them from playing the puck when it goes behind the goal line around their net will keep the puck in the offensive zones longer. When you add all this up with the other suggestions for enforcing obstruction, no using the stick blade to tug at the opponent, removing the center line, reducing the size of the neutral zone, etc., and scoring will go up.
>
>You guys lack imagination. Goalie equipment is big. For the security of the goalie that should'nt change.
Goalie protection? These guys used to play with minimal pads and no mask as recently as the Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull era. Even when Rocket Richard was shooting at them. Goalies have just become idiosyncratic, superstitious head-cases looking to "pad" their stats. They don't need a 12 inch (0.3m) wide pad to protect a 6 inch wide calf/ankle and jerseys that billow out from under their arms like parachutes. JS Giguerre and his seamingly "jump-up shoulder pads" when he dropped down in the 2003 playoffs comes to mind.
If you want to fully protect goalie legs, then curve the pads around the leg to the sides instead of extending them out so far so they cut off the angle shots.
Mark McCasland
Midlothian, TX USA