My Hockey Fandom, As Told Through the Art of Goalie Pads

[Rin 277]

One of the things I latched onto when watching hockey for the first time was just how flashy a set of pads could be.

 

In a sport where individual expression is fairly hard to come by, goalies serve as the lone exception on the ice. While every other player can maybe get some colored stick tape or a tinted visor (until skates can be customized like cleats in the NFL), the goalie stands out with the freedom to customize their pad graphics and helmets as they see fit. While some would argue that masks are more interesting and worth looking into, I would argue the opposite; I can't see a goalie's mask unless I'm able to get a close enough view to marvel at the details. Pads, on the other hand, are so much easier to see from so many angles, and can end up becoming an iconic part of a goalie's look. In some cases, you can tell exactly when a picture was taken just by looking at the pads of the goaltender.

 

This media spot is kind of an excuse to just gush over some of my favorite setups over the years. Nothing in this list is particularly ordered or ranked, and you will see some bias toward teams I'm a fan of. I watched them more often than others, after all.

 

The Reebok Revoke era:

  

 

This was the graphic that initially drew me into the idea of pad design. Debuting right when I started to get REALLY into hockey, these pads probably most defined what I like most about a good set of goalie pads. Controversial as it may be, I really love pads that:

 

• Aren't too minimal
• Stay entirely within the team's color scheme
• Use white as a base/primary/contrast color
• Creatively color or style a more generic geometric pattern, instead of custom-printing something VERY team-specific.

 

While looking initially complex, the Revoke set was actually fairly simple in how it could be styled. You had the graphic essentially cutting a line down the middle of the pad, a color on the outside of it, and a color on the inside of it. Those options seem fairly limited when you first think about it, but take a look at all three of the different sets above. One opts to place the primary color on the inside, one opts to keep the pads full white except for a secondary color up the middle, and one utilizes the primary color up the middle with the secondary on the bottom. Many sets flipped this concept and put a primary color on the outside, like this particularly pretty set of blue and silver pads that I used as a young bantam-level goalie:

 

 

It's this concept and division of color that really formed a basis for what I love in a set of pads. I would go so far to create my own little "company" as a kid playing hockey on ROBLOX that provided goalie pads for other ro-hockey players, and multiple designs would be quite obviously influenced from not only this set, but ensuing Reebok sets that were built from a similar foundation.

 

Speaking of those later Reebok models, there's one example of these pads that I've omitted which happens to be my favorite, because I wanted to save an entire section for him...

 

Corey Crawford's Championship Era:

  

 

All of my immediate family hails from the Chicagoland area, and my dad has been a Hawks fan since he was a kid. My brother and I started to get really into the sport after the Hawks went on their 2010 on the back of surprise playoff performer Antti Niemi, who would fail to reach an agreement with Chicago in the ensuing offseason. While he headed off for San Jose, Chicago brought in ex-Stars veteran Marty Turco, who was fairly quickly phased out as a new call-up developed a hot hand in goal for the powerhouse Blackhawks.

 

Growing up, Corey Crawford was my favorite goalie. Obviously; he was the full-time backstop for my favorite hockey team. How could you not grow to love your own goalie?

 

(Actually, a Pepper vs Crawford comparison is fairly intriguing. Two "Hall of Very Good" players that mean more to their individual franchise than the league as a whole. I suppose that's fitting.)

 

Over the years, I thought some of his pad setups were some of the absolute best in the league. Maybe it's my bias for bright colors contrasted by black and white shining through, but all of these sets over the years felt firmly like an extension of the Blackhawks uniform, which is still the best in hockey. I particularly love how the later models (P4 and XLT, listed 2nd and 3rd in the images above) keep up the theme of having primary red on the inside, contrasting with black down the middle, and adding a little additional splash of red in a line or section beyond the black. The P4s, especially, are probably my favorite pad design of all time, and nobody wore them better than Corey Crawford.

 

God, this was such a sexy era for pads. Just look at how many different ways you cold customize the P4s, and this isn't even all of them...

 

 

Maybe I'll boot up NHL 14 and show off what my old club team's set looked like.

 

The Golden Knights Expansion Era

 

With the benefit of a 20/20 hindsight, it's kind of hilarious to look back and see exactly when my favorite team changed over. Without knowing me, it's easy to think that I bandwagoned over to the Golden Knights as soon as the Hawks finally started their downfall, but I can 100% promise you, that was not the case. The Blackhawks are a Chicago team, and Chicago is where my family is from. I, however, was born in Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas proper.

 

We were forced to move away from the city for Houston when I was entering the 2nd grade, due to some restructuring within my Dad's company, but I was old enough to have made friends and formed lasting memories of being a Las Vegas child. Growing up, I always always made a Vegas-based team in whatever sports game I was playing, trying over and over to come up with catchy names and fitting themes for a team within a city that, so I thought, would never host a professional sports team. They'd always hosted minor league clubs, mind you-- the 51's were a fucking goated minor league team name and I'll be forever sad they rebranded-- but questions surrounding sports gambling and the viability of the hometown market inescapably loomed over the city.

 

That was, of course, until the Knights arrived with a bang.

 

I knew, from the moment Bettman announced that he wanted expansion teams in four cities (Toronto, Quebec City, Seattle, and Vegas), i was going to be as on-board as I possibly could with the idea of getting a hometown team. I was 100% ready to jump off of the Chicago success train, and jump right into the trials and tribulations of a shitty expansion team. I even bought tickets to their first ever appearance in the NHL, a road game just a few hours north of me in Dallas, more than happy to watch this brand new team get killed. The novelty of having a team from my hometown was beyond special.

 

And then, well...

 

(I'm in this clip at around 0:37, right behind the bench)

 

 

Getting back on topic though, this CCM set for Fleury is enshrined in VGK lore. I know he's the guy for pulling out the flashier (and uglier IMO) all yellows, all golds, and whatever his lovable, crazy head desires. This original CCM set though, with a gorgeous balance of that misfit-coded steel grey and black and a tasteful touch of gold, is the DEFINING set of pads for the young franchise. He would go on to host different setups while donning our uniform, of course, but any Vegas fan will tell you that this was the incarnation of Fleury that will withstand the test of time.

 

The Knights, actually, have had a historically disappointing run of pad setups in its young lifetime. It seems like so many goalies stop trying to incorporate black into the scheme somewhere, leaving the pads with a distinct lack of contrast that really makes them stand out. I know we've moved black further into the background of our overall color palette (we now wear the sparkly golds at home, and our road uniforms come with grey pants instead of black), but removing it from your pads is the make-or-break difference that turns you from a Maxime Legace...

 

 

 

...into a Logan Thompson

 

 

Aesthetically, Thompson probably has the second best pads in Knights history. This setup is beyond fucking clean, and makes the correct choice of leaning more into the black and a tiny, tiny touch of red instead of over-relying on the grey. For the BEST pads in Knights history, I have to ask you a question-- who recorded the first shutout in Golden Knights history? No, it's not Fleury, I know you want to guess him.

 

The correct answer will eventually be lost to time, doomed to a legacy that goes no further than being the answer to this trivia question. His name is Oscar Dansk.

 

 

This, in my opinion, is the best aesthetic setup a Knight has ever put on the ice. Done entirely within the graphic template of this CCM model, every single color is incorporated tastefully in a way that perfectly extends the uniform. It's a shame that Dansk didn't stick around, as he was injured shortly after recording the first Vegas shutout, because this setup is one that should never be lost to time. With Thompson leaving for the Caps, we have no real successor to this inaugural season juggernaut of a pad lineup, as Hill and Samsonov both insist on being delightfully boring and minimal with their setups. I really hope 33 finds a little more room in his budget this offseason for a flashier set, what with that new extension kicking in.

 

At any rate! Thank you for reading through this Hill mountain of a text post, which was originally intended as a generic look into the world of pad setups and slowly turned into a much more personal adventure. I really lament that we don't get to see our players customized very much, since STHS is a text-based sim and all. Maybe I'll make it a goal throughout Yor Bjorven's career to design some pad setups, maybe someone with better PHotoshop knowledge than I can teach me how to overlay custom designs over existing images of pads. Honestly, you'd be a life changer for that.

 

Anyway, good night VHL, and happy goaltending~

 

1,800-ish words, claiming for 3 weeks

[Rin 277]

Claiming for week 2