Don Cherry slams NHL goalies for whining

Several prominent NHL goaltenders have called out the league for unsafe policies this season concerning its new regulations on goalie chest protectors. After years of working to slim down leg pads, gloves and pants, the NHL enacted new policies this past offseason to reduce the size of chest and arm protection for goalies, citing that some net minders were seeking an unfair advantage by wearing equipment that simply larger than it needs to be. The trade off? More bumps and bruisers.

Goaltenders Ben Bishop, Brian Elliott, Sergei Bobrovsky and Garret Sparks have all called out the NHL for allowing slimmer, more form fitting chest protectors and exposing goaltenders to injury. The NHL has yet to address their complaints formerly, but that hasn’t prevented legendary CBC broadcaster Don Cherry from weighing in. Check out this video from a recent radio segment with Vancouver’s Sportsnet 650 radio in which Cherry puts the blame all squarely on the goaltenders’ own shoulders:

The transcribed comments can also be read below:

“It’s their own fault… they have a sweater coming down to their knees, pads coming up to their chin. It was only a matter of time until someone did something. It’s too bad.”

“When somebody does get hurt it’ll be like ‘Oh, they get hurt all the time anyhow.’ And that’s the point. When you take on being a goaltender, you’re supposed to have a few bruises on. You should have seen Gerry Cheevers, the bruises he had.”

“It’s their own fault. I heartedly agree that the equipment was getting ridiculous and the guy who started all this was Tony Esposito. You see pictures of Patrick Roy when he first started versus when he left and he looked like the Michelin Man.”

What’s your call? Should goalies be expected to suffer bumps, bruises and potential injury by standing between the pipes? Or, does Grapes need to leave his old school ways of thinking back in the 1970s? Either way you look at it, you can’t help but think there’s a middle ground there. There’s no denying that equipment sizing was getting out of hand for years. The new standards seem to make a difference, hopefully the equipment manufacturers like Vaughn, CCM, Bauer and the like can up their game and ensure that goalies are safe, while also conforming to new regulations.