Dallas Stars goaltenders Marty Turco and Mike Smith caused a bit of a stir in Vancouver during their game day practice on Thursday by intimating Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo in goal.
Turco and Smith hinted that the star goaltender may be illegally using a flap on his pads for extra blocking surface by strapping pieces of cardboard to the outside of their own pads with Luongo's No. 1 on each piece.
According to The Goalie News(a website that teaches hockey goalies defence strategies and techniques), the small piece of padding usually sits on the outside of each pad at the knee and is usually tucked in behind the pads by strapping. Luongo wears his pads looser and his straps lower – an option on the new Rbk pads – than some others, allowing the flap to poke out the sides of his pads.
"It was part comical, part serious," Turco told The Goalie News writer Kevin Woodley on Thursday.
"We all have them. They're usually behind the 11 inches. We all need side protection, and Louie's knees are just a little bit bigger than others so fortunately it sticks out for him."
"That was very serious research because I really don't like the idea of larger nets so we are looking at ways we can do thing without touching larger nets," continued Turco with a slight grin, a reference to Luongo saying earlier this year he'd quit if the nets ever got bigger.
Ex-Canucks goalie and current NHL goaltending equipment checker Kay Whitmore told The Goalie News that the Stars first brought the topic up after the pre-game warm-ups for Game 1 against the Canucks in the first round of last year's playoffs.
"This was the same issue I had when I was the series manager last year," Whitmore explained to The Goalie News. "The GM at the time in Dallas (Doug Armstrong) was making a big stink about that and, you know what, Mike and Marty's pads have the same thing on it, but they choose to wear it so that doesn't stick out. But you tell me how many pucks those are going to stop?"
Smith replied quickly, saying they might stop a few.
"I just had these sent in from the league," he joked with The Goalie News after the game-day skate.
"I just heard they help stop the puck. I'll try them out. I caught a little glimpse of those (on Luongo) and thought it would help my game a little bit. It was pretty good today, actually. I made a couple saves with those. I might leave them on there. You've got to cover those knees - if you've got bad knees."
Luongo entered Thursday night's game with five shutouts, a goals against average of 2.04 and save percentage of .928.
Files and quotes from The Goalie News writer Kevin Woodley were used for this report.