Trick Goalie Pads

Apparently a little day dreaming in chemistry class is all it took for Trevor Leahy to come up with this pad design. Leahy, a high school hockey goaltender, and also graphic designer, came up with the idea to make his pads look like the netting behind him in attempt to fool opposing shooters.

“When the shooter comes down and only has a split second to shoot the puck, they’re looking for net,” said Leahy, a senior from Hampton, N.H., who grew up in Byfield. “If you put the net on the pad, they’ll shoot at the pad instead of the goal.”

Pretty smart idea, and kind of surprised that this kinda thing hasn’t been tried before considering that NHL goalies have tried making the interior of their pads white as to make the 5 hole appear larger in the past. Anyway, good on this kid for doing this, and also applying for a patent which will hopefully make him some sweet change one day.

And how well do they work?

At the Pingree Holiday Tournament in late December, Leahy backstopped Pingree to two shutouts in one day – a 1-0 win over Northwood School from Lake Placid in the morning and a 3-0 win over Kents Hill School of Maine that night. For the season he has a goals-against average under 2.00, and he has had some memorable nights with more than 40 saves against some of the prep school elite teams.

2.00 GAA with two shutouts in a row is a fairly good indication I think. Here is the full story from the Boston Globe.