NEWS » player since Sakic (332, `00-01).He was frequently paired w

Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck recently stopped a puck near his collarbone. It was a shot that Authentic Derek Forbort Jersey Kids , in years past, he might not have thought about twice.This time, it hurt.“Didn’t feel very good,” Hellebuyck said.He and his fellow NHL goalies will be wearing a smaller chest protector this season as the league continues to reduce the size of equipment, following recent reductions for pads and pants. The overall aim is to boost scoring while at the same time rewarding athletic ability in the crease by eliminating unnecessary padding that wasn’t protecting goalies, but instead simply helping them block pucks.A 190-pound goalie and a 240-pound goalie will no longer cut the same figure on the ice.“Three or four years ago, talking to some of the best goalies in hockey … they wanted us to try to find a way to make goalies look closer to the size they were,” Kay Whitmore, NHL vice president of hockey operations, told The Canadian Press. “The biggest complaint was, ‘If I weigh 50 pounds more than another guy, why do we look the same?'”The league, working in conjunction with the NHL Players’ Association, has focused on reducing the size of the shoulders on chest protectors by roughly an inch to make them less boxy and more form-fitting. The same goes for the padding on a goalie’s arms.Getting the new equipment has taken longer because of delays with manufacturers, but Whitmore said the league is close to what will become the “new normal.”“We wanted to get it right once and for all,” he said. “It was a more complicated piece of equipment than when we introduced the new pants or pads. We can ask companies to make changes, but things didn’t move very fast until we created a standard, gave them specifics and asked them to build to it.”Whitmore, who played the position for 155 games with four NHL teams in his 15-year pro career Youth Dion Phaneuf Jersey , said safety remains a top priority.“There’s no expectation that a goalie should have to do his job getting bruised daily,” he said. “I don’t want to see guys go on the ice fearful of getting hit with pucks, because that’s what they do for a living.”Mathieu Schneider, special assistant to NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, said the personal nature of chest protectors has been a challenge. Some goalies had worn their old ones for a decade or more.“The irony is each time we’ve made equipment smaller, it’s gotten lighter and goalies have gotten better,” said Schneider, a former NHL defenseman. “It’s not like this snuck up on us.”Toronto goalie Frederik Andersen said he is fine with the changes, adding that an inch of missing shoulder coverage shouldn’t make a difference in terms of results if he’s on his game.“It’s about being square,” Andersen said. “If I’m relying on that extra inch, I’m in trouble already.”Fellow Maple Leafs goalie Garret Sparks said he thinks the change could eventually help raise the skill level at the position.“It just pushes me to be better,” he said. “I’m open to the challenge as long as everybody’s covered.”NHL shooters scored more times in 2017-18 than in any season since 2005-06, averaging nearly six goals per game.With that in mind, Hellebuyck said he doesn’t see a need to change — for any reason.“I’m not happy about it because it’s my job,” he said. “And really what they want is me to be worse.”With the process underway since 2016, Whitmore said, recent history gives him confidence the new gear will provide the game an overall benefit.“It makes the job a little more difficult,” he said. “We changed other things to make goaltenders more mobile. At first they didn’t agree with it, but once they started playing they felt faster Drew Doughty Jersey , quicker and actually got better. I don’t expect anything different from this once they adapt.” DENVER (AP) Fair warning to the rest of the league: As fast and young as the Colorado Avalanche were this season, general manager Joe Sakic vows to make them even faster and younger.It’s become a full-speed-ahead priority.That blend of quickness, youth and skill boosted the Avalanche from the bottom of the league a year ago to a playoff contender this season. Having an MVP candidate like Nathan MacKinnon leading the charge certainly didn’t hurt, either.”We love the way we play the game,” Sakic said a day after the Avs were eliminated from the first round of the postseason by top-seeded Nashville in six games. ”It’s fast. It’s entertaining. It’s exciting.”Few expected this kind of run from a Colorado team that had just 48 points in 2016-17. But youthful energy kept the Avalanche in the playoff chase until the end, where they earned the final postseason spot on the last day of the regular season. Their 47-point turnaround from a season ago matches the fourth-highest year-to-year improvement over a full season in NHL history, according to the team.That bodes well. That is, once the sting of losing to the Predators fades.”We’re going to stay the course and let this team grow because they deserve it,” said Sakic, whose squad was one of the league’s youngest with an average age of 25.8. ”We’re going to stay young and in the next couple of years may even get younger. If we can, even try to get a little bit quicker and faster out there.”The Avalanche fully bought into the message of even-keeled coach Jared Bednar, who will be around two more seasons after Sakic announced Monday he recently agreed to a one-year extension with the former American Hockey League coach.”It’s a cool story that we went from last to the playoffs, but we’re trying to win a Cup,” said the 22-year-old MacKinnon, who had 39 goals and 58 assists in the regular season. ”We showed a lot of fight this season. … Hopefully we can use some of that next season.”Things to know about a season in which the Avalanche returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2014:HOME COOKIN’The Avalanche returned the aura back to the Pepsi Center. They won 28 games at home in the regular season, which tied the franchise record held by the 2000-01 squad that captured the Stanley Cup crown.”To see the way this Colorado crowd and the city responded to us was great,” defenseman Erik Johnson said.YOUTHFUL SPIRITThe future is certainly bright with a total of 11 rookies dressing this season. Even more, nine players got their first taste of the postseason.”It was great to get into the playoffs just to feel the different level, where you’ve got to go emotionally and intensity goes up http://www.officialkings.com/authentic-adidas-dustin-brown-jersey ,” Sakic said. ”We can’t take it for granted.”MAC’S OFFENSIVE ATTACKMacKinnon had a season worthy of consideration for the Hart Trophy as league MVP. He led the league in home scoring this season with 67 points (27 goals, 40 assists). That’s tied with Sakic (2000-01) for most in Avalanche history.In addition, MacKinnon’s 284 shots were also the most by an Avalanche player since Sakic (332, `00-01).He was frequently paired with captain Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen, giving them one of the league’s most potent lines.”If you want to bring someone to their first hockey game, you want to bring them to watch Nathan MacKinnon,” Sakic said.HANGIN’ TENColorado had a 10-game winning streak that began with an overtime win over Toronto on Dec. 29 and ended Jan. 23 with a loss at Montreal. It was the second-longest streak in team history.”Great group, fun to coach,” Bednar said. ”It was a good season, a fun season – especially for a lot of our guys who went through probably their worst season, myself included, last year to respond and have a season like this.”INJURIESColorado dealt with its fair share of injuries, including the loss of starting goaltender Semyon Varlamov and Johnson to knee injuries before the playoffs. In the postseason, backup Jonathan Bernier went down. The Avs had to rely on third-stringer Andrew Hammond, who was acquired as part of the three-team trade in November that sent Matt Duchene to Ottawa.”I know we’ll come back stronger,” Landeskog said. ”I’m proud of this team.”—