Quote:
Originally Posted by Dion
Your argument is silly as we don't know how a player from one era would perform in another era. Can you say for a certainty that Hasek would be as good with the smaller goalie equipment or that his style of play would be as successful? Goalies of each era played differently based on the equipment they had at the time.
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You're an old guy. Surely you have watched Hasek played. If there was ever a goalie who was not reliant on oversized equipment to make a save, it was him.
But there is much more to the quality-change in players over eras than just equipment. Perhaps the biggest one is development. For a couple decades now becoming a NHL player has meant hockey schools and skills camps, and year-round training that kids start before they become teenagers. This concentration on childhood and adolescent development has made a HUGE impact on how fast and structured today's game has become. So, even just plunking a 1970s phenom into modern equipment won't change the years of focused training and development that goes into making a modern NHL player.
In fact, this is perhaps another reason why Hasek's impact on the modern game was so impressive. He started playing when he was six-years old in Soviet controlled Czechoslovakia. He didn't even have real skates—just those strap-on blades kids used to tie to their shoes. For all the competitive disadvantages Hasek had growing up, he managed to dominate the NHL.
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