# Hockey Goalies Are Too Big Now - The Atlantic - Host: [theatlantic.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/theatlantic.com/) - Saved: March 18, 2021 (2021-03-19T02:40:33Z) - Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/efc8553b1cc6/ - JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/efc8553b1cc6.json ## What Jamie wrote I enjoy hockey and had been talking with a friend who had commented on the size of goalies, and that you need to be big to be a goalie in the NHL. I hadn't thought about it at all but it makes sense. This article highlights how the game is changing as a result of these massive goalies. > Maybe there is no foreseeable way to make the goalie smaller. Maybe you have to make the net bigger. Don’t fight using an old, losing narrative. Change the narrative. New golf-club technology made courses too short, so championship courses got longer. A lighter soccer ball allows players to do tricks with its flight, in some ways making soccer’s already huge net even bigger. A player can shoot the ball several feet outside the net’s 24-foot width and curl it around the goalie (“bend it like Beckham”). Or he can shoot it several feet above the net’s 8-foot-high bar and drop it down (“loop it like Lionel” Messi). A hockey puck is too dense and moves too fast for that. But the size of a hockey net could change, and the change needn’t be too much. Maybe only six inches or a foot wider, maybe only six inches higher. And only for those in junior and college leagues and above. Just so a goalie’s carefully constructed, seamless wall can’t cover everything. So a goalie has to move, has to play off his goal line, has to go up and down. So he has to open up. So the slivers of open space are a little bigger. So he doesn’t think he can stop everything, and a shooter can think he might score. So an unscreened shot from farther than 20 feet might go in. So more “off the rush” goals might be scored. So players would want, and need, to spread out. So the action doesn’t always funnel and congest. And the rest of the ice surface matters. So all the skills the other players have developed, and will develop, matter. So the game is defined by every player on the ice, not just the goalie. So the dog isn’t wagged by the tail. It is interesting to see how various sports evolve to keep them competitive and exciting. Seems like making the nets slightly bigger could be a pretty compelling thing. 🥅 ## Facts - Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/) ## Appears in - [WT178: Weekly Thing #178 / Reverse Meetings, OODA Loop, Hockey Goalies](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/178/), Recommended Links ## Same host - [Lock Yourself Down, Now - The Atlantic](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/ba647730daba/) (theatlantic.com, November 24, 2020) - [The Danger of Assuming That Family Time Is Dispensable - The Atlantic](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/6f3a6b0b3572/) (theatlantic.com, December 13, 2020) - [The Ship Stuck in the Suez Canal Is Glorious - The Atlantic](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/ce1e53f7a33a/) (theatlantic.com, March 30, 2021) - [The Ford Electric F-150 Lightning's Astonishing Price - The Atlantic](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/0eafb9a25dac/) (theatlantic.com, May 24, 2021) - [The Things That Make Fathers Happiest - The Atlantic](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/b82f6717cc73/) (theatlantic.com, June 20, 2021) ## Saved the same week - [RegEx Crossword](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/cb4d8fa6018e/) (jimbly.github.io, March 18, 2021) - [Johnny•Decimal](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/bea5b38acbeb/) (johnnydecimal.com, March 18, 2021) - [Understanding Coinbase - The Diff](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/ac0d463011f3/) (diff.substack.com, March 18, 2021) - [Mini Launch Masterclass… Big-Time Value | Jeff Walker](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/07b733f359d0/) (jeffwalker.com, March 18, 2021) - [Souped-Up Gopher: Project Gemini’s Plan to Revolutionize Internet Browsing – The New Stack](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/1ede58926e77/) (thenewstack.io, March 18, 2021) ## Elsewhere - Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/02/hockey-goalies-are-too-big-now/618021/