When Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger steered a couple high shots off his blocker over the glass and deep into the crowd during a game against the Seattle Kraken last season, his counterpart in the other crease took notice.
Joey Daccord was amazed at how hard the puck jumped off Oettinger's Bauer blocker, so he made a point of trying one during the offseason and decided to switch to one despite wearing pads and a glove made by True.
"It's just the pure pop," Daccord said of the blocker, which like their pads, features a different surface material designed to create longer, faster rebounds. "It's nuts. Honestly, the reason I asked to try one was because Oettinger had like three or four blocker saves that went out of the rink by like 20 feet over the glass, and I was like, 'That's sick,' so I tried it, and I liked it."
When it comes to choosing equipment for the upcoming season, the summer is often a time of experimenting for NHL goalies, who must weigh the benefits of matching gear -- both aesthetically and in terms of the sponsorship money that can come with wearing one brand -- against evolving performance benefits.
It's a decision often influenced by familiarity and feel, but with companies adding new materials designed to change how much the equipment weighs, how fast pads slide and how hot the rebounds come off it, that's not always the priority anymore.
"At the highest level, you get access to pretty much whatever you want, which is a blessing and a curse because I'm sitting here thinking, 'Okay, what I wear has worked for a long time," Daccord said. "But you're also doing yourself a disservice if you don't see if there's something that can make you 1 percent better."
Jake Allen went through a similar process with his equipment this summer.
The New Jersey Devils goalie started his 13-season NHL career wearing Vaughn pads and gloves, switched to CCM and then to True pads and blocker with a glove from Brian's during his four years with the Montreal Canadiens. It was a combination he wore last season, when he was traded to New Jersey, but this summer, he tried Bauer equipment before ending up wearing all Brian's.