Hockey players need a significant amount of equipment to get on the ice for practice or a game. Hockey skates and sticks are the bare minimum. Players also need a wide variety of protective equipment to keep from getting injured and to meet the requirements set out in rulebooks and by leagues.
Function
Players must have hockey skates and sticks to play the sport. Hockey skates have two sharp edges that allow players to stop, start and turn quickly. The space between the two edges on the hockey skate is called the hollow. Hockey sticks have either a flat or curved blade. A blade with a flat surface makes it easier to carry the puck, pass it, receive it and shoot off the backhand side. A curved stick can help a shooter score more goals, because the puck tends to dive or rise after being hit with a slap shot. The curve increases the spin and makes it more difficult for goaltenders to stop the shot.
Required Protection
All players must wear helmets to protect their head. Players must wear helmets that include a facemask at all levels except professional hockey. The helmet must be strapped on and must provide adequate protection if the player's head hits the ice. Players must also wear hockey gloves that protect the hands from opponents' sticks.
Considerations
Players wear padding underneath their uniforms for additional protection. Shoulder pads in hockey are similar to those worn in football, but they are smaller so they don't diminish a player's ability to shoot, pass or stick-handle. Players wear shin guards similar to those worn by a baseball catcher, but lighter and smaller. Players also wear pads high on the leg. The leg and shin pads give players the ability to slide in front of shots to block them with their lower bodies.
Goaltenders
Goaltenders are protected from head to toe because they regularly face shots that approach at speeds of 105 miles per hour. The mask is the most important piece of equipment. Advances in technology have allowed goalie masks to absorb the full shock of a puck to the face without affecting the goaltender's ability to see. Goalies also wear huge leg pads that go from the top of the skate to just above the knee. These pads are protective and functional because they give the goaltender an additional tool to knock shots away. Goalies wear a catching glove on one hand and a stick-holding glove called the waffleboard on the other hand. Goalies' sticks are larger and heavier than the sticks used by the other players on the ice. Goaltenders' skates have flatter, duller blades than other skaters', to allow them to slide across the goal crease and block shots much more easily than sharper blades would. Goaltenders' skates also have a steel-reinforced area protecting the toes.
History
Helmets and masks were not part of hockey culture for decades. Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens became the first goaltender to wear a mask after he took a puck to the face in a 1959 game against the New York Rangers. Plante told his coach he would not return to action without a mask. Other goalies adopted the mask during the 1960s, and by the early 70s the goalie mask was ubiquitous in the National Hockey League. Few non-goalies wore helmets until 1968, when Bill Masterton of the Minnesota North Stars struck his head on the ice and died as a result of a legal check by two members of the Oakland Seals. Thereafter, players began to wear helmets with regularity. The NHL required a helmet for players entering the league in 1979; the last player to skate in the NHL without one was Craig MacTavish, who played for five teams before retiring in 1997.
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