BANFF, Alberta -- Dominik Simon skated briskly into the high slot whistled a wrister high on Matt Murray, who was fortunate enough to wedge the puck between his shoulder and the left side of his facemask.
Jake Guentzel, the next shooter during the Penguins’ drills Tuesday at the Fenlands Recreation Center, did the exact same thing. Again, Murray was able to get a piece of it with his shoulder before it clanked off the crossbar.
Nope, there was no mercy shown toward Murray, who has played just one game since suffering his second concussion this calendar year, or Casey DeSmith on the other end:
But, you know what they say? You've got to shoot high to score in today's NHL.
If a goalie gets hurt because of it, well, it's just comes with the job description as the league is trying new and creative ways to increase scoring. Though it's a small sample size, teams are currently averaging 3.10 goals per game which is the highest mark since 1995-96, when teams averaged 3.14.
The obvious reason is the shrinking goalie equipment.
While the quality of their facemasks are as good as they've ever been, goalies are wearing smaller gear than they have in recent memory. The days of Garth Snow and the Michelin Man goalies are a distant memory.
"We can make all the adjustments we want but we have to make sure the goalies are protected," Jim Rutherford, a goalie for 13 seasons back when goalies wore far, far less protection, was saying. "It was kind of our fault, the league's fault where the goalie equipment got out of hand, where it got to be blown up bigger than it should have been. Now we're trying to walk that back a little bit and get it to the point where the goalies are still protected but the shooters are still going to be able to see the net.”
Last year the league cracked down on the size of the goalies' pants, this year it's the chest protector. Rutherford said the league worked closely with equipment manufacturer's to come up with the specs for the new streamlined gear.
"Training camp is always kind of a struggle because we usually get all our new gear before the start of training camp and you need to be using it by the exhibition games," DeSmith was saying. "It’s a very small window to get used to not only breaking in new gear, which is hard enough, but new gear that is smaller and different."
Though these subtle changes might not be noticeable to the untrained eye, they certainly aren't to those who make their livelihood between the pipes, where shots can reach 100 mph.
Murray says his new chest protector is visibly smaller and shots to the chest have "hurt a lot more than usual."
"It's just tighter, way tighter, there's no give," Murray told DKPittsburghSports.com. "Like that slow down period before you take the actual force of the puck, you take all the force at once since there's no give."
Clearly it's an adjustment period for the goalies, who face up to 40 shots a night and, by DeSmith's estimation, another 200-300 every practice. But Murray doesn't believe -- at least he hopes -- that the league can go any smaller with the equipment.
"If there was, there would be a riot among the goalies," the starter says.
"If they keep going smaller, it’s going to be more of a safety issue," the backup says. "You guys can see how hard guys can shoot. That’s putting goalies in danger if you make the pads even smaller."
There has been a recent school of thought that coaches could eliminate some of the wear and tear on their No. 1 goalies by keeping them out of some practices. However, Mike Sullivan is not one of them.
"Usually the body of our practice is designed where we are trying to simulate game situations," he said. "There's a lot involved for a goaltender. It's reading the play, so it has that aspect of the game, that he has an opportunity to practice at and get repetitions. It's making saves. It's fighting through traffic to find the puck. In my mind, there's a lot a goalie can gain though the practice environment."
And while goalie equipment is shrinking, the shooter's composite sticks keep getting better thanks to modern technology.
Imagine Major League Baseball allowing hitters to use aluminum or composite bats? That's basically what NHL goalies are up against and have been up against since the composites came into prominence nearly 20 years ago.
When asked if he'd ever faced a shot from a wooden stick, DeSmith chuckled, saying his father used to use one to shoot around on him as a kid. Like most goalies, he's grown up with nothing but composites.
“Guys are learning how to use them more and more each year," DeSmith said. "They learn how to use the composite to their advantage. The flex on the stick on guys like Phil (Kessel), he barely leans on the stick. The technology is pretty crazy.”
But anyone who thinks the league is going to place similar limits on shooters or the flex of their sticks is sorely mistaken.
"That's not going to happen," Murray was saying. "It is what it is. As long as they don't keep taking our stuff away. Just want to be protected out there.
"There's never going to be a limit on the shooters. They want harder, faster shots. They want more goals."
• With a four-night break between games, Sullivan said his team is antsy to get back into a normal routine of playing games three times a week or so when they face Connor McDavid and Edmonton on Tuesday night. That said, he was pleased with what his team was able to get done during their two days of practice in Banff.
"We had great energy, I thought the pace of practice was really good," Sullivan said. "We got a lot accomplished. We had a couple video meetings trying to show the guys areas where we think we can get better. We also showed areas where we felt like we improved and the reasons for the success that we had in Toronto. We been trying to reinforce those messages."
• Unlike yesterday's practice at the Fenlands Rec Center, Monday's practice was completely closed to the public. With children being back in school, the rink was noticeably quiet.
• Here were the lines and pairs used in practice:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel
Simon-Brassard-Hornqvist
Cullen-Sheahan-Sprong
Dumoulin-Letang
Johnson-Riikola
Oleskiak-Maattta
Note: Derek Grant took some reps on the fourth line in place of Daniel Sprong, while Chad Ruhwedel worked some with Jamie Oleksiak.
CHRIS BRADFORD GALLERY
Penguins practice, Banff, Alberta, Oct. 22, 2018 - CHRIS BRADFORD / DKPS