SEATTLE, WA – At an early age, there was almost something about dressing up to play sports, not just the ball cap or the jersey, but the tools of the trade that made certain positions unique. Part of it might have been fearlessness or just sheer being nuts to play certain positions, but for some reason, I always gravitated to being the catcher or the goaltender.
Now at 54 years of age, I still get excited about goalie equipment and my guess is most of our readers do, too. It’s a harmless pleasure, but one that endures some 50 years after I first began wearing the “waffle” glove to hold my stick or the painted mask that just prevented cuts, not concussions.
This year’s Winter Classic offers a new round of fun for those of us in the goalie geek fraternity and the back stoppers for Seattle and offer a bevy of things to ooh and ahh over.
The home Kraken offer unique kits from Joey Daccord and Chris Driedger.
Daccord’s bucket pays homage to the host site, T-Mobile Park, the home of MLB’s Seattle Mariners, with some vintage baseball cards. One side of the helmet displays a famous Ken Griffey Jr. Upper Deck rookie card, a Fleer Edgar Martinez rookie card and a Topps Ichiro Suzuki rookie card.
The other side shows cards for current Mariners Cal Raleigh, J.P. Crawford and Julio Rodriguez.
Daccord’s pads and gloves are pretty slick, too with a combination of old school tan with Kraken deep sea blue and ice blue set off with red accents.
As for Driedger, a heavy Kraken deep sea blue and ice blue with red and tan accents and an anchor on the inside low part of each pad. Notice the classic waffle design on the blocker which is a very nice touch.
No sign of Driedger’s mask yet and I am awaiting better images of the Golden Knights Winter Classic goalie kits. Stay tuned. Lots of good stuff coming the remainder of the week and into next week.
Dennis Morrell has developed a deeply rooted passion for our game over many decades as a goaltender, writer, photographer, goalie coach, and active Level 3 USA Hockey-certified, on-ice official with over 2,000 games with the whistle. His passion for the game began in the early 70s upon his first glance at players battling for the puck at Clayton’s Shaw Park.
He has been fortunate to journalistically cover 2 NHL Entry Drafts, 5 NHL All-Star Games, 8 NHL Outdoor Games in two countries and 21 games played in the context of 9 Stanley Cup Final games, witnessing the oldest trophy in sports lifted by the champion 3 times, including when his beloved hometown team, the St. Louis Blues, won their first chalice in 2019.
He has witnessed over 1,000 major and minor professional games in over 250 different arenas. He can be reached at dennis.morrell@prohockeynews.com and you can follow him on Twitter at DMMORRELL.
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