Andrew Gross

Staff Writer, @AGrossRecord

The goalies have known this was coming for most of the season. Last week, they learned that Feb. 4 was the start date for using the new, slimmer goalie pants, the NHL’s most recent attempt at increasing scoring.

Well, it certainly beats making the net bigger and altering 90 years of league history.

And while some netminders mind, the Devils’ tandem of Cory Schneider and Keith Kinkaid are fairly philosophical about the change. Schneider has maintained that as long as all goalies have to do it at the same time – presuming the goalies are still protected enough – then it shouldn’t be an issue.

“The thigh pieces are definitely more contoured, they’re not as flat as they once were,” said Schneider, who began breaking in the new pants last week. “They definitely are tight around the waist. I’m a guy who tucks the chest [protector] in so it’s a tight fit. There’s no extra room. I can’t tell if I feel thinner but it feels tighter.”

Schneider said flexibility was a bit of an issue but that may have just been the new pants being stiff before being fully broken in.

Kinkaid does not tuck in his chest protector so he said he didn’t feel the same tightness.

“I’ll get used to it,” Kinkaid said with a shrug before adding with a laugh, “smaller pants, maybe they’ll help me out.”

The Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist has always taken a different view, saying the NHL should investigate ways to increase scoring chances, not potentially put goalies at risk by decreasing the size of equipment.

And the Rangers’ Magnus Hellberg was quoted in The New York Post as worrying that because the pants need to be worn higher on the hips, the top of the goalies’ knees might be exposed. Hellberg stands 6-foot-5 while both Schneider and Kinkaid are also considered tall goalies at 6-3.

After play on Sunday, the 30 NHL teams were averaging 2.77 goals per game. That’s up ever so slightly from last season, when the league average was 2.71. In the early- to mid-1980s, teams averaged around four goals per game.

Returning to that style of hockey would mark an unlikely extreme change. But more goals would definitely increase interest in the game. Just think of the buzz around the Penguins’ 8-7 win over the Capitals and the Stars’ 7-6 win over the Rangers last week.

“It’s hard to score,” Devils coach John Hynes said. “The way teams play defense, the size of the equipment, the size of the players, the size of the goalies, it’s difficult. [Scoring] is exciting for the fans, it’s exciting to see it happen. Everyone feels good about it except the guys that get scored upon. I think it would help our game and I think it would help fans coming to the rink to enjoy it.”

So, surely, if this doesn’t move the goal-scoring meter, the NHL will try something else.

E-mail: grossa@northjersey.com