Unmasked: Unique goggles offer new way for goalies to track pucks

Close to 20 goalies, across seven teams in the NHL, are using a new type of goggles to optimize the way a goalie moves his head to track pucks and initiate movement.

The goggles do come with one risk: A good chance you're getting teased if teammates see the Trac Optics goggles, which are designed to block out peripheral and lower vision, while sitting under the mask.

"Get chirped all the time," said Dylan Garand of the New York Rangers.

"Yeah, lots of 'Batman,'" Calgary Flames goalie Devin Cooley said with a laugh. 

Boston Bruins goalie Michael DiPietro's wife also calls him Batman when he wears them around the house as the googles can be worn on or off the ice.

Players at DiPietro's offseason skates were a little more pointed.

"My shooters are like, 'What the hell are you wearing?'" DiPietro said. "I'm like, 'Guys, trust me, it makes my life way harder but (when) I take these off, I can actually see the puck way better.' It's funny, when you're looking at somebody wearing them, you're like, 'Are you serious, man? Are we complicating goaltending even more?' But it really is good for making sure you're actually moving your head, looking at pucks and tracking pucks." 

Usage varies.

DiPietro primarily uses them in the offseason, preferring to focus on his signature battle-and-compete style during the season, though he has been using them a little more off the ice recently. 

"You don't really notice how much you use your peripheral vision until you have those things on, and it actually forces you to move your head," DiPietro said.

Part of the concept is getting goalies to rely less on that peripheral vision by blocking off the sides, as well as the bottom of their vision, which forces the head and eyes down a bit toward the ice, creating central vision and more ideal angles to track a puck coming up at them. 

Keeping the head down while skating also creates ideal movement mechanics.

There is science behind it tied to vestibular function and balance that originally was introduced in this space a decade ago under the label "head trajectory," a concept developed by goaltending coach Lyle Mast, who is also the creator of Trac Optics.

The goggles create an easy on-off switch for it: goalies can either see the puck or not.

"I usually am always down on the puck, but with the goggles on I'm not thinking too much," said Garand, who uses them in both his off-ice training with osteopath James Wendland, his offseason skating drills, and as part of his warmups during the season. 

"I just know and I trust that I'm seeing at the right angle, the proper angle."

Prototypes of the new goggles have been used by some NHL goalies and coaches for the past three years. Josh Tucker, a vision performance specialist who has worked with 40 NHL goalies and 12 NHL teams during the past 21 years, began using them with his clients two years ago.

The Flames goaltending department was also an early adopter, and goaltending coach Jason LaBarbera uses the Trac Optics goggles "once or twice a week" as part of position-specific sessions with Cooley and Dustin Wolf. 

"The biggest thing for me is staying over the puck, and when you have these on they force you to keep your head down and keep your weight forward," Cooley said. "I find when I get away from using them, my weight ends up kind of on my heels a little bit, and sometimes my head comes up, and I'm not as over the puck as I would like to be."

Goalies have worn goggles under their mask before. Swivel vision sport goggles have been used by NHL goalies in a similar fashion through the years, but they only block peripheral vision and do not have the patented lower section to block bottom vision and create the head tilt, as well as an adjustable nose piece to dial in the height of that section. 

"I'll set up pucks so they have visuals to look at and if you're off, you just don't see it," said LaBarbera of the crease-movement drills with the goggles, which typically run for 5-10 minutes, adding Wolf sometimes keeps them on for a drill with shooters too. "You have to get down on it and turn your head properly to look at the next puck, and it allows your body to get into the right positions when you're moving. I'm not in their eyes, so I can't see what they're seeing but they certainly like it, and it's good to keep building good habits, good details."

Not every goalie is comfortable in the goggles. Jacob Markstrom of the Florida Panthers wasn't at all interested when LaBarbera introduced them during their time together in Calgary. 

Linus Ullmark of the Ottawa Senators does not like how goggles feel under his mask and prefers to use the X-Tracker, which is designed to limit vision in a similar fashion but as a sleeve worn around the outside of the mask. Ullmark was spotted wearing an X-Tracker on the ice late last season and, just like Winnipeg Jets goalie Clay Stevenson when cameras captured him with Trac Optics goggles under his mask, it generated attention. 

"Just training goggles," he told Jets social media on a post tagged "Peaky Blinders!?"

Carter Hart prefers the goggles because he also uses them off the ice and credits that usage with how quickly he came back from a significant ankle injury last season to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final. He also doesn't worry about taking them on the ice for all to see, wearing them regularly for game-day warmup shots.

Hart, who admittedly "wants to try everything I can find" to improve and fine tune his game, began using the goggles "five or six weeks" into a three-month recovery for everything from balance and movement exercises, to juggling on a balance beam, and even just around the house. He also wore them for skating drills as soon as he was back on the ice.

"It just takes away a little bit of your peripheral and down, so you're looking through the center of your eyeball and you have to move your head in certain ways so you're actually looking at the puck," Hart told NHL.com late last season. "When you take time off in the summer and come back to skate, you're always like, 'Oh, things feel a little faster.' But I think wearing those like throughout the whole recovery process helped me get back to game speed a lot quicker. … My balance on the ice is the best it's ever been."

Hart also was prepared for any chirping because he'd experienced it before, after wearing the swivel vision goggles under his mask during a practice with former NHL goalie Brian Elliott during their time together with the Philadelphia Flyers.

"He comes out the next practice wearing the puck bucket over his head trying to make saves, just as a joke," Hart said with a chuckle. "That was pretty funny."