"Now, when you are getting hit in the arm you are getting a lot more stingers," Bishop said. "It's not so much the chest; it's the arms. It's not fun."
And Bishop said it's a bigger concern in practice when goaltenders face a lot more shots. The Stars goalie isn't alone with the concerns. Here's a sampling from some other goaltenders around the league.
"Sooner or later someone's going to get hurt pretty bad," Washington goalie Braden Holtby told the
Associated Press
. "You can deal with bumps and bruises and stuff. It's when you hope someone doesn't get a broken bone or some sort out of it."
"No, it's terrible, actually," Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky told the
Columbus Dispatch
. "You start to be afraid of pucks, actually, especially in the practices. You get bruises in here (arms, elbows). It's terrible."
"I'm getting bruised like crazy on my arms," Flyers goalie Brian Elliott told the
Courier-Post
. "I think that's the biggest issue, they take away padding in the arms. It seems like every shot that you take that's not clean on your blocker or in your glove, it's leaving a mark."
Adding to the frustration for some goaltenders, including Bishop, is they didn't get the new equipment until a month before the season started, not long enough in their opinion to break it in and get used to it.