When Vladislav Tretiak met Ron Hextall at the 1987 Canada Cup, the veteran Russian goaltender had a simple question for the NHL newcomer: “Why do you turn your skates?”
“I didn’t have a real good answer for him other than the fact that every goalie that I’ve watched on the way up here turned their skates, so that’s just the way you played goal,” Hextall recalled. “That’s just the way that we learned.”
Tretiak and his countrymen tended goal with less activity in a more compact style, but most standup netminders of yesteryear did whatever kind of acrobatics they felt were necessary to stop the puck.