Two Battram questions

[HotBranch!]

Seeing as I am starting the window shopping of my next set of gear, I was wondering if anyone had any feedback on the following two points:

Shoulder bumps on the upper body pad: I saw that Chakal had shoulder bumps on his pad, and I know they are illegal in the NHL, but do they offer any real benefit from a blocking perspective? I remember the Heaton pad that had them, and they seemed to raise the shoulders an extra inch. Is this something worth requesting?

The XLP trapper: anyone have one? What is your opinion on it? I have been looking at it and the 5001 and 5002 models it is based on. I would really like to have a larger perimiter glove, but I can't seem to find a difference between the 5001 and 5002. I also kind of like the Verge trapper, but I doubt that is offered in "oversize"

Cheers!

[Mitch92]

Here are my opinions on your questions. The shoulder bumps might save you a couple of goals a season but to avoid complaints that you are cheating or using contrivances you might just want to get the shoulder floaters squared up and raised slightly by adding some extra foam behind them where no one will notice. That will give you the extra coverage you desire.

The XLP trapper is big enough to catch a small pumpkin! With many goalies today going to the smaller 45" perimeter gloves I would not recommend going with the 52" XLP. It is also quite heavy because of the extra size. A standard 48" 5000 series with cheater is big enough and light enough to handle. I use a standard Verge with cheater and I am planning to have the cheater removed, a new smaller cuff added and a new smaller tee added to make it smaller and closer to the new specs. It will also end up a few ounces lighter making me that much faster. :cool: