JOSE SPEAKS: Jose Theodore Talks About Future with #FlaPanthers

From George Richards of the Miami Herald

Panthers goalie Jose Theodore was one of a handful of players at the Coral Springs Iceplex on Tuesday as they gear up for what they hope will be a quick start to the 2012-13 season.

Joining Theodore on the ice today: Ed Jovanovski and Tomas Kopecky as well as former Panthers Marco Sturm and Radek Dvorak. Craig Anderson skated early. Scott Clemmensen is in town, although word is his equipment is not. He should be on the ice pretty soon.

Theodore told me today that he has indeed heard all the rumors -- and he is quite used to such talk. No big deal. And while he wouldn't answer my question on whether he was asked by the Panthers to waive his NTC, he did say he hasn't spoken to anyone with the Panthers or the Canucks.

Theodore did say, as I have as well, that with the labor uncertainty neither the Panthers nor Canucks are in any hurry to do anything just yet. Not saying a deal will get done -- but I'm not saying it can't, either.

With it being likely that Luongo stays in South Florida during the lockout, once a CBA deal gets reached, something between Florida and Vancouver could get done rather quickly.

Here's what Theodore had to say today.

ON THE END OF THE SEASON: It's always tough to lose a playoff series. I don't care how good you think you played in the series, if you lose, it's never a good feeling. You are always sour when you lose in the playoffs. We did accomplish a lot of things as a team, things people didn't expect us to do. Now it's time to find what our potential is. We're going the right direction. You can't take one step forward and two back. Right now we're moving forward. Teams will be ready for us. But we want to take it to the next level.

HOW DID YOU FEEL YOU PLAYED LAST SEASON: I liked what we did as a team. We did things people didn't expect. I don't like to talk about my individual play. At the end of the day, it's what the team does. I played over 50 games and as a team, we proved a lot of people wrong.

SURPRISED TO HEAR TALK FLORIDA MIGHT WANT LUONGO? Not at all. But as of now it's just rumors. You are always going to hear talk of this or that, but it doesn't take away from the team and what we have. Nothing can take away from what we did as a team last year.

It doesn't bother me at all. It doesn't change how I wake up in the morning or sleep at night. It's not going to change how I prepare myself. It doesn't change anything.

RUN INTO LUONGO IN MONTREAL?: I didn't. I usually see him down here more than I do up there. We've played together in All-Star games, for Team Canada. We have a good relationship. He's a great guy and he wants to be somewhere where he's wanted.

José voted #3 in the Habs' "Battle of the Masks"

Thanks to Joey for bringing it to my attention that the Habs' website had a "Battle of the Masks" competition (voted on by fans.) They voted on all Habs goalie masks of the past. José made the list twice!

Here is the list.

Here is the #3 Habs goalie mask of all-time as voted by Habs fans.

And one of his early masks (from 1995-96) was #10!!

Information about José's Gear from a Self-Proclaimed "Goalie Gear Nerd"

I was contacted by a man who asked if I had a photo of José’s chest protector from his days with the Wild. I thought some of the stuff he said about José’s gear was pretty cool, so I wanted to share. I will preface it with his warning: “I don’t know how accurate I am with this info but it’s what I’ve gathered over the years.”

In his words:

“As a goalie myself and goalie gear nerd Jose T. is one of the goalies with the most gear swag in the NHL! Why? Only goalie along with Brodeur to still rock the old school knee blocks/wraps (if you look at his knee set up when he drops it’s much different from any other goalie in the league, but still seals the ice flat, unlike Marty’s butterfly.) He has that extra extension on the back of his pants, different “Theodore bubble chin” mold mask, and nash palm on his glove.”

Now some photos to illustrate his points.

First, his "landing gear" in comparison to Henrik Lundqvist's "more modern" set-up. Christian said, “Jose’s knee block has his straps on the outside so it makes contact with the ice. Lundys knee strap is run on the inside so it has no contact on the ice.” (You probably need to high res the photos to see the strap, but it’s definitely noticeable. As far as C-A knows José (and possibly Marty) is the only one with the older style landing gear and with the strap on the outside of the landing gear.)

“His pad is an updated version of the Vaughn Legacys he wore while playing in Montreal. If you look at his old pics you can see the landing gear is still very similar to his old stuff compared to modern landing gears. The leather strap runs on the outside of the knee compared to within or inside the knee. Modern landing gear is much more blocky.”

I've always noticed the extension on the back of his pants, but I assumed everyone's was like this, but José's was more noticeable because he tucked his shirt in. But Christian says that José has his extended. Of course we don’t know why he prefers that, but he can only assume it’s for comfort and to keep his shirt tucked in better.

And you can see his landing gear and the strap very clearly here.

Then his skates: "He also wears black Bauer 7000’s model (old school discountinued), which are built the traditional way with leather instead of all the new carbon skates. I believe Halak and Bryz are other goalies who still rock ‘em."

(And I thought I read on a goalie forum one time that he runs his strap through a different part of his skate than many, but I’m not sure about that. I might be getting confused with someone else…I’ll have to try to find photos to compare that.)

Since Christian mentioned how José and Marty Brodeur were the only two that he knew of to still use the older style landing gear, I sent him this photo and commented on how different their wraps look. It looks like Marty’s leg is swimming inside his pad whereas José is tightly wrapped.

He wrote back: “Marty use to be the goalie w/ the most ancient style pads, but now it’s Theodore! Theodore has a much longer calf wrap and does wear it snug. Marty loosened his pads a little this past season but still has a shorter calf wrap (nylon/foam looking sheet that wraps around calf.)”

And it kinda looks to me that Marty’s landing gear strap now is inside rather than outside like José’s, but I might not be seeing that clearly. I need to find a better photo to tell for sure.

I love that José is still sticking with what’s gotten him to this point. He seems to have his very own style with his equipment, just like he has his own style in street clothes. I love it!

So here is a comparison between José and Marty.

I believe the brown part in the palm of this glove is the nash palm he talked about. Let me know if I'm wrong about that.

And if you compare this photo to the one from Florida you can see that his leg/calf wraps are still the same as when he was in Montreal.

Now on to his mask. He said: "José’s mask is a special version Itech/Bauer (made by Jerry Wright). Look at his masks (Minny/Colorado/Florida) and compare to all the other 961’s (Bryz, Bernier, Mason, Lundquvist, etc) out there, his has a different chin with a bubble/rounder look to it.”

Most of the goalies he mentioned wear chin danglers, and it's hard to see the chins of their masks, so I picked a photo of Quick instead. The difference is subtle, but you can tell the other goalies' narrow down more, whereas José's are more rounded, even though they are the same type of mask. He has his chin specially altered like that.

Photos from Nov 2001

I believe I posted one of these already, but a fellow fan shared the other two with me over the weekend, so I wanted to post all 3 together. These were from Nov 2001. I was honestly confused by what he was doing at first, then I realized he was miming goalie positions. ;o) Thanks again to Marielle for sharing these.