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Its a tradition practically as old as the sport itself: a hockey team led onto the ice by a goaltender wearing No. 1. From Jacques Plante to Glenn Hall to Johnny Bower, goalies wearing the simple number were the starting point of rosters for decades.If you were a goalie, you wore No. 1. Thats just how it was.Operative word here being was.Todays goalies have gone in a different direction when it comes to the digits on their back. And the result has almost eliminated the No. 1 altogether.As a kid, I always had 1, said former goaltender and current broadcaster Brian Hayward, who wore the number for almost his entire 11-year NHL career. Every time the goalie was 1, so I just stuck with it. It almost became like an expectation for me.The No. 1 goalie wore 1. Another reason why you wanted that number. You wanted to say, Im the No. 1. Thats the way I looked at it.Its believed that goalies were given the No. 1 because they were the first player on a rink when looking from the net outward. When a goalie was injured, for instance, the replacement goalie would also wear No. 1.The numbering system changed when roster expansion required teams to field two goaltenders. The most notable change occurred in 1964, when legendary goaltender Terry Sawchuk joined the Toronto Maple Leafs. With Bower already wearing No. 1, Sawchuk went with No. 24 before taking on No. 30 and forever changing the numbers associated with goalies.The Chicago Blackhawks Tony Esposito wore No. 35, and goaltenders began gravitating increasingly toward the 30s thanks to Patrick Roy, whose usual No. 30 was worn by Chris Nilan when he joined the Montreal Canadiens as a rookie, forcing Roy to go with No. 33. Roys legendary exploits in Montreal and with the Colorado Avalanche truly began a wave of iconic goalies wearing numbers that were uniquely theirs.When you saw a guy wearing 33 youd go, Wow, hes wearing 33, Hayward said. Im sure a lot of kids wear 33 because of Pat. Ken Dryden was 29. A lot of guys, if they had a favorite [goalie], would go in that direction.Today, the No. 1 has mostly gone the way of the two-pad stack. At the beginning of December, only seven goalies were wearing the number. Its a dramatic shift from just 25 years ago, when more goalies wore the number during the 1991-92 season, despite the NHLs fielding only 22 teams. Six teams have retired the No. 1 (not including the?Minnesota Wild, who retired the number in honor of their fans), which also pushed goalies to be creative when it came to picking a number.After being forced to abandon the number last season with the Canadiens, who retired the number in honor of Plante, Mike Condon was thrilled to get it back this season. He took back the number with the Pittsburgh Penguins and retained it after being traded to the Ottawa Senators.Its just the number I wore in high school and the number I wore in college, he said. Any chance I get to wear it, Im going to grab it. I think its old-school. I just like it.The number is certainly a throwback, especially with the Florida Panthers Roberto Luongo, who at 37 is the leagues oldest goaltender, wearing it. In fact, there are almost as many goalies in the league wearing No. 40 and No. 41 (four each) as there are wearing the number that historically defines the position. Others wearing the No. 1:?Jonathan Bernier of the Los Angeles Kings, Brian Elliott of the Calgary Flames, Semyon Varlamov of the Colorado Avalanche, Keith Kinkaid of the New Jersey Devils and Thomas Greiss of the New York Islanders.But some goalies forced to take on the single digit have come to love the loneliest number.Ive loved No. 1 since Ive gotten it, said Kinkaid. I like the single digit. Its grown on me quite a bit. Its simple. My last name is only seven [letters], so I think if I had two numbers, it would go outside the seven.Kinkaid wore No. 1 when he starred at Sachem High School East in Farmingville, New York. The school even retired the number in his honor. But he switched to No. 30 when he enrolled at Union College, a number he couldnt wear with the Devils thanks to a certain goalie named Martin Brodeur. Kinkaid switched to No. 35, which was eventually taken by current starter Cory Schneider after he was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks. With the Devils still among the few teams restricting which numbers players can wear, Kinkaid was given his old high school number.But not every goalie forced by the Devils to wear the number took so kindly to the change.I didnt like it. I think its a boring number, said former NHL goaltender and current broadcaster Kevin Weekes. Its just a boring-looking number, but I respect the history of the guys who have worn it, of course.Weekes was first assigned No. 1 by the Panthers when he came to the NHL in 1997-98, but he had worn double zero in junior hockey and the minors. The NHL doesnt allow the single or double doughnut because they cannot be registered in the leagues database. So, when he came to the New York Islanders in 1999, Weekes switched to No. 80, which he figured was as close to double zero as he could get.When it comes to traditional numbers, the Devils and Kinkaid have proved to be the exception. Whereas goalies typically expressed themselves through the art on their mask, some of the NHLs best have taken to doing that through their number.Maybe its not cool anymore to wear No. 1. For me, I always look for it, Hayward said.Many star goalies have gone off the conventional radar when it comes to their number, including the Blackhawks Corey Crawford (No. 50), the Columbus Blue Jackets Sergei Bobrovsky (No. 72), the Tampa Bay Lightnings Andrei Vasilevskiy (No. 88) and the Washington Capitals Braden Holtby (No. 70). Their influence could ultimately make the traditional No. 1 even less popular with todays up-and-coming goaltenders.I think a lot of guys with big numbers have them for a reason, Condon said. They have a story behind it.I dont really have anything like that. I just want the simplest number out there. Simple, to the point, succinct. No wasted energy there.Of course, Condon said there is one other number he would consider.Im just old-school, but Id do double zero if I could. Replica NCAA Jerseys . The 17-year-old native of Marystown, N.L., pulled out of Skate Canada International last month in Saint John, N.B., with the same problem. Wholesale NCAA Jerseys . -- Bobby Ryan helped the U. https://www.chinajerseysncaa.us/ . Defenceman Yannick Weber scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and the Canucks breathed a sigh of relief with a 2-1 win on Saturday night. Custom NCAA Jerseys . -- Devin Hester is done returning kicks in Chicago. Cheap NCAA Jerseys . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second. HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- The NCAA and several co-defendants reached a landmark $1.2 million settlement Monday with the parents of a Frostburg State University football player who died from a head injury he suffered during a practice in 2011.The settlement marks the first payment by the collegiate athletic rule-maker to individual plaintiffs in a brain-injury case. The NCAA has proposed paying $70 million for concussion testing and diagnosis of current and former college athletes to settle several consolidated, concussion-related class actions.This is a landmark settlement not just because it is the first brain-injury case that the NCAA has agreed to pay a significant amount of money to resolve, but also because the stakeholders of football are now on notice that they have an obligation to protect the health and safety of the athletes, said Kenneth McClain, attorney for the parents of Derek Sheely.Sheely, 22, was a senior fullback at the Division III school when he died in August 2011. Parents Ken and Kristen Sheely of Germantown alleged in their $1.6 million lawsuit that he was a victim of second-impact syndrome -- a brain injury that occurs before a previous concussion has healed.Preseason practices at Frostburg served more as a gladiatorial thrill for the coaches than learning sessions for the players, they said in a filing.His parents contended that Sheely had suffered a concussion the previous season and was bleeding persistently from the forehead in 2011 after several days of drills. They alleged that when he complained of a headache on the day he was fatally hurt, then-assistant coach Jamie Schumacher yelled, Stop your bitching and moanning and quit acting like a p---y and get back out there, Sheely.ddddddddddddNeither the NCAA nor the other defendants -- three athletic staff members, Illinois-based helmet maker Kranos Corp. and Pennsylvania based helmet retailer George L. Heider Inc. -- admitted liability.The money will go to the Derek Sheely Foundation, established by Sheelys parents, to help fund research on risks to student-athletes, and a scholarship in Sheelys name. The NCAA also agreed to produce a video on head-injury risks, and to continue discussing with its member institutions policies aimed at reducing head injuries.The settlement includes $50,000 approved last month by the state of Maryland on behalf of the school staff members. Neither NCAA nor the plaintiffs lawyers would provide a breakdown of the settlement among the other defendants. Lawyers for Kranos and Heider didnt immediately return calls and emails from The Associated Press.NCAA Chief Legal Officer Donald Remy said in a statement that the settlement will help the Sheely Foundation advance research and education.As a leader in promoting enhanced safety in college sports, the NCAA is firmly committed to fostering greater understanding of student-athlete well-being, Remy said.Sheelys parents issued a statement thanking Dereks teammates who provided evidence.We believe that Dereks case has set an important precedent and helped shape the national dialogue, they said. We also believe that more must be done to protect athletes, and we will continue to make this our mission. ' ' '