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They should get rid of them. Retail site stick reviews are super dumb. Just a bunch of people complaining their stick broke.

I did the Readline build (recommended) and selected mid kick. It would have been a dream had it had a softer blade. You know it ain't working when guys on your own team are chirping about it. I tried the VF. Here's my honest take. It's a nice stick, even better if you buy enough to get free shipping. It does however lack that magic that makes the Jetspeed the Jetspeed. Your opinion my differ. I have a buddy who's also a Jetspeed user and he loves his VF. The big turn off for me was the pattern. Their Benn Pro plays like a P92. They offer something closer to the P90TM (BigBenn) but only on customs. As a devoted Jetspeed user, I desperately wanted to like it. I'd give it another try if they start offering the BigBen pattern.

I loved the Bauer 1x Lite and ADV. For me they just worked

No not really for me either.

Just google. This model is "Head Web Racquetball Glove". They're nice because the backhand is very thin (and half of is mesh) and the grip is fantastic. Barely even knew I had them on. I didn't need them anymore once I switched to custom gloves with intermediate palms. Now this would be much too heavy/thick for me.

Thanks. I'll def look into this option for future users.

Glad you found a solution. Aquaseal does have a pretty good tack to it. All I’ve every done was use weights or clothes pins while curing, and never had an issue.

Thanks for the reply. That stuff would be a good option especially when attaching the plastic insert over the EPS foam board (same as using a polyurethane adhesive like construction adhesive, gorilla glue etc). It would also work attaching the EPS foam board on the softer neoprene like backing as well (not pictured) but the only issue is that unless the glue has a high tack, I'll need to clamp the softer foam to the eps board which would likely distort the foams after being clamped for x hours. I deliberated over whether I should risk it and use hot melt glue since I've used it on foams before and even though it does melt the foam a bit these pieces are pretty thick and by the time the glue cools down it wouldn't have done much damage. I even thought of using industrial adhesive Velcro on both prices and attach it that way but I didn't want the added bulk the loop and hook would create. But this option would've been the quickest and least tedious option. I figured the best options in attaching the EPS board to the softer neoprene foam are: - 3m super 78 foam adhesive (harder to find in Canada and $$$$) - water based contact cement (again a bit harder to find and more expensive than regular solvent based contact cement) What I ended up using was an OLD can of spray 77 that doesn't contain any acetone like thr newer ones. I tested to see if it was still good and surprisingly it was still good even for a 20 year old can lol. I mean in hindsight the thigh boards aren't going to be undergoing much stress in terms of being peeled and pulled from one another. All forces would be direct impact and the boards will be encapsulated inside the pant shell, so maybe I put way too much thought into this 🫠

Some of them wear cotton liners, lundqvist being one of the more famous examples (He explains it here https://www.tiktok.com/@spittinchiclets/video/7534892352972786958): I used to wear a racquetball glove under my glove, mostly just for some more grip. Like this:

Personally, I've never read/used the reviews on any of the sites like Pure Hockey, Hockey Monkey, Ice Warehouse, etc. I'll watch new gear breakdown videos some of them put out but if I want reviews I'll use google and read them on sites like MSH, S2K, or Reddit because, let's face it, the ones who are capable of giving a meaningful review aren't posting on the store websites, they're posting on sites like this one (and Reddit is a mixed bag, you have to weed through a lot of nonsense but sometimes you get some decent reviews).

If we go further than 10 years, my blue and yellow Easton aluminum from the mid-90's. The thing was like playing with rebar, but it was very cool.

Haha, yes that is a typo. Nice catch. I went back and read thru it and didnt catch it the second time around. Correction, I meant to say the VS (gold stripe) is very supreme like. Whoops

For me the 1x lite, adv and qrl were the best sticks I’ve used. Not surprised they have similar tapers.

I have tried some older Vapor sticks, but I can't say for sure if it was the 1X lite. However looking at the specs, it's 397g. That's the sweet spot of light enough and still durable. You don't need more and I rather have that, than a new $400 stick that shoots great for 10 shots then dies. Sticks have fallen off a cliff in the chase of being light, I've never seen sticks break so often as they do now. There are 1-3 sticks breaking almost every NHL game I watch, which is pretty crazy because it is a new stick for basically every or every few games, it's not high mileage sticks that have been worn down.

I'm with @xstartxtodayx. Most of the latest and greatest is just rearranging the deck chairs. Great for marketing, but the ship is still the same. The viability of Pro's lineup is strong evidence if not proof of this. If the technology were clearly superior between 2005, 2015, and 2025 sticks, Pro's OG lineup would show it. The big inflection point remains packaging the T-Flex + composite blade as a unit in the Synergy. Since then, any changes have been more subtle than substantial. To answer the main question, though I haven't tried a ton of different lines, the one stick did just work for me off the shelf a bit better than anything else I've had was RibCor2. It just had a combination of soft blade feel when puck handling with good pop on shots and, most importantly, perfect balance.

Past 10 years all seem the same to me stickwise, not much has changed other than hype, maybe 25+ years ago into the 2 piece generation I'd say the Z-Bubble for sure, the classic green one was my go-to. Before that in the wood generation of the mid 90's I'd have to say the Victoriaville 4050 since it was one of the first sticks I could flex since it was one of the more whippy sticks.

Yeah, but even preference has to be correlated to performance if you know what I mean. Especially with more inexperienced players. Or there is a delay between the initial feeling of a new profile (which may feel uncomfortable and therefore not preferred) and X hours where it becomes comfortable and results in better performance. Just a long winded way of saying I don’t think there is currently a good way to prescribe profiles for the majority of players.

This was an early xmas gift for myself. I picked up these gloves almost 2 years ago for around $20, the palms had some holes, loops were cut, and the gussets were disintegrating. I sent them to ITR hockey so he could work some magic, had him put some airknit gussets and AX Suede palms with a Kovy overlay, they feel awesome now. Untitled by Jon Schusteritsch, on Flickr Untitled by Jon Schusteritsch, on Flickr

On sideline swap, sort by the size you need, and just take time browsing. There’s a ton of good pants from college, juniors, and minors teams that are less expensive than ones with NHL branding. It takes some time to learn about what different codes mean, but you’ll good about yourself once you start to learn some of the codes and are able to visually identify stuff. Patience and paying attention are your friends. Resources are out there, but a lot of it is piecing together different info from different places.

There are various places online that you can get new pro stock pants, but I've only ever bought used ones on eBay or Sideline Swap. I've found it better to identify the model of pants you want, for example "CCM HP45", and search for that. If you only search for pro stock, you often are missing a good number of options. With both Sideline Swap and eBay you can set up alerts to get notified of new items that get listed that match what you are looking for. With a bit of patience, I've had good success getting specific model and color used pants still in good shape for under $100. You can pay $50-$100 more, but I'd rather save the money. And by "save the money" I mean fund other hockey equipment purchases. That being said, if you have your heart set on an exact color/version that is uncommon it can take a lot of patience and a lot more money depending on what it is (like specific outdoor game or specialty colorways).

I know what you mean, but there is no padding anywhere in that region, it is just the closure system, which is very thin. I bought the pants, I'll try to get a picture of it. There is less protection in that area. However, I do not think it will cause any big gaps. Last game (I paid more attention than I ever have to that region and) I noticed that the flap of the 3S pants overlap quite a bit with the extension pad (bottom) of my Ultrasonic shoulder pads, when you are in a skating position. Overall, the pants are very nice and I am happy with them.

To add to what Davideo posted above, I think the two areas you should be comparing are what I circled in yellow on the modified picture below.

There is some research but not much. Years back someone here linked to some and at that time 9/10 showed the best performance. input him on 9/10 based on that as well as, regardless of the profile, he will have consistency. Just thinking it might be worth playing around with a second set. BTW, the scanner just spits out a category. It just said Quad so I assume that IT implies you should match to the skate size. Not that helpful, that would have been our first experiment anyway. And it would seem ProSharp has data they used to make recommendations to pros but still seems like some experimentation and collaboration at the end of the day.

Reviving this thread as I pulled the trigger on Tackla 9000 pants recently. I'm almost 6' - 180lbs. Went with Med-50 Tackla size. This thing fits like a glove. My issue with other pants brands (CCM-BAUER) was the fit was too loose on hips and thighs. Pants felt unstable when skating at higher speeds. Quality seems pretty great for a $119cad pants (regular price advertised $200). Got to say I'm super happy so far. Protection is generous on hips but not annoying at all. Probably not the lightest, but weight isn't an issue.

Round 2.