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Made such a strong impression at my interview yesterday that the woman I met with said, essentially, that as soon as I get my driver's license a job with them is as good as mine. (now to practice driving with 12 feet of snow piled on every corner.) Then came home to find I won a new pair of skates in a contest. Sweet.

Final scrimmage to cap off our rookie adult season. This crew learned an incredible amount in 17 weeks. I'm looking forward to playing with them in league and dropin for years to come.

Be up front with the guy, tell him exactly why you need to be sized and offer a little something for the effort. You're getting free skates so throwing the guy $30 or so to size you up is still a bargain.

That's a pretty good day. Finding an Ignila RSII on ebay.

Now if we can just get the damn cable companies to stop throttling our internet. Can't wait for Google Fiber.......

I was at a local Sport Chek (Laird/Wicksteed in Toronto) getting my skates sharpened and noticed a clearance table of skates. I was shocked at how low some of the high end skates were going for: · RBK 20K (top of the line about 2-3 years ago) for $239.88 · Bauer Nexus 1000 skates (top of the line 2 years ago) for $239.88 · Bauer One.9 White LE skates (second from the top 2 years ago) for $209.88 · Easton Mako skates (top of the line in 2013) for $239.88 · RBK Goalie skates (don’t recall the price, but likely around the $240 mark based on the rest of the pricing). Those prices are great as is, but you can get an even better deal by using a team assist coupon for an additional 20% off (those coupons expire Feb 28th so it was perfect timing). I used one of them and bought myself a pair of Easton Makos after trying on a bunch of the clearance models and the coupon dropped the price down to $191 before tax ($215 after tax). You can also collect Scene points if you have a Scene card (Cineplex Movie Loyalty program in Canada) and if you have a Canadian Tire Options Mastercard and use that you’ll get approx. 4% back in Canadian Tire money on the card (Canadian Tire owns Sport Chek and offers 10X CT Money or 4% at Marks, Sport Chek and of course CT). I've been tempted to pick up some Makos on clearance for the $299 price at Hockeysupremacy for a while now, but with new old stock KOR Shift 2's in the closet and my current KORs in good shape I could justify it - when I was able to get them locally for under $200 before taxes and get them baked and sharpened I couldn't resist. I've only used them to ref a few games to date, but so far I'm very happy with the purchase. I like them so much I'm almost tempted to pick up another pair for a roller conversion, but know that would void the warranty and have read about the durability issues some people have had so I think I'll stick with my Shift 2 conversions for roller until the Mako II's go on clearance (there was only one pair in my size at Leaside anyway and I don't know of any other Sport Chek's that carry the Mako skates in the Toronto area.) and use the Mako's for ice only so they're still under warranty. So far I've had no issues though - I've reffed a half a dozen games in them and haven't experienced the Mako bumps that many people did (I've been wearing the cut resistant Warrior Dynasty socks; so perhaps that's helped). They also had some sticks on clearance including the Warrior DT2 for $89, a stack of clearance ski and snowboard and winter coats on racks (didn’t look at the ski boots or coats too closely). I took a few pictures of the skate table that shows some sizes available and the prices. I did not capture all the skates/sizes in the pictures. Other Sport Chek locations will have some clearance deals, but I stopped by three other locations (Eglinton/Warden, Fairview Mall and Promenade) and those locations did not have any high end models available – the best deals out of the four stores I visited were at the Leaside location. I bought my skates late last week, but stopped by yesterday after refereeing a game in the area and most of the skates/sizes were still available. The only skates that had sold out were the TotalOne NXG's I'd seen for around $450 (nothing wrong with TotalOnes, but the other skates on the table certainly offer more value to me as long as you can find one that fits you well. They did have TO's in my size last week and I tried them on, but the Makos felt better on my feet even before baking them; so I would've went with the Makos even if the TO's were the same price).

Thanks OTG. I appreciate the follow-up.

Put these together for a buddy today. Pro stock Scott Gomez Ribcor skates

Our U14's won state! and.. Last night was THE most fun game of adult league hockey we had all season. The other team won 3-1, but we held a tie most of the game. Awesome puck battles, races up the ice, and goalies on both sides. 6:13am and a morning jog came early after a late game (and getting home at 1am, asleep about 1:30am), but when my teenage daughter wants to hang out, it's worth it! Edit: A big sister, I must add, who injured her shoulder last spring and hasn't been able to play volleyball or hockey since. The U14 team was "her" team and little sister filled the spot vacated by her and a couple of other girls, and she went to the tourney and was VERY supportive of her lil' sis when she could have been an angry, jealous 13 year-old!