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Well it's been a minute, but I finally have time to get out and skate again. First time on the ice since last season ended. This should be interesting.

I took that image and overlaid its Kovalchuk pro (green) with the Gionta and took another Kovalchuk pro (blue) and overlaid it with the original Kovalchuk pro. It does seem to match @malcb33's description. The blue Kovalchuk seems closer to the variant being floated as the possible BASE pattern. It looks to me like it's essentially the same blade face with just a different toe shape and toe height. It's a bit pixelated due to resizing to match the two different images, especially sensitive to longer, flatter curves, but it still gets the point across. This is exactly why I'd love the Kovalchuk side by side with a PM9. The difference is slight, but it may just be enough that it turns me off from the pattern. The closed toe is a bonus for me. E28 is a good alternative to my ideal curve, maybe not quite as good an alternative as the Kovy. It might just do the trick.

After a long bye week, we had a game against the reigning champions on the weekend, and let's just say it didn't go well. After a few standard saves, had a shot from the point that I had covered, where my defenceman thought it would be a good idea to tip the puck over my shoulder and in. What came for the rest of the game will be tough to move past. My defenders decided they were going to be everywhere except where they should. Cutting a long story short, we lost 12-3, at least eight of the goals came from passes behind the goal line to the unmarked centre right in the slot, but I saved more of those shots than I let in. I felt like I was working hard and moving well, but they just kept scoring. It wasn't until after the game when I could see the stats sheet that I could see why it was such a tough game. 56 shots on goal to 17. While it was a long way from my best game, that stat showed I was working on my own for a lot of it. We play again Thursday night against the first team we beat, so I need to clear my head and get back in the game.

I actually won something in hockey! \o/! Well, I'll chalk it up mainly to my team (tournament - a largely random assignment from the player pool) who played great, but we took home the silver and I'm pretty damn proud of how I played. (and four games in two days oh man.)

There is a photo of a Kovalchuk on the "BIG toe curve" thread, but it is from 2010. Not sure if the link below goes to the post in question, it is on page 27 of the thread.

The kovalchuk is indeed a big toe curve, a little too big IMO. The lie isn't that low at a 5 on the Easton scale, but slightly lower than a E28. It's fairly comparable to the E28 in how it plays, but I find has a deeper toe and is only very slightly open.