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I got annoyed by all the dubious marketing hype and improvements that are essentially “but this one goes to 11.” But, even if I’m disenchanted by the marketplace, I still like staying on top of things and being aware of what’s available. I enjoy the minutia of this site and knowing what’s new and sexy, even if I personally don’t want to buy it Also, I’m at a point in life and hockey where I’m pretty happy and content in a good way. I think when I’m not in a good place mentally, I tend to “chase” and fetishize material things, which ultimately buying don’t make me all that happy anyway. We’ve all seen guys on here who obsess over a particular thing- “what if I switch from a p88 to a p92 and cut the length by 1/4” and go up 5 in flex, will I be better at taking off camber snapshots from the wing?” Nothing is gonna make that person happy (or better). There’s a certain zen to just giving up and having fun playing with your $100 stick and 5 year old skates, and not needing the latest and greatest.

The triangle-perforated steel debuted on the Vapor 8, I believe. I had Vapor 8s with that steel and grey Tuuk Custom+'s. I think they stuck around and were also stock on Vapor 10s, like @BenBreeg mentioned, and Nike Ignite 1s. With the Vapor XX, the perforation pattern changed as @Monty22 pointed out, matching the form of the LightSpeed holder visually.

The Vapor 10 , and maybe the 8 had the triangular cut outs on the steel, and it had a black finish. That was great quality steel and sharpened really well. The First generation LS2 holders had scalloped cuts on the bottom edge making it really difficult to hand stone. You may be thinking of the Tuuk V2 steel for the Custom + . It was "normal" width for the front 1/2 , and then was about half as thick from the middle to rear of the blade. Jay McKee used that stuff forever.

I dont judge anybody by their equipment. You want custom skates and that makes you happy, go for it. You just like to play and still use wooden sticks go for it. It’s a game. I have always been a gear guy, wearing out Great Skate, Ocean, and Kemps catalogs when they showed up in the mail. I still like researching stuff I need but once on the ice I don’t pay attention to it (my bad play keeps me distracted...)

Those guys who are really really good show up wearing ref pads or shit that's literally falling apart. Those are the guys who look silly. If that's all you can afford, fine. But when you buy new shit thats barely suitable for pond hockey, that's when it gets silly. Newer players aren't always 100% sure what they need in terms of protection. It's better to go overboard and not need it.

Protective doesn't fall under this. It's always been about the product you can see. When all of this started, CCM's aim was to get players into their product at the CHL level, so that way as they moved on to minor league hockey, they would still use it, then once in the NHL, they would stick with it. There was no way that a player was going to be forced to use a brand they didn't want to if they were on a one-way.