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First, don't use shoe size to determine skate size. Use a brannock made specifically for sizing skates. Your local hockey shop should have those. People wear different sized shoes for different reasons. For walk around shoes, I wear a half size or so up, because they're generally more comfortable. If I'm looking for shoes for sports, I want more form fitting. My shoe size is 2.5 to 3 sizes larger than my skate size. Second, once you have your foot measured out by a brannock made for skates, you have a start point. After that, it's about trying on skate after skate, comparing, contrasting, until you find one that's comfortable and formfitting. This is where you spend most of your time. Don't just put on the skate for a few seconds, you need to leave them on for a bit and get a feel for what the skate feels like after the liner has warmed up. Generally, you want to err on the side of a bit smaller vs a bit larger. You can always punch and stretch skates to finetune fit. You can't do the reverse and shrink skates. For big skates, things will only get worse as the liner wears and compresses, making the skates even more roomie

Ankle bones too big The problems with Forsberg’s right foot started to become chronic in the summer of 2001, after the Avs had won their second Stanley Cup. He had missed the final two rounds of the playoffs because of a ruptured spleen. He was born with ankle bones larger than the usual person — basically they were too wide to fit comfortably into a skate — and he developed inflamed fluid-filled bursa sacs over time from the grinding of the bones against the skate. He underwent surgery in the offseason to drain fluid in order to be ready for training camp in his native Sweden that fall, but after trying to skate during the first day of camp, he was in more pain than ever. He decided to take a leave of absence to have his foot treated. He returned to the Avs in January, but after being examined, team doctors found a problem with his left foot. He had surgery for that, and it appeared his season was over Damn, thats crazy

That guy had so many foot issues it's hard to keep track. I believe the initial problem was being born with unusually large/wide ankle bones, which after years of being stuffed into narrow skates caused chronic Bursitis. I remember reading something where he said in one of his surgeries, they removed part of his heel and repositioned it. Surgery was unsuccessful, so they reversed the procedure. Dude must have had a really high tolerance for pain to play through that stuff.

For ball hockey I can't think of a single reason to use anything other than a P88 or some other closed face curve. Anything with an open face is going to elevate a ball way too much, and it's very easy to shoot a ball 20' high with a straight stick, let alone a closed curve.