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It’s based on a lot of reading around and experience. For example, I’ve come across a number of people who learnt to skate incredibly rapidly. I got to chatting to them all, and in every case their background explained it. One was a professional dancer. Another had boxed at a high level. Another was a black belt in martial arts. Another had skied for many years. A good example from a book is the case of Kenyan long distance runners who dominated in competition. Someone researched this and discovered they all came from one area where from a young age they ran long distances. Their culture had trained their bodies to excel. When you research successful people, you usually find an early obsession, or opportunities. If someone comes from a family of musicians, they’ll pick it up naturally, they will have ‘talent’. teachers will see ‘talent’ and give them extra encouragement and teaching. Matthew Syed was Britain’s top table tennis player. Most of our best players including Syed came from one street. Turns out they all had access to a table, allowing them to practice huge amounts. Obviously you need the right physique for a sport e.g. fast twitch muscles for sprinting, tall for basketball. And you need a decent IQ to do well in academic scientific research. However, everyone I have met believes that talent exists, that some people have it, some don’t. I won’t change anyone’s mind here, and anyway this is well off topic. I recommend Mindset by Carol Dweck and books by Matthew Syed.

The thing with Trues is, you don't have to bake them snug around the ankle. You can flare the top out if that's what you're after. The customizability of the boots can make them tricky to dial in.

McDavid's skates are definitely an old model but they are not a low end model by any stretch of the imagination. Connor's skates were the CCM Cadillac back in 2015

Equipment can never compensate for proper skating style and talent. I know many players who wear low end skates, they are smooth and fast skaters. The fastest and, arguably, best player in the NHL still wears first generation Jetspeed skates. 😉

Yeah, I stopped watching Hockey Tutorials years ago.

From my experience owning all three brands. I've said it before. True and ccm are more pliable after being in the skate oven as per their respective baking instructions. Would Bauer skates get as pliable as true skates if they were in there for 8-10 mins at 180-200? Maybe. But we're going here by their recommended bake times and temp settings.

Link below is to a pdf from the manufacturer of Curv, detailing the temperatures required in the manufacturing process. After reading, I don't think a skate oven gets hot enough to truly deform the material. My unscientific opinion is that Bauer skate shells have limited thermoformability, and it's mostly the interior foams that are changed. Personal observation is that True and CCM shells are more pliable when they come out of a skate oven. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/15_Mfrs_Publications/Menlo_Scientific/CURV%20Thermo-forming.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi6wLK2mO38AhUKjIkEHflKCNkQFnoECA4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0-SXtpDz1v-kHDR7OVWwDM