akhockeyplaya

Product: Vapor XX / P88 (Lindros) Pattern / 87 flex / left-handed My Stats: 5’9, 145lbs Blade - This is the first bauer ops i've used, but I had tried some friends' tri-flexes before and the new XX blade is much much better feeling. I thought it was very easy to control passes, the first time I used it I could just accept them with ease, sometimes it takes a while for me to get it down w/other sticks but not this one. Durability wise, it's held up so far. 8/10 Flex – I use a 260 inno (90ish easton) and it's a pretty good fit. The 87 on the bauer however felt just great. It didn't flex at all during stickhandling as far as i could tell, but I could whip the puck out on hard passes and long bombs. I thought it was one of the most "even" flexes I've ever felt. Some of the easton 85's I've had have just felt like crappy 100 flexes, but the 87 felt like it was made to be an 87, not just a weaker stiff shaft, if that makes any sense. 9/10 Stick handling/receiving passes – I've used graphite blades for about 4 years now (I'm 17) and they don't really affect me much at all. But, I can still feel the difference between companies, and the XX was a great blade for stickhandling. Unfortunately the p88 is significantly different than what I had figured, and is a much larger curve overall from the mogilny, which I use. So it was hard to get down the stick-handling/passing mechanics. 8/10 Shooting – This was, in my opinion, a pretty good stick for shooting. The curve kind of messed me up a bit, but once I got it down I could shoot pretty well. I thought there was good kick to it, maybe not as much as my other sticks but I've also been playing around w/my shooting methods this year so that could be some of the reason. 8/10 Weight and balance – This stick is really light, but more importantly it has great balance. None of it effected the performance and, if anything, it greatly added to the overall product. 9.5/10 Durability – Seems pretty strong to me. I only used it a few weeks, but technically that lasted longer than my other OPS's (3 days, 2 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week...). 9/10 Conclusion - I really like this stick. I'm sure I'd like it much more with a PM9 curve. Next to my fused novius, this is probably my favorite one-piece. Stickhandling-passing was great, shooting was a breeze, and nothing has gone wrong with it yet. Plus, I got it for $98 on clearance which was awesome. Overall – 8.5/10