IPv6Freely

Two back to back 11 hour flights suck in coach no matter who you are.

Leaving home tomorrow at 2pm, and after stops in Los Angeles and London I'll be arriving in South Africa two days later. Teaching a 4 day class (th/fri, mon/tue) then flying back next Wednesday (landing 5pm Thursday). Two hours later I'll be on the ice. Then on the next Monday I leave again to go to Roswell NM with a layover in Dallas. Come back Thursday again landing just before game time. Get home from that game at 11pm and then get up early to fly to summer jam. Fly home Sunday in time to be on the ice again. I'm going to need a LOT of coffee this month. And of course all this travel is in coach.

Mmmm looks awesome

The wrap is incredible. To the point where I actually will have to follow their "adjustment" video in order to spot heat the area around 4-5 eyelets down and pull that area out a bit. The wrap is so good it actually hurts my foot to put the skate on and take it off in that spot. The tongue is WAY more moldable than the Mako tongue, and the toe box is even more snug (if you can imagine that!). They also made sure to work around the bump on the outside of my right big toe, and it worked beautifully. The ONLY complaint I have is that it's almost like the insole is a bit too wide in the heel and its preventing my heel from getting all the way down. Kind of the same feeling when I try to wear Bauer Supreme skates. I took the yellow insoles out and put my foot in with just the red and the feeling went away, so I'm thinking its just the insole needing some trimming. Planning on getting these things sharpened and on the ice during a public skate tomorrow, in time for my game tomorrow night. I'm not going to try the Lundqvist loop right away, figuring I'll worry about the different fitting skates first and try that during a pickup where it doesn't matter as much.

Wow, overnight shipping from Winnipeg is pretty amazing. Bauer 4mm Vertexx cowling 4mm Step runners

I think the problem here is that I know I can't get the 5-hole closed no matter how hard I try so it's almost like I'm compensating by making sure my legs are closed behind me. I mean, even if I put on my skates and pads at home, drop into a butterfly on the carpet and actually take the time to physically move my legs, knees, etc all into the right place theres STILL a pretty huge gap. I think its a combination of a couple things: - Obviously flexibility, specifically in the hips. A wider flare is going to allow me to get the 5-hole tighter. At this point because of how bad my flexibility is, my thighs are fully closed, my knee stacks are butted up tightly against each other, and STILL there's a huge gap. Widening that flare is going to allow my thigh rises to get closer together before the knee stacks touch. - I think my pads are too small. I'm in 33+1 Brians, and my knee pads are right at the tip edge of my knee stacks when I'm in the butterfly. I tried on some 34+1 Brians the other day and theres about a 1" space between the top of the knee stack and my knee pads. I also had no issue getting the 5-hole closed when trying those on the goaliemonkey synthetic ice. See here (NOTE this is just me looking at the fit, I'm not trying to close the 5-hole here... I was able to close it fully in these pads): (I was shocked by how good the attached Brians knee pads were. Not thigh boards but actual knee pads on this model. Very comfortable! But would definitely be keeping my Passaus!) I also noticed one interesting thing the other day. When I sit (anywhere... couch, computer chair, even in the car when im not the one driving) I sit with my knees apart and my feet together. Like the bottom right image here: I find when I consciously try to sit with my feet on the same line with my knees and thighs (top left image), the front of my hips actually hurts a bit. This is obviously an issue here. It's something I guess I've just done all my life and never really noticed until now. Again, Maria Mountain to the rescue! I will say though, it's a whole hell of a lot better than when I first started. This photo is from page 3 of this thread, when I first got my gear and had never yet been on the ice. Wow.

Much better night last night. Only a couple goals. Unfortunately two of them were glove side and easy saves. Oh well, it's only pickup. Sorry about the camera angle... damn it

Whoa, thunder and lightning! I haven't seen that in years!

Just got my shipping notice... I'm surprised how quickly they'll get here!

Thanks. I was debating silver vs white and ended up choosing white just because I didn't have any idea what the silver would look like.

Is that the "silver" colour option?

I have no idea, I don't think they wear nametags do they? I really just wanted to confirm sizing and try the glove. Unfortunately they didn't have any of the gloves in stock, but more than anything it was the cuff I wanted to try, which is the same on the subzero pro.

Was just at goalie monkey. Tried on the gnetik pro 2 pads... Amazing. I know what I'll be getting! We also determined that 33+1 is actually too small for me. He said a 33.5 would actually be perfect as the 34 is slightly too big but at least my knee pads didn't hang over the end like they do on the 33. The knee pads that come with the Brian's are actually surprisingly good. Held in place quite well, I was shocked. I'm going to order the glove right away, and the rest of the set after I've saved up some cash.

Man I wish that was even an option for me.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I will definitely try to practice some of my movements in the crease during the pickups, but don't want to at this point in games... I feel like I really need to try to keep my focus. I do want to reiterate the fact that USUALLY the D in these pickup sessions isn't complete crap like it has mostly been the last month or so. They call it pickup, but its definitely not a drop-in by any means. This is an invite-only thing where most of these guys have been playing together forever, in some cases literally decades. I just don't want the "well, don't expect D in pickup" because for this its usually pretty decent. Or at least it was. Like I sad the last month has been brutal. Anyway, on to my league game tonight. Lost 4-1 (our 1 goal came with 5 seconds left). - First goal was a really good breakaway deke to the backhand and put it up over my pad... great goal, no complaints there. - Second goal was a crap shot that squeaked in between my glove hand and my body. Should have had it for sure. - Third... I'm not sure exactly what happened. It was a rebound that bounced around and hit a couple things before somebody banged it in. - Fourth goal was a breakaway that I absolutely should have stopped. Guy wristed one to my glove side from the hash marks. It was literally in the best place it could have possibly been for me, and I just missed it. Guy with the white gloves decided to chirp me after it to the point where the ref had to tell him to get lost, then came over to me and asked if I knew the guy. I did not. What an asshole. The refs told me to take down my gopro after warmup, unfortunately, so I was unable to record the game. They said I can have it on the outside of the glass but not the inside. Since this is a rookie league (not even considered D6) I'm going to ask the league director for an exemption since the entire point of this league is for learning. Not sure if he can help me, but its worth asking. This was actually the first week we had refs, previously it had just been the coaches. I'm disappointed that I let my team down. They played really well in front of me for the most part (aside from the lack of scoring). The momentum was ours for most of the game. And the two times my D faltered, I wasn't able to bail them out. That's the part that stings. On the other hand, I played pretty well for the most part. Their first goal didn't come until midway through the 2nd period. My first period was fantastic. Oh well, there's always next week. On another note, my Passau knee pads feel amazing now that I got them adjusted the way I like. On tuesday they kept catching on my pads, but tonight I got them adjusted better and wore socks over them (with the bottom half of the sock cut off so it wasn't covering my calves). Felt good, and actually felt taller in the butterfly with less strain on my ankles. Very glad I didn't give up on them after one bad attempt at wearing them.

I wish so badly that I had time to go to open skates and stuff. I haven't been on the ice for anything other than games or pickups in close to a year.

Nope, no real time for either.

When am I ever going to practice them?

A couple things.... I don't know how to do butterfly slides or t-pushes so those wouldn't have happened even if I had got up on the right foot :)

Yea, that's really what I was getting upset about. How many stops do I have to make with my D-men standing there watching? The other goalie barely moves during these sessions.

What a crappy pickup session. Oh well. There's always next week.

Scored these on eBay. Can't wait to try them!

What do you call a proper warm up? Firing slapshots from the blueline is all I really want TBH for most of warmup. I'm mostly concerned with feeling the puck on my pads, and getting a read on the pucks in the air. In fact for our pickups I often grab my water and kneel and stretch a bit on the goal line about 10' from the net and just watch guys shoot into it, tracking the puck from their stick into the net. Getting my head around the timing is the most important part for me, besides the stretch of course. No interest in having guys deke me in warmup.

It's funny, I'm at a point now where I'm telling the OTHER goalie "great save!" or "man, nice glove..." when he comes up with a big stop. I also understand a bit better what its like for our goalie as well. I stopped a slapshot with my stick last night about 6' from the net, and I just hear from behind me "DAMN IT JONES!" and I'm like oh crap, sorry man... A few years ago I would have been oblivious to why he'd be upset about me sticking my stick out to stop a shot...

After 26 hours, I'm finally home.