Hills

I haven't actually enjoyed playing hockey as a skater in months. Not sure if it is the tiny and horrible ice that has you falling anywhere or the people we are playing with but it is getting to the point that I have to drag myself to go out and play. Goalie is a totally different story though so that is good.

Senior seems to play consistent to other brands in my experience.

My apologies!

Quote from another forum: "Thanks for the follow-up question. I love the Sparx. I am getting a consistent cut every time I use it. The only thing that I do now that I didn't for the first month is use a SweetStick for 2 passes after I debur the sharpening. " They should not be doing that right? Isn't a SweetStick terrible and should only be used as a last resort?

First time I've gotten pictures of my gloves and chest in action... but I forgot a jersey.

Personal Details Male 6’3” 220 lbs B-C level hockey Price: $20 (including shipping in Canada) Preface: A lot of my comments on this grip (and all grips) are all about personal preferences. What works for me might not work for someone else. Fit: Since the Sniper Skin Grip shrinks and wraps completely around the shaft of the stick the fit is excellent and the grip never moves or shifts on the stick while playing. The added rubber rings and foam strip really allow you to customize how your fingers and hand grip the stick. 10/10 Feel: The Sniper Skin Grip feels like a silicon like material and has a borderline plastic feeling in nature. The holes offer a bit of finger grip and while you can feel them they are not uncomfortable or annoying. The included thick rubber ring does a good job of keeping your hand in place at the top of the stick, but my preference is for the knob to be longer in the sense that it would go further down the stick as I prefer some of my palm to be resting over top of it. The added foam strip does an except job in adding cushioning and widening the surface area of the stick for people with big hands. Unfortunately since I did not want the wider grip and prefer thinner flat grips I did not use the foam strip and wish the grip itself was slightly thicker to add a bit of dampening and cushioning. 8/10 Grip: The wrap itself does not offer much grip in terms of tackiness, but I never had a problem with my hand sliding off of the Sniper Skin during game play. Personally I prefer a bit more friction and believe that the material used on the Sniper Skin SS3 blade wrap might work even better as a slightly tackier Grip Wrap option. 8/10 Durability: While my time with the Sniper Skin Grip Wrap has been fairly limited. There are no signs of wear on the grip at all. The holes have not expanded since the initial application and there was no signs of wear, no cracks and no tears. I really believe this wrap would last the lifetime of the stick. The only downside is that these are not transferable to another stick once they are applied 9/10 Palm Wear: There has not been any noticeable palm wear while I have been wearing these gloves. 10/10 Customization Options: Here is where Sniper Skin and the Grip Wrap really shines. Allowing you to get printed names and numbers is a nice bonus on a hockey tape alternative. The supplied rubber rings, foam strips and rubber end are nice pieces to truly customize your fit exactly to your finger and hand size. The foam strip is an excellent way to increase the width of the stick if you like that thicker and dampened feeling. Multiple colours allow you to match any stick design or team as well. 10/10 Conclusion: While I enjoyed my time with the Sniper Skin Grip Wrap, I still prefer my Tacki-Mac grips because of their slightly softer and grippier nature. They offer just a bit more dampening and a longer butt end that I simply prefer. While Tacki-Mac sell for $8 and Sniper Skins sell for $15, for my preferences the Tacki-Mac is a better deal. If the rubber rings and the foam strip would fit your customization needs than the extra cost should be easily justifiable. I would recommend the Sniper Skin Grip Wrap if you are looking for a hockey tape alternative with customizable options to ensure you can replicate your standard tape job. 8/10 The excess was because of a poor installation job I did. No wear to be seen. No wear to be seen.

No Passau glove there?

Since I recently received my next stick to review, I now have the opportunity to try out the Sniper Skin Grip Wrap. While I appreciate the different customizable ring and candy cane wrap options I prefer a minimalistic and flat grip with a relatively small knob at the end (I find my Tacki-Macs are basically a perfect setup). I really liked how I could add the soft foam wrap to the knob of this Sniper Skin Grip as it would add cushion to the top of the stick and add for a larger grip surface if that is something you prefer or if you have large hands and want more surface area on the grip. The ability to have your name or customized phrase put on the stick is a nice bonus feature. I followed the instructions that state to place the first hole of the grip on the bottom of the knob for the setup without the rubber rings, from the end result I believe I either had the stick upside down or the holes should’ve been placed lower on the shaft. From @Bakum experience in this thread I wanted to ensure the knob ring of my Sniper Skin didn’t fall out buy putting the grip too low and not fully covering the knob ring. This ended up with me having a large excess of material at the top of the stick that not only looks bad, but actually feels annoying on the ice when I am really reaching with my stick. While people told me to cut this off, I tried to cut excess toe material on a Blade Wrap before and the end result was the wrap starting to crack I figured I’d just leave it as is so I can do the review and not destroy the grip. The grip and feeling of the Sniper Skin Grip Wrap is different than other products I’ve used or felt in the past. It is not tacky or grippy like other options or like tape. It feels pretty thin and has very little dampening to the stick, it really feels like you are just holding onto the stick itself. I feel the newly released Sniper Skin 3 Blade Wrap actually had more grip to it than this Grip Wrap. While I feel your hand can slide around a bit on this grip it hasn’t caused me any issues yet while actually playing. I will continue to write about my experiences here in the future.

They are basically a more traditional fitting and playing light weight pad compared to the Warrior G2 and G3. If you don't feel the need to switch to the Warrior pads you won't feel the need to switch to these either. To me these are basically the perfect mix between tradition fitting and playing pads and super boxy G2/G3.

I'd say don't give views to the guy that openly admits to taking a payoff to not do a negative review... but that is just me :P

You mean Czech Republic right? 2 different countries...

I find it funny how everyone is ripping on Bauer and when push comes to shove the only actual wear points are glued on logos and thigh rise rubbing together... which happens on all other pads as well. Bauer also isn't dumping their foam considering the 1X pads are basically a more flexible 1S. The dents on 1S pads are just the cord from behind the face of the pad pulling it inwards... which happens on all pads but is less noticeable since you actually see the cord. Here are my Warrior G2 pads, you notice how there are dents and wrinkles? But everyone circlejerks over Warrior being the best thing since sliced bread. It is all about people buying into the hype and marketing and right now Bauer are the big bad boys of the hockey world.

Yeah, I don't think that is right at all since VH isn't even showing Price wearing his 2-piece goal skate right now. They've been showing off their 1-piece version but not a 1S style skate anywhere. Unfortunately their website seems to be down but quickly skimming through their social media sites and the only goal skate they post are cowling ones and their 1-piece.

Has it? Because he's the first person I remember seeing wearing it for a while... To be honest VH didn't even do the whole carbon boot/cowling combination first either as Hiller and Halak have been wearing a European made one for years.

I noticed people online asking about slash guards and which ones they should buy, since I didn't have a lot of experience in this area I figured I'd grab a pair and test them out. @GreatestAmericanBeardo suggested these, and on amazon they were fairly cheap and on sale compared to most places and at $12 each I figured it'd be worth it to give these a try. He also pointed out that Dustin Byfuglien used them, seems like they should be good enough for beer league then. I recently bought a pair of Bauer Elite padded slash guards that are made up PoronXD as the protection material. When I slid them on and did the ministick test (I do the same test to the EvoShield in the video) the results for me were less than outstanding. The impacts were softened but not by much, so I decided to use those slash guards as added knee protection in my CCM Ultra Tack shin guards. One of the interesting features of these EvoShield wrist guards is that the protective shell comes out of the box in a gel like substance that forms to you arm. They arrive in a airtight sealed bag and once opened begin to harden and take shape. Be advised, ensure the shell is completely flat in the sleeve pouch so you don't botch the end shape and have shell overlap like I did to mine! From the ministick test I felt the EvoShield does do an okay job of giving added protection from those impacts, but you can still feel the brunt force of the stick. I believe the EvoShield Gell-To-Shell wrist guards will be a good compliment protective piece when worn next to your elbow pad, but by no means can replace the forearm protection quality elbow pads provide. Be sure to check back here for updates and the full review in the future.

Full Disclosure I was sent this after my review of the Blade Wrap. Sniper Skin wanted me to test out the new version and report on my findings. Since putting the new wrap on I have used it for 5 games so a little over 5 hours. Shooting: The Sniper Skin SS3 was a huge upgrade from the Blade Wrap I used before, I no longer had issues shooting and I wasn’t whiffing all of my shots far right. This tape replacement product performed just like the tape it was meant to replace. The only time it had an effect on my game was at the end of its lifespan, but tape will also do that if it gets bunched up. 10/10 Stickhandling & Passing: I didn’t notice an changes to my game while using the SS3 wrap in terms of stickhandling and passing. 10/10 Durability: This section is where the SS3 and the previous Blade Wrap switch scores. After about 5 hours of ice the Sniper Skin SS3 wrap was beat up pretty badly, to the point that it started tearing on the edges and a hole formed directly in the middle of the blade which edged up bunching the material up in a clump right on the playing area of the blade. Now, this can also happen with tape and I completely understand that. But unlike tape I couldn’t just rip off the bunched up piece and keep playing, if I were to rip a part of the SS3 wrap off it would end up removing the entire wrap and leaving me with a tapeless blade in the middle of the game. After the game I had to fully tear the SS3 off my stick and thus effectively got 4.5 hours of use out of it. 3/10 Summary: The Sniper Skin SS3 is a HUGE improvement in performance and aesthetics (that doesn’t really matter to me though) over the previous more plasticy version, but lasting under 5 hours was pretty disappointing. At $14.99 + shipping I would be very disappointed if my purchase was already worn out in such a short period of time. While I understand I might have to re-tape my stick after a game, that is something that doesn’t cost anywhere near $15 for 5 skates. My other issue is the convenience part, because you have to boil water to apply the SS3 to your stick you must set out a time to do so before actually playing. While that is in theory easy, everyone forgets and because I won’t be bringing a kettle into my hockey bag I can’t put the SS3 wrap on before or in between games. 5/10 Note: Sniper Skin informed me that they have Junior A players that have used the SS3 for over 10 hours without anywhere near the wear and tear that was on my wrap. While I wouldn’t purchase another wrap I wouldn’t tell anyone not to. If you hate taping your sticks or perhaps are younger and less demanding on them perhaps this will be a useful product for you. Not a lot of damage to the back. The bunched up material on the front. Where the front hole started. Top of the wrap, shows up the bunched up material. Lots of wear on the toe. Heel was splitting as well. Another look at the heel. More blade rips. More blade rips. More bottom of blade damage.

So, I think you should stay away from the VH during plays like @ 50 seconds. I think a butterfly or a reverseVH would be better here. Since you said you are relatively new to goal tending I'd focus strictly on being square in plays like that. Personally I'd say just be in a square butterfly and that should do the trick, it'll keep you more mobile and make it easier to control the rebound. I can tell you when I play against starting goalies and they go into the VH I get happy as they always give me some net to shoot at. I can't tell if this is the case here because of the camera angle, but I'd suggest against using the VH for most starting goalies. At 55 seconds make sure you are square to the shooter, I think you should be challenging more here as well but I can't be sure again because of the camera angle. I understand you are worried about the person back door, but you have to ensure you are square to the shooter and not cheating, you are pretty good at sliding so your abilities will be able to cover the backdoor fairly easily. Also, when playing a lower level of skill I feel you can give up those passes a bit, since the chances of the players making a good pass and then getting a good shot off are pretty small. Since defensive coverage in rec is spotty to begin with, it gets worse in lower levels (understandably), if I find myself in 3-on-1/0 or 2-on-1/0 situations I'll just play the shot, since the pass requires 2 players to make decent plays just to get a shot off. You also favour your left leg a lot, what I mean by that is when in the butterfly your left leg sticks out while your right is directly behind you (see 1:12). Now I understand why you did it, since you pushed from the left to right and it naturally happens, but it does leave gaps and I think the players ended up shooting towards your right leg where those gaps occur. I have had issues with this the last few years and basically cheat to one side, and it is something I have been trying to fix. Ideally you'd just be square in the butterfly and have fast enough legs to cover the far corners, it is just something to look out for as it can get you into trouble (it certainly has for me).

Good job on cutting down the footage. It is much easier to watch this way! You almost had that breakaway, and you looked pretty solid in that game. I'd also suggest like @IPv6Freely did to grab a suction cup mount, makes it easier to see the play and allows you to move it to the other end in between periods. Are you looking at tips or suggestions? I can't remember if you said you were and before I say anything I figured I'd ask.

Here's the next analysis. I had a shaky game so there was again a lot I wasn't happy with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc-yKAlNI9k This was a rough game as well and a really bad start... I felt shaky and didn't have a lot of confidence. https://gfycat.com/InfantileCleverDiscus This was right off the opening face off and not a good way to get settled in the game. I got lucky here and actually over slid to the left from the fresh ice, the puck does actually hit my stick and bad but because I wasn't square I needed the post to bail me out. https://gfycat.com/WildOpulentBandicoot The last couple of games I was having trouble with my glove hand, and playing twice a month doesn't help either. This one I completely whiffed on a really easy shot and within 5 minutes the team is down by 1. https://gfycat.com/ApprehensiveDistinctFrigatebird While this goal wasn't completely my fault there were a bunch of things I did poorly and didn't help my cause. The first being I committed to the reverseVH (RVH from now on) too early which exposed the player out front since I was had too much weight on my right foot and didn't push of properly to the front of my net. I initially went into the RVH here because after the quick first goal I wanted to ensure I didn't let in a weak short side or post goal and wanted the player at the dot to have nothing to shoot at. I tried to make a desperation save when the player directly in front shot it which in turn pulls me off the post for the backdoor tip in. In hindsight I should have kept my right leg on the post and I probably would of got the back door save, but my inflexibility hurt here and I was trying to get my stick down and my body down to block it. https://gfycat.com/ImportantOrganicGreyhounddog This was just a decent slide from my left to right, and I wanted something positive to be in this video! https://gfycat.com/WebbedMeaslyAnophelesmosquito I thought this was some decent cross crease movement and shows me battling through a screen (which becomes important later on). I went down from behind the net quickly because of the backdoor pass earlier, I wasn't positive where the opponents were in front of the net so I wanted to cover low for a precaution in case they slipped a puck out to someone for a quick bang in play. The correct play when the puck was moved to the point was to come out and challenge, but with my player and an opponent right next to me I didn't want to risk being in transition when the puck was shot or possibly tipped. I did do a decent job of pushing off of the post and challenging a bit while still on me knees. I did let up a pretty garbage rebound that was put over the net, but I was completely screened and had no idea where the puck was. I tried to get big and cover as much of the net as possible and you should be able to see this when I shrug my shoulders. https://gfycat.com/MeanColdJapanesebeetle Here is another play that was a direct result of me feeling shaky. I again wanted to ensure nothing short side went in so I slide into the shot covering all the post side. This is dangerous as a shot low glove would create a huge rebound in front of the net and an example of this happens later on in the game. https://gfycat.com/ShorttermArcticInexpectatumpleco Once again another play where I wanted to ensure I just made the save. The RVH here wasn't really necessary and if I dropped into the butterfly while staying square to the shot I probably would've eaten up the rebound with my pants. This save gives up a big rebound in the slot but the opposition can only get a weak backhand off that goes wide. Decent job by defense tying him up and I did an decent job of getting up and ready for the next shot. Ideally I should've been at the top of the crease though. https://gfycat.com/CoarsePortlyCrocodile Again here I am battling through screens. I go down with a guess as to where the puck is going to end up as I saw the original shot but lost the puck when I moved towards the direction it was going. The puck gets stopped on the way and I managed to track it to an opponents stick who gets off a pretty quick shot. My left leg was already in decent position and I end up making a decent save. While I wasn't perfectly square to the shot and the top corner was open, my glove stayed in a decent spot and covered the area directly above my pad as well. https://gfycat.com/CraftyWeightyAustralianfreshwatercrocodile I tried to say more square with this play and not drop to early into the RVH like before. I do a decent job and a shot into short side post is handled with a butterfly but the rebound goes right back to the player who took the shot. Last time I played this ended up being a rebound goal so I tried to get myself covering the post as much possible which puts me off balance and makes for an awkward position as I try to slide back across the net as the player goes behind. I suppose I could've gotten into a VH for the recovery as I don't believe I would've stopped a quick wrap around, but I am not really sure. If you have ideas please let me know. https://gfycat.com/GrandioseKeenBeaver I am actually pretty unhappy with this save. This was the shooter who scored the first goal and I was worried he was going to do the same here, I get just a bit of my blocker on it and I really felt like I barely fought it off. He also had a strange shot that I felt dipped or always felt like it was off speed and I struggled with it. https://gfycat.com/HarmfulSnappyAntbear This was a much more dangerous play that it looked and really could've put the game away if we went down 3 in the first period. I knew there was a player charging the net so I tried to get in a fairly square and large butterfly, but I wasn't able to cover high on the short side and if this was tipped a few inches towards the net it would've ended up as a fantastic glove save or a very nice goal. https://gfycat.com/LividFlawlessAmethystsunbird Fighting screens was something I was doing a lot of this game. I never actually saw this shot released and thought I was on a decent angle so dropped and tried to cover all holes in tight. The shot managed to hit my blocker and get deflected into a corner and was a good and lucky save made by good positioning. https://gfycat.com/HiddenNegativeInvisiblerail This play started on a failed breakout off of a face off, so the opposing team was never deep enough to really cause me any trouble. I was able to challenge a good amount and the shot was a relatively poorly aimed one that I was able to absorb and cover with no rebound. https://gfycat.com/JadedLiveHarborseal This is one of those plays that could be argued that a poke check would've stopped a dangerous play from happening. I felt like the pass was far enough from my stick that if I lunged to block it I would've been too far out of position if I missed. Since I am not very good at poke checks I generally decide to stay passive in these situations and try to cover the net on the shots in front. I did a decent job of covering low but my defense ended up blocking the shot. https://gfycat.com/BlindMixedCurassow I mentioned earlier that when I try to cover all of short side a shot to the low far side is very dangerous for a rebound... and here is a great example of that. I overplay high blocker which leaves me sliding away from the shot and creating a dangerous rebound off of my toe. I attempt to corral it but my teammate actually knocks it away from me but luckily it bounces away from their attacking forward as well. https://gfycat.com/SickImpoliteAmericanquarterhorse On this 2-on-1 I figured the shooter was going to shoot low blocker and go for the garbage rebound since this team has been pretty unselfish so far. My defense did a good job in protecting this and the shooter looked like he wanted to score high blocker, which I got a chunk of on the thumb part and the rebound bounced over his stick. https://gfycat.com/BasicDistantDouglasfirbarkbeetle Here is another screen I had to fight through, and lost. I didn't know who the pass was to on the backhand because my defense was directly in my line of sight to the trailing player the whole time. I also had 3 people directly in the way of the shot which was a perfectly place slap shot right inside the post. I tried to cover as much of the angle as possible but it wasn't enough. If I had any idea where the trailing player was coming from I might have challenged sooner. I saw the shooter come across the blue line but lost track of him once the initial puck carrier went to his backhand. https://gfycat.com/SomberUnluckyFlatfish There wasn't much for me to do in the third period, this play happened after I tried to go to the bench for an extra attacker and had to skate back from a turnover. I am a poor puck handler and this is another example, I tied to chip the puck off the boards to my teammate to try and keep the play going because we were running out of time.

Sniper Skin sent me their updated Blade Wrap for me to try out and give feedback on. As you can see this one is vastly different from the original wraps that I have already used. While I didn't see any actual names for the wrap I did notice on the packaging it being labeled as SS3, so I am titling this wrap as the Sniper Skin 3 for these review purposes. This is an updated blade that won't shrink in summer heat through postal services and that has been made with feedback received from the previous versions. This wrap feels less smooth and less like plastic than the previous one, it feels as if it has a coating that you can feel on your fingers after touching it. As you can see the design is to mimic that of tape and I must admit it is more pleasing to the eye, they informed me it can be customized but I am not sure to what extent. The holes are only a single row at the top on the front and back of the skin. When applying the skin you no longer have to cut it, but just ensure a portion of the toe is exposed before shrinking the blade wrap onto the blade itself. The wrap sits fairly flush onto the blade. So far the blade feels to be an improvement over the last one, but on-ice performance will be key here and you can expect to see a full video review and write up after I get to use it on the ice. The blade right out of the packaging. Close up of the new blade wrap Previous blade wrap After shrinking Back after shrinking. Toe after shrinking.

Thanks for the feedback. I think I'll just upload them this way from now on. Makes them less easy to digest in terms of seeing the play and reading the comment, but makes it WAY easier to load and post. As for editing, I edit in Premiere, and for the gfycat I just put my Youtube link into their site to use the upload feature. It is pretty hand and easy to do that way.

Hopefully people are still enjoying these, I think this game has a lot of "Don't do this" examples of plays. Since these links are pretty internet and computer intensive I didn't make them load instantly so you'll have to actually click them to see them first. Part in do so I don't slow the website down and part that I couldn't actually make the post without crashing my computer... Anyways let me know if you want to see these to be continued. I think I played decent in this one but I was a bit shaky from not playing for a month, I don't think it really showed but I always felt a bit off when getting ready for a shot. Unfortunately my team ended up losing 2-0. https://gfycat.com/CreamyOldEnglishsetter A weird bounce left the puck going right to an opponent left out front. Luckily he just picked up his stick and wasn't able to get a great shot off. But I did a pretty decent job of sliding out to challenge and take down the angle and made a decent save. The reason I went down first was because I was unaware if there was someone right at the top of the crease, meaning I didn't do a good enough job of checking my surroundings. I saw there was no instant shot and got up to challenge the shooter more aggressively. https://gfycat.com/SnappySimplisticCooter This started out as a fairly straight forward shot that I placed into the corner, but the following part shows where my shakiness was. I go to push back into the post to play a reverse-VH since I saw the opponent was going to beat my player to the puck and the chance for a shot back at me or to the low circle was pretty high. My positioning was a bit off and when I pushed backwards to the post my skate was already touching it when I really wanted my leg to be inside the post so my shoulder and upper body would be completely covering the top half. I didn't feel like I had time to adjust to it properly and when my body turned more towards the corner I was still caught off guard as to where my right foot was actually placed. Because of my now aggressive angle into the corner I tried to break up any back door pass as I'd be beat really badly if that made it through. The player did end up throwing it back towards the net and his teammate made a nice tip to direct it on net. This now shows how awkward this play was since I played the original direction of the puck my blocker comes off of my pad and leaves a gap, but luckily the puck hits the outside roll and drops down next to me. I wasn't sure where the puck was so I tried to cover the post as much as possible and again the odd angle made this difficult, so I drop down to my butt just to try and get in the way of it to get a whistle. If I managed to get my leg inside the post this tip would've simply ended up hitting my pants and making for a much easier save. https://gfycat.com/AngryPoshAsianpiedstarling The beginning of this play should show off some more awkwardness, I couldn't really see where the puck was coming from or if it was going to be tipped and I wasn't confident in my angle either, so you see my legs and feet do a strange nervous dance to try and cover up the post for a tip. Once the puck goes behind the net I get situated better and cover the opposite post well in a reverse-VH. I take a bit too long to get up as I was nervous about a tip from in front on a quick shot, but once I see the puck moving into the slot towards the attacking defensive player I get up and try to get square, I didn't get to come out as far as I'd like but I was able to make the save. Lately I've been having a real hard time corralling rebounds when they are placed directly 5-hole and that is evidently here. I make the initial save but the puck bounces out far enough that I cannot pounce on it, but I manage to puck it slightly further away for my defense to clear it out. He did a good job of tying that players stick up for the rebound. https://gfycat.com/GivingBackFlatfish I challenged enough on this angle to take away most shots and I knew there was a player coming from the opposite side for a rebound or a backdoor pass so I didn't want to be too outside the crease. The only real shot the player had to score was a perfect shot into the corners. He should've gone blocker or low pad in hopes that the charging forward would've been able to pick up the rebound. But luckily for me he tries to pick the low glove corner and I get my pad on it. https://gfycat.com/DirtyFreshBongo Even with the decent rebound control in the previous save the opposing team manages to keep control of the puck. A shot from the point that I should've easily been able to catch shows off another one of my struggles of late... catching the puck. I didn't follow it well enough into my glove and it manages to hit everything my the pocket and bounces out for a dangerous rebound. Luckily the bouncing puck makes its way out of danger in front of the net. https://gfycat.com/PertinentUnsungGrizzlybear Here is more evidence of me feeling rusty and off. I go down too early here before the puck is shot since I was worried about a quick release catching me in transition and moving to my right, I wanted to ensure if a shot came I'd make the save here and not let in a weak goal. While going down allowed me to make the save the shot was placed in a good position back from where I was coming from, making me throw my left leg out in desperation trying to get a piece of the puck... which causes a huge and very dangerous rebound out into the slot that would've left a wide open net for an opposing player. But lucky for me only my team was there. The moment it hit my pad I had an "Oh crap..." moment (but with more expletives) and instantly knew I made a mistake. https://gfycat.com/SourWhiteArawana I played with and against this player player a lot before, his name is Steve, and he has scored bar down on me multiple times... I just tried to get my body up as high as possible when I saw the shot release and I did a pretty good job of that. Thank you to my Brown chest for ensuring I didn't feel a thing. https://gfycat.com/DeepLegalErin I knew there was a challenging player (it was Steve) coming in from my right side so I tried to push this shot wider by getting my stick on it and push it away from him... I completely miss it and knew I had to get square for an attempted shot, Steve likes to shot from anywhere and often scores doing so. I got into a blocking butterfly and made the save with the inside of my blocker. Because of my positioning I didn't feel having my stick covering my 5-hole was necessary as I knew my pad's thigh rise would cover up any angle he had down there, and my stick would be able to block a pass coming out front. https://gfycat.com/BouncyThunderousFlickertailsquirrel Right after the previous save the puck was shot around to their defense and they take a shot with relatively no traffic in front. This play shows off again my difficulties corralling shots to my 5-hole that I make a stick save with. This one pops up and away from the immediate danger and my defense is able to break out. https://gfycat.com/NastyImpishChamois I am not sure if I was really off my angle here or if this was a really well placed shot, but I had to stretch my right leg out to make a save which led to another juicy rebound in the slot...that I was lucky no opponents were in range to pick it up. https://gfycat.com/ImperturbableDimpledCatbird I was really upset with this goal, as I am pretty sure I played it almost perfectly. I knew the player couldn't cut to the middle with how outstretched he was trying to just get the shot off and with the back pressure from my defense. I also covered up down low and got square to the shot while not really giving much room. The only thing I didn't do was have my body weight leaning forward and my stick to the left of my 5-hole. My stick was directly between my pads when the puck went in, but this puck was shoved under my left pads thigh rise. I believe the problem here was because I had too much weight towards my heels, you can see my compress downwards but my upper body isn't straight up over my knees and this caused the thigh rise on my pads to leave a bit of space between them and the ice. With how tiny thigh rises are now in pads I have felt for a while they are getting so thin that it is harder to keep them flush to the ice, and this isn't the first time I had a puck squeak under these ones. https://gfycat.com/GiftedGoldenAztecant Passes from behind the net coming from the side they started are becoming more and more common thanks to some highlight reel plays by Washington Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov. I've been burned by it a few times last year so I was looking out for it this time as well. I am not sure why I dropped right away when it was passed to the right dot, I believe it was just instinct since I didn't know where the opponents were located on that side. Being already down I slide to the post to cover short side and push out to try to be more aggressive when Steve fakes me out with a shot. Luckily he doesn't have full control and isn't able to raise it over my right pad in my desperation save attempt. He makes a cheeky pass over my leg out to the front of the net and my stick gets caught up in my defense's legs and then stick and I get twisted looking the completely opposite direction of the puck. Luckily they can't get a shot off into the empty net thanks to the defense battling. https://gfycat.com/HardRevolvingDore After the previous mad scramble a pass to the point leaves the defense to take a relatively straight forward shot at me without traffic. I challenged well at the top of my crease and was ready for the shot. I attempt to trap the puck in my body and glove (lack of glove confidence made me not try and simply catch it) but the puck hit my dangler and created the awkward rebound. I way a possible shot coming from the right so I tried to cover as much of the net as possible and that meant stretching with my toe up which again leaves me sitting on my pants completely out of position. Luckily the defense does a good job of not allow a shot through and clears the zone. https://gfycat.com/CommonImpartialElephant Great play by the opposing defense to keep this puck in play. A double deflection off of my players leg and then off the toe of the player in front really didn't leave me with many options. I never actually saw the shot be released because of my player and really wished he just stayed down low and attempted to deal with a possible rebound. I also believe this was a good goal, the player moved his skate after it hit him. Since I couldn't see the shot release I tried to get as wide as possible, once I saw the deflection I tried to get my left leg on the shot but was too slow and not stretched far enough. https://gfycat.com/LavishWeirdAss This was the best save I made all night. I was a bit late sliding over and if the player released the puck right away they probably would've scored. They still got a pretty good shot off and got it high and close to the corner, but by that time I slid over and was square to the puck and was able to get a shoulder on it. I prefer to drop down and slide across than to t-push over as that way I can still make a pad save if I am not all the way over and I find making a save in transition with the t-push is more difficult. But I was clearly slow here and if I had better skating abilities standing up and moving over would've been the correct play. https://gfycat.com/HarshZigzagJavalina Here is Steve again, I actually figured he'd drive towards the net more, but they were up 2-0 so it could be more of preserving the lead now. I do a good job challenging and am outside of my crease to cut the angle down, usually he shoots for high corners and he caught me off guard a bit and went 5-hole. I felt rusty here and though this went through my legs but was simply caught up in my pants. https://gfycat.com/JadedPointedAmericanratsnake Here is why I try not to play the puck... I wanted the player to stay on his forehand and thus come to my left so I could simply pass the puck off to him. I went to my backhand because of this so I could simply slide it to him, but him going to the right completely threw me off and I panicked and tried a hard backhand shovel to my next teammate. As you can see I failed at it miserably and left myself in a bad position and a giveaway. Luckily I was able to get square and find my post before they could get a shot off. Also, I looked back at my post because I really had no idea where I was, and if the player shot then it would've most likely gone in. https://gfycat.com/LonelyAgreeableCaterpillar I stayed down way too long for this play and left it in just to show a "what not to do."

Personal Details Male 6'3” 210 lbs Forward/Defence B-D level hockey Usage time: 10 Skates Price: $150 Glove History: Mission Fuel, MF2 4 Rolls, Warrior Retro Remix Prototypes, Reebok Sty2, Sherwood N10, Verbero Dextra Pro, Warrior DT1, CCM CL55, Reebok 11K, CCM QLT, Warrior Covert QRL Pro How I wear gloves: To get a better understanding of fit, I wear my gloves with my hand pushed all the way in. I feel this gives me the most secure feeling and encases my whole hand in the glove. This is also why I can feel the seams of the finger stalls more than most on the webbing of my finger. My statements of fit reflect this so keep that in mind if you wear your gloves a different way. Overview: Very special thanks once again to Warrior for selecting me to be a #WarriorVIP during the #CovertQRL #LightningQuick VIP run. I got selected to get a pair of gloves after some of the initial posts I made about the Warrior Covert QRL stick. I ended up choosing the QRL Pro instead of the QRL gloves for a couple of reasons, mainly I am not a huge fan of the wrap around SmartPalm+ palms and I liked how the QRL Pro gloves have plastic inserts on the outside of the hand for extra protection whereas the QRL is thicker foam but without any plastic. I was also a fan of the all red colourway and must admit I like the more plain nylon vs the Covert Mesh that is on the QRL. Initial Thoughts: Since I thought the Warrior DT1 gloves were fairly mediocre and I haven’t been a fan of the Warrior QR1 or QR Pro gloves, so these Warrior Covert QRL Pro gloves had to be pretty good to impress me. Warrior added the AxyFlex cuff that seems to harken back to the Reebok 11K floating cuff, but Warrior has taken it to a different level with the cuff flexing 360 degrees compared to the relatively limited flex in the 11K. One of my issues with the older Covert line of Warrior gloves I have worn was the lacking of premium feel to the gloves when you first put them on, I had no issues with comfort while playing but I never thought they were $170+ gloves compared to the competitors. For the Warrior Covert QRL Pro gloves this was never the case, and the first time I put them on my hands they truly felt like a top of the line and premium glove. The palm was much softer than the old QR Pro and DT1 gloves and the inner liners feel nicer to the touch (although I still think the Wartech Polygene blue liner isn’t the softest liner on the market, it isn’t bad at all). Fit: My DT1 were 14 inch gloves and I always thought the finger stalls were slightly too short and the joints of the stalls would come in contact with the webbing of my fingers, this made the gloves slightly uncomfortable but made me realize that I needed a 15 inch glove with Warrior. Putting these on I was instantly greeted with a very tight and anatomical fitting glove especially at the wrist area. The fingers and backhand is tight, but just not feeling as tight as the wrist area. With some 15 inch gloves I have found that they are so open they have can be prone to falling off under certain circumstances and I haven’t come close to having that issue with these gloves. I think stretch gussets would help with adjust to finger length and width and would prefer them on these gloves. 9.5/10 Comfort: Like stated in the initial impressions Warrior really increased the comfort and feel levels on these gloves compared to what I have worn in the past. The palm is much softer and feels of higher quality without the need for extra layer of material. The Wartech Polygene blue liner is nice but not the most comfortable liner on the market, but I do really like the branding aspect of it. Warrior did an excellent job of covering seams with a soft almost spandex feeling material on the insides where your wrist touches the spaces between the AxyFlex cuff and the rest of the glove. The AxyFlex cuff area is actually my favourite part of the glove in terms of comfort, the Wartech liner here is covering a thick and very soft padded area that feels great on the wrist and adds to comfort and protection with the flexible cuff design. Since these gloves do not have mesh gussets like the Covert QRL gloves do they run a bit hotter without the airflow coming through the fingers. After a game my hands are pretty warm and hotter than when I used other gloves recently, and when shooting outside in the summer I noticed my hands heating up and getting sweaty faster than other gloves I have worn. It isn’t the most comfortable thing but isn’t really a dealbreaker either. I wish the finger gussets were made of spandex like the CCM QLT gloves for added breathability and a softer feel on the fingers while as well allow the finger stalls to stretch with your hands. While these are the most comfortable gloves I’ve worn they are a huge improvement over previous Warrior gloves, and are a nice glove to wear. 8.5/10 Weight: Just like most gloves today I don’t feel you ever really notice the weight. These feel slightly heavier than the CCM QLT but only when you really think about it, they never bog down your hands when playing with them or hinder movement at all. 296 grams 9.5/10 Mobility: These gloves are yet to be completely broken in and they still feel great on the hands in terms of mobility. Fingers and backhand move well with your hand and the new AxyFlex cuff is fantastic for keeping your wrist protected while still allowing full movement of your hands. Warrior also did an interesting design with a rubber plate on the backhand of the glove that allows the cuff (where Warrior is embroidered) to more easily slide down the face of the glove to allow greater wrist mobility. 3-piece segmented index finger and 2-piece for the remaining feel natural with finger movements. The Axis Flex Thumb is pretty stiff and honestly not that flexible compared to the CCM QLT and Bauer’s 3 piece options. It is a nice improvement over the static thumb piece in the Warrior DT1 gloves I had before. A great design of this glove is how well the glove moves across your hand really giving the feel of a padded extension of your body. Moving my pinkie and thumb together is easy and not hindered by the protection and makeup of the glove. 9/10 Break-in: These gloves are still not fully broken in and still feel pretty similar to how they did brand new, which is perfectly fine since they were very mobile out of the box. If the thumb breaks in more and becomes more mobile this score will increase. 9/10 Protection: The AxyFlex cuff is an awesome feature I am happy to see return to the glove market. The wrist protection it gives is fantastic and currently unmatched from other retail glove options. The outside hand protection the Warrior Covert QRL Pro gloves is much improved over the DT1 gloves and my preferred style compared to the more expensive QRL model (since I haven’t tested the QRL model I can’t comment on the protection qualities of it). While this piece is improved over my Warrior Covert DT1 gloves I feel it still could be improved on and my recently reviewed CCM QLT gloves do a better job in this area with a thicker and wider foam piece with a top plastic layer. The plastic outside pinkie finger protection on the Warrior Covert QRL Pro gloves is lacking and basically non-existent like it was on the DT1 gloves. Warrior does such a fantastic job on the index fingers I wish they could translate that to the outside of the pinkie in some way. The finger protection is really well done and my fingers never really felt the impact through my testing, but the odd thing to note is how the finger protection would actually rotate around my fingers after being hit with the impact. The rotation of the finger protection is something I’ve been noticing lately on more gloves, the issue goes away once you close your hand and I can’t really see it being an issue while playing since the protection does its job protecting you from impact and your hands will rarely be fully stretched out like I do in my tests (making a fist keeps all of the finger protection in place after being struck). The inside index finger protection is still some of the best (if not the best) on the market today, the thicker protection blocks do a great job of protecting the finger while also ensuring mobility and dexterity is not hindered in anyway. The thicker style blocks ensure your index finger is not exposed and does an excelled job at minimizing gaps in protection. The backhand of this glove is fantastic and is mostly one of the best I have ever tested besides the very outside of your hand. In my testing the only place I could feel anything was on one of the segmented pieces (watch the video to see), this wasn’t pain but rather more noticeable than the rest of the backhand of the glove. The Axyflex thumb of the glove is a place I’d like to see some protection improvements, considering how great the backhand of the glove is I wish the thumb felt more protective. All along the whole thumb piece I could feel the impacts more than I was expecting and more than I’d prefer, by no means do I think these gloves leave you exposed but considering how great the backhand feels I believe this is an area for improvement on the Warrior Covert QRL Pro gloves. Unlike the DT1 gloves the cuff on these QRL Pro is fantastic and is much improved. I believe this has to do with the Axyflex floating cuff which ends up pushing the wrist away from the main cuff. The Axyflex cuff as well is a huge bonus in protection compared to other gloves on the market. While it isn’t the most protective piece and you can still feel impacts through it, having this extra piece of padding cover what would be completely exposed skin is a huge bonus. I personally wish it was longer (with perhaps a flared lip at the top to go over and around elbow pads) I am very satisfied and believe this feature should push this glove above most others on the market. 8/10 Durability: I have not used these enough to comment on this. So this category will be left scoreless for the time being. The one thing I can say is that when brand new the palms were bleeding black onto my orange Tacki-Mac. I haven’t noticed it getting worse after the first 2 skates. Palm: I was not a fan of the palm in the Warrior Covert DT1 and QR1 gloves I tried before and I am happy to say the all black palms on the Warrior Covert QRL Pro and QRL gloves are a big upgrade. The black palm feels much softer than what was previously used and so far doesn’t show (or can you feel) a single spot of wear. I understand it is early in the review, but even after a few games with the older style you could see and feel some pilling on the palm and fingers. This palm isn’t as soft as the CCM QLT gloves but it is still nice to touch and does a decent job gripping the stick. The QRL Pro gloves don’t have the added grip patches the QRL gloves do, so I don’t have any interference with the grip on my sticks and the glove palm themselves. The black residue on my Tacki-Mac is a bit of a worrisome area in regards to longevity of the palm and I will report back how they hold up in the future. 8.5/10 Intangibles: Just like on the DT1 gloves the raised index finger protection (even though I think it looks unattractive it certainly does its job) is a nice design feature adding to the protection of the glove, and combined with the fantastic AxyFlex cuff these Covert QRL Pro gloves are a great option. I am curious to see what the new custom gloves options are (if there are any) as actually being able to order a single pair of custom coloured gloves would give a huge benefit to this line. While the design of this glove follows the previous design patterns of the Covert series I think these are the best ones yet. I am still not a fan of the Covert mesh and am happy the QRL Pro use more standard and simple nylon. I do wish the red colourway I chose didn’t have the black outline on the Warrior lettering on the cuff...but that is nitpicking. The fact that Warrior offers their top of the line gloves with the SmartPalm+ and more complex nylons while also offering a more traditional line without really sacrificing protection or performance is a huge bonus to me. 9/10 Conclusion: I really think Warrior did an excellent job in the Covert QRL Pro gloves. They made huge improvements over previous iterations while also picking up and improving on a feature that has left the market for a few years. While i think there are some improvements here to be made (perhaps a softer palm and inclusion of spandex gussets) the Warrior Covert QRL Pro glove line is one that I will recommend people looking for a comfortable and protective glove while not sacrificing on mobility. While I stated the CCM QLT gloves feel like an extension of your hand these feel like a padded extension where they feel slightly bulkier and thicker but don’t hinder mobility, they are just a bit more noticeable on your hands. I really cannot give enough praise for the AxyFlex cuff, and between the latest gloves I have reviewed which one becomes my primary is a toss up. I like the feel of the CCM QLT a bit more but the protection with the AxyFlex cuff on the Warrior is fantastic, perhaps a 1A and 1B situation will happen. With the Covert QRL Pro gloves Warrior created an upscale feeling glove with re-innovated features and solid protection without sacrificing mobility, this is a glove that should be on everyone’s radar when looking for a new pair. 9/10 Glove is light weight. Axyflex 2-piece thumb. Plastic inserts on outside of palm. I'd prefer if these were stretch spandex gussets, these do not allow for a lot of airflow. Palm is greatly improved over Covert DT1 gloves, soft to the touch and doesn't wear as fast. Shows the good use of spandex like material to overlap any seams. Stretch mesh to give the Axyflex cuff great mobility. Showing the mesh under the main cuff. Cuff flexes with your arm movement. Fingers offer great protection. Showing how the cuff slides over the Axyflex plate. Another look at the improved palm. Axyflex thumb doesn't flex much when bent with just your thumb. Full range of thumb's flex. Cuff comparisons to other gloves:

Full Disclosure I ordered a Blade Wrap and Sniper Skin sent me the Sniper Wrap and the Grip for free to test. This review is based on the Blade Wrap I paid for and the free Sniper Wrap they sent me. Unfortunately when I put on my first Sniper Skin Blade Wrap on I figured I’d leave more room towards the toe to get the maximum amount of toe coverage as possible. This lead to the end of the Sniper Skin Blade Wrap to stick up on the blade from the excess material. This was fine when I was shooting in the backyard but once it came time to use it on the ice it became a big issue getting in the way of the puck when digging in corners or trying to stick handle. I decided to try and cut the excess material off but I couldn’t get a straight cut all the way around the blade and it ended up cracking the Sniper Skin Blade Wrap. after making the cut the Blade Wrap lasted 1 skate (which ended up being basically a shooting practise for 2 hours). The Blade Wrap started to crack more and pieces were chipping off, I had to remove the Blade Wrap from my stick when I got home. Shooting: Besides the issues with stick handling (which were totally my fault and not the fault of the Sniper Skin Balde Wrap at all) I was having some weird issues with my stick when I got on the ice. It felt like the stick I was using lost all of its kick and pop on shots, something I experienced with an older version of this stick a few years back… but this was far too early for it to happen with a relatively new stick. I played twice with the Sniper Skin Blade Tape on ice and both times it felt like my top of the stick became as good as an $100 alternative. I brought the stick back to the shooting pad in the backyard and noticed the stick felt new again, this made me extremely confused as to what was going on and I was thinking it was perhaps because of the height difference on skates and off skates. Since I didn’t want to take off the Blade Tape I decided to try something first to see if the Blade Tape could possibly be the issue. I taped the bottom of the Blade Tape with normal tape to increase friction on the bottom of the blade with the ice. I immediately felt a difference in my shots and the pop and kick of the top of the line stick came back to me. I took the tape off and shot some more and felt my shots decline in quality again, but I have a hard time believing that the Blade Tape would have that much of an effect on my shots. Since the Blade Tape was cracked and falling apart because of my terrible trim job I decided to tape my stick normally for my next skate to see if my shot would come back. During that skate I recalled 1 shot that I felt I whiffed on and that is because I got stick checked while shooting, every other shot felt crisp and clean. It felt like I could properly load the stick and use the stick’s flex to launch the puck quickly off the blade, this was especially noticeable when taking slapshots. With this stick the majority of my slapshots come off ridiculously hard with very little effort to the point that I have to work to keep the puck below the net, but with the Blade Tape I had a really hard time getting the puck higher than halfway up the net. I believe that the Blade Tape is too slippery on ice and when I put force and a load on the stick the blade simply slips on the ice instead of actually flexing the shaft like it should. Now I still have a hard time believing that the Sniper Skin Blade Tape this would make that much of a difference, so after that game I put the Sniper Skin Sniper Wrap on my stick and have been using it since. I am now 5 skates in on the new wrap and am feeling similar issues with my shots not kicking like they normally do, but I noticed the rate of disappointing shots was less than that on the original skin. Perhaps this has to do with how much smaller the Sniper Skin Sniper wrap is compared to the other one. Either way I was not satisfied with my results and needed another test to really confirm. At ModSquad Hockey’s Summer Jam Warrior was on location with demo stick of the QRL, this was the perfect time for me to see if the Sniper Skin Blade wrap was having a negative effect on my shooting by doing a side by side comparison of a Warrior Covert QRL stick with the same flex as mine but taped. I found all of the shots with the taped version to behave exactly as I was expecting, and this included slap shots and shots while skating down the wing. Not every shot was perfect but I didn’t have any huge flubs and pucks sliding off of the blade in a pathetic fashion. Once I grabbed my QRL with the Sniper Skin Blade Wrap and my slapshots immediately felt off, about 1 in 5 came off my blade the way I expected them too and the rest felt sluggish or like I was not using a top end stick. Once I started skating down the wing in game situations is when I really noticed the difference. Far too many shots I would take would flub off my stick and miss the net by 10 feet to the right, and when I was hitting the net constantly with the taped version but having a very difficult time getting a decent shot of with the Sniper Skin version I knew this performance issue wasn’t all in my head. I have a feeling the Sniper Skin Sniper Blade Wrap is too slippery to work properly with the ice causing my stick to slide out under load from a shot, and thus greatly reducing my stick’s shooting performance. 0/10 Durability: Unfortunately I cannot really comment on how long these last since I botched the first installation, the second skin got stepped on after the first skate but held up fine afterward. But after 5 more skates and my testing I decided I am cutting it off so I get my shot back with the Warrior Covert QRL so I cannot comment on how long the stick will last. N/A Stick Handling & Passing: It is slightly thicker than tape and you can tell there is a bit more to your stick than if you use a single layer of tape. It doesn’t really dampen the stick feel but you do notice that you are not using tape. I did feel that pucks would roll off my stick a bit more than I was used to when stick handling, but at the same time the slippery wrap allows your stick to slide a bit quicker on the ice. 7/10 Summary: I like the green idea behind this product in terms of recycling a product instead of creating more waste and I like the idea of having the same tape job every time you put it on. Replacing it quickly on the fly is basically impossible at a rink since no one will bring a kettle with them to shrink the wrap, so if it gets destroyed during a skate you are taping your stick until you can apply a new one. The cost is also pretty high in my eyes for a tape replacement product. I believe $10 would be easier to swallow compared to the $15 these cost ($20 if you have to have it shipped). Sniper Skin mentioned they are working on a wrapped toe version for people that tape the toe of their stick (like me), but even then I cannot justify the purchase of this product. In my experiences it actively made my shooting less consistent and worse compared to when I use regular hockey tape and was making me frustrated with my game. I cannot justify or recommend purchasing a Sniper Skin Blade Wrap and would suggest staying away from it. Hopefully I’ll have better experiences with the Sniper Skin Grip. 3/10 The orignal skin after I cut the extra material from my botched installation job. View of the skin with about 8 ice times. The rip is because of my own mistake and not a problem with the skin itself. Small knick in the bottom of the wrap. Back of the original wrap, one of the holes expanded into a bigger cut here. Freshly applied second skin, this one the Sniper variant. Back of the freshly applied skin. Skate cut happened during first skate, this is about after 8 ice times as well. Back of the Sniper Wrap. Damage from the skate, still held up for about 7 ice times after that. The heel of the wrap.