Hills

I've been reading this thread for a while, but I feel like I have a hard time contributing here since I've played most of my life. With that said I ended up doing a pretty in depth analysis of my most recent game I had where I point out mistakes or why I made the decisions I made with a gfy to directly show the example. I am not sure if this will be totally helpful but perhaps it could help with decision making in games. Thankfully I got called out again to sub in and we happened to be playing the team I played against last time. The previous game ended 3-2 and was fairly close. This one was as well but we just couldn’t score and hit the post a couple of times. I think I’ll be doing some more Analysis on some of my games, pointing out what I did wrong and what I should’ve done instead. Perhaps it will be a good learning tool for myself and perhaps others. First Period: 0:00 I am actually not super happy with how this play turned out, and this is one of the more difficult plays for me. When a player is skating across the ice I find it difficult not to open up holes while trying to follow them, and it is more difficult when going from my blocker side to glove side since my blocker has to cover up high and ensure my stick is covering 5 hole. When moving glove side to blocker you have 2 hands available to assist in making the save. A few years (or even months) ago I would’ve gone into the VH here, but I have been trying to become a more active and square goaltender and noticed the player never really readied up for a shot as the defense did a good job pushing him pretty wide. My issue is ensuring I get 5-hole coverage and not allowing the player to shoot back towards the direction they came in, I fear that during this play I left a bit too much 5-hole open but luckily for me his backhand was relatively weak and I got my stick on it. 0:13-0:31 I included this just to show my RVH (reverse-VH or SMS) for the play in the corner (Not in Gfy). I should’ve gotten up sooner but this team has a tendency to shoot from anywhere and I am more comfortable being in that position rather than having to drop on a shot I don’t completely see through legs. The shot was also pretty poor rebound control and it should’ve gone into the corner, something I have been having a bit of difficulty with. 0:36 This was a pretty ugly save, I realized late I was probably giving up too much short side and knew I really had to get my body up against the post. I wasn’t square but I didn’t end up leaving too many gaps and I did end up making the save. This play shows one of the issues I have with my Warrior Ritual G2 pads in how they tend to fall flat on their face, it isn’t completely the pads fault as I made an ugly play here but I have found that the G2s are less forgiving than other pads, so once you hit a certain angle while driving down they will always fall flat on their face because of the boxy design, where as the Kohos I wore were more forgiving and would sometimes fall on their face and others would rotate “properly”. 0:47 Ben Scrivens had a good article in The Players’ Tribune and mentioned how a lot of the times a quality save isn’t really recognized by teammates or non-goalies. I feel that this save was one of those times. This was a good shot that was just going above my pad and under my arm, I was able to squeeze my glove on top of my pad and have the puck land between my thigh rises. While a rebound wouldn’t have been particularly dangerous in this scenario as the defense and forwards were all back and doing their job, it was good rebound control anyways. 0:54 I didn’t have to do anything spectacular here and the pads helped me out with a decent breakout pass to a teammate and I thought it looked pretty cool. 1:15 This was actually tipped by my teammate while I was sliding for the pass to the top left of the crease, I had pretty good coverage down low and got it with my pad and stick. 1:21 This was really bad rebound control, thankfully the defense got control of it. I have a bit of a hard time with shots right between my legs and how to control them. 1:28 Once the player pulled the puck to his forehand I knew he was going to shoot so I just tried to block it the best I could. Which ends up with me making a very technically broken VH save, I have had issues with opening up the 5-hole too much in the VH in these pads specifically so I just tried to close off all gaps down low. I know I am tall enough and my shoulders and arms were going to cover everything up high so I just ensure nothing would squeak through. Second Period 1:48 Here is a save, but it was a pretty bad one. I got too worried with the player in front of the net (actually played against him the day before as well, and he tipped a puck in on me) and never got square to the puck. I also ended up looking left of my player when trying to see the point and that also dragged me closer to the center of the net and not square to the shot. If the shooter picked closer to the post on the blocker he would’ve scored. I should’ve stopped this with my chest but instead had to make a pretty ugly stick save. 1:57 DO NOT MAKE THIS SAVE EVER. Shot was going really high, I never followed the puck into my glove, this was just a bad decision by me all together and I am lucky I actually caught it. 2:10 While I was actually pretty square to the shooter this time I didn’t move into the shot here, and had to reach for the puck with the possibility of a deflection in close. If that player touched the puck it was a 99% chance it was going in. I got lucky that didn’t happen here. But I did actually follow the puck into my glove… so that is good. 2:38 Here is another good example of my bad glove hand, my girl friend says I basically wear 2 blockers and she is right. 2:48 Someone asked me on Reddit why I go paddle down as much as I do, and here is an example where I feel I can use it to explain myself. I knew I was in pretty good position for the pass out in front of the net, but wanted to ensure I’d cover the entire bottom of the net. I am not the most flexible goalie in the world and I don’t have a very wide butterfly. I know with my catcher on my pad and in the paddle down I can cover up almost everything down low and ever slightly above my pad, and where the shooter is he doesn’t really have a chance to put it high blocker and if he tried I’m staying tall enough to stop that attempt or to push to the blocker side and seal the post more. I think this play the paddle down was acceptable, but I do know I rely on it too much 2:55 I did a pretty good job of challenging the shooter, the player without the puck scored on a 2-on-0 the day before as well but I was close to getting it. I figured he’d have to make a perfect shot top glove to score. Watching this play in slow motion shows he did have room glove side, but I managed to seal my arms pretty well and he wasn’t able to get it short side. I got a bit lucky here but I had good positioning (including my stick which was right between my legs the whole time). 3:12 I have been making more of these saves since I’ve gotten my Brown Chest Protector (check out my review coming this week!). Since I no longer fear pain from shots up high I believe I can get my arms and shoulders on high shots while using my glove to ensure I don’t get beat 13 inches off the ice. I should probably have a more active glove, but this is working for me at the moment. 3:18 The shot here on the toe drag caught me off guard, I was able to make the save standing up but my blocker of a glove hand gives up an ugly rebound. I am disappointed in myself here as I tried to do too much on the resulting rebound. I was able to slide across and be square, but I felt the need to be more reactive and started to stand up to try and be ready for the cross crease pass and to stop myself from over sliding on the play (notice my right leg get up first). I have a bit of an issue with this where if I try and stop myself I almost always immediately stand up instead of just staying in the butterfly. Down 1-0 Period 3 3:36 Me getting up while trying to stop a butterfly slide is shown here again, I should’ve stayed down and the resulting play made me awkwardly drive to the post and scramble. 3:40 I do a decent job of moving into the shot to ensure I get hit right in the chest and that there is no rebound. I did this as I knew there was no one right in front of the net, but it was dangerous since if I let up a rebound I would’ve been VERY out of position. 3:58 Here is a great example of being square in tight and not having to rely on the VH or RVH. Proper butterfly while ensuring I keep my upper body up means I can cover the entire net. My defense did a great job in removing any options for the shooter, so all he could really do was shoot or skate around the net. https://gfycat.com/ZealousCloseBorderterrier 4:10 Decent angle and coverage, not much to say about this one. Anyways, if you like this post let me know, and if you had feedback please leave it as I would really like to know what I should change in the future.

Sniper Skin was kind enough to send a Grip along with the Dangle style blade wrap for me to use and give feedback on. Since I just put my beloved Tacki-Mac onto my Warrior QRL The Grip is going to have to wait a little bit until I can actually test it out. Blade Wrap: The wrap feels like plastic and was stiffer than I was expecting. It feels thick enough to make me believe this isn't something that is going to rip apart anytime soon, but at the same time feels like it will not dampen puck feel. Putting the wrap on was fairly easy, except I didn't cut off enough at the end of the wrap so the wrap ended up sticking up because of the excess material (see photos). This mistake was completely on me and I suggest you read the instructions more carefully than I did! So far I haven't found this lip to be affecting my shooting, I can always cut it off but just left it the way it is currently. So far when shooting the wrap felt very similar to a normally taped blade, and if it lasts me 3 months it might be worth the hassle of not having to re-tape my blade every 2 skates since my tape is usually pretty eaten up then. Grip Kit: I am a huge fan of Tacki-Mac and this Grip Kit seems like a more customizable option. It comes with 4 rubber rings, a foam wrap, and a thicker rubber ring for the top of the shaft to create a knob. The rubber rings and foam wrap are a good way to really customize how you wrap the top of your stick and to ensure they fit your hands perfectly. I used tennis grips (while playing tennis) with a raised wrap before and always found my hand and fingers never really fit into the grooves right and I always preferred a flat grip option, I feel Sniper Skin allow for a good deal of customizing the fit here. The grip it self is softer than the Blade Wrap and isn't exactly tacky but it feels like almost a velvet grip feeling found on certain Warrior sticks. I also like how you can get custom text on the grip. Below is showing the excess wrap, I should've cut it down more. It has not affected performance.

Sorry to hear that it happened, but I am happy it wasn't worse. Keep trucking through it!

I will update this thread as time goes along. Once again thank you to ThinkingJack and Warrior for making me a #WarriorVIP and hooking me up with this stick. I am extremely grateful and appreciate it. I've had a few people ask me about this stick so far and I feel it would be better for me to just make a quick write up about it rather than have to say the same thing over and over again. I have used the stick about 5 times so far on the ice (my league is unfortunately taking a 2 week break or else that number would be higher) and have used it on my outdoor shooting pad. Since I haven't used it enough to talk about the durability of the stick this will not be a full blown review but rather more of an initial impressions and initial performance review and because of that I will not add scores to anything but Warrior Covert QRL 100 Flex W03 Backstrom Stick History: Sherwood 9950 Wood Coffey, Bauer Supreme (Sport Chek SMU) Kane, Sherwood T70 Stastny, Winwell GX8, Easton RS Parise, Warrior AK27 , Warrior DT1LT Pavelski, Warrior DT1ST Grandlund, Verbero PM44, Sherwood Rekker EK60 PP26, Warrior Covert QRL W03 Stick Info: Height: uncut Weight: 409 Grams Grip: Yes Shaft: Gloss Length: 60 inches Usage: 5 Skates Grip: I am not a huge fan of grip sticks and most of the time prefer the non-grip and matte versions to them. With this stick I didn't have a choice in grip vs non-grip and had to go with the grip stick. I was really hoping the grip was going to be similar to my Warrior AK27 and be the velvet style, but it is more of a tacky style of grip. It does have CorTex Grip which is raised edges along the sides of the shaft which I really like. The bottom of the stick has the matte finish closer to the blade and I know I would enjoy using that style of shaft more so than this gripped version... with that said the grip certainly doesn't take away from my enjoyment of the stick and I enjoy the grip used here more than the one on CCM and Bauer sticks that I have tried before. Aesthetics: Warrior has talent when it comes to design good looking sticks that are instantly noticeable and ones you can follow the lines of lineage (Bauer Supreme does a good job at this too). I have a soft spot for orange (one reason I really liked the Sherwood EK60 design) and baby blue and Warrior does an awesome job in using those colours as accents to the black base of this stick. I really like how the bottom of the shaft is orange near the blade and I like how they use the colours to form a background of the word marks (notice how QRL and Warrior are in black with the colours surrounding them instead of just using the colours on the black stick base). I also love exposed carbon fibre weave that is on the blade and up the hosel, I personally wish this traveled all the way up the entire stick since I love that look so much. I understand why they didn't as it would make the black word marks too busy with exposed carbon fibre and the intricate designs around them. This stick looks great from any angle and is immediately noticeable that it is a Warrior Covert. Blade/Curve: Just like the grip I did not have many choices when deciding on the curve options. I choose the W03 since it was the only one available in the shaft flex I wanted. I normally prefer heel curves like the W05 Grandlund as they fit my style of play and are great for passing (which I do before shooting). With that said because of my time with the Ek60 I have gotten more used to curves that are more aggressive and I am so far getting along with this stick pretty well. The first time on the ice I had some hard passes get too much air but I have since adjusted to it. The blade itself is really nice and is very stiff which is great for puck feel and play-ability. The stiffness of the blade has a pingy and lively feel and is really noticeable when receiving a hard pass and stick handling, you always know where the blade is and where the puck is on it and I believe the stiff nature of the blade provides excellent feedback. Stick Handling: With the lightweight and lively blade stick handling with this stick has been very good. Unlike some lightweight sticks in the past I never "lose" the blade of this stick and always know where it is. The stiff blade gives me confidence when handling the puck since it gives great feedback to how the puck is actually behaving on the stick itself. The excellent balance helps the stick feel like a natural extension to your hands and never feels unwieldy. Shooting: This is the shinning point of the Warrior Covert QRL. I cannot recall a time when I felt pucks fly off of my stick as hard and as consistent as they do with this stick. Using it reminds me of the first time I used my DT1LT, except these feel even harder. With minimal effort my shots come off my stick hard with a satisfying and strong kick. I truly feel this stick is making me a better hockey player as I no longer have to worry about the mechanics of my shot to ensure I really release a rocket. I spent time on my shooting board with this and my beloved EK60 and I could really notice the difference in average shots where it felt like the Warrior Covert QRL really did most of the work for me. Out of 10 shots I felt that 9 of them left me completely satisfied without the feeling that I could get more on them, but with my EK60 only a couple out of 10 I was completely satisfied on how the puck came off the blade and ended up. To me the Warrior feels like it never leaves anything on the table and doesn't require you to make a perfect shot, it just kicks hard and launches the puck in a very satisfying manner. Slapshots feel almost dangerous with this stick for how hard they were launching to the point where I wasn't comfortable in taking them on my shooting board to ensure an errant puck off a post wouldn't damage any fences or property. Passing: I am not sure if it was the kick of the stick or the curve which was giving me some issues the 1st time I was on the ice, but a lot of my stretch passes ended up far too high for my target. I have since adjusted my passing a bit and haven't really had any issues since. While the blade isn't my idea curve for saucer passes and passing in general I am not having a difficult time passing over players sticks or cross-ice. Backhand passes will need work because of the aggressive curve but that is something I will just practice and get used to. Durability: So far everything is holding up great and the stick still feels brand new. But with its limited usage I cannot fully comment on this category yet. Feel: I mentioned the excellent and stiff blade earlier already. The balance of the stick is fantastic and it does a good job of being lightweight but still being noticeable. I never feel like the stick doesn't have a blade and always feel in total control of the stick. The lack of weight also helps with making the stick extremely mobile in terms of movement, you never feel bogged down when moving your hands or attempting to move the stick (something I feel time to time when using much heavier goalie sticks). While this stick is slightly heavier than the Sherwood EK60 I really don't notice the difference between the 2 in terms of weight. Closing: If the durability in terms of blade stiffness and shooting kick hold up this will easily be my favourite stick I have ever used. I am unbelievably happy with is so far and am really grateful Warrior and ThinkingJack having given me the opportunity to use it because I really can't get enough of it so far. The Warrior Covert QRL as it stands is the best stick I have used in terms of performance and balance, shots kick off the blade harder than anything I've used and the stiff blade is wonderful for puck control and feel. I absolutely love the carbon wrap visible in the blade. Stick comes in at a respectable 409 grams. Not the lightest stick I have used but it feels wonderfully balanced and I never notice the extra grams compared to the lighter ones. I am a big fan of the graphic package as well.

I believe they have been offshore for a while now.

People evidently have asked him about his involvement and which he said he had nothing to do with the new CCM line at all. The shell itself is different than Protechsports (much more round compared to CCM) but the makeup might be copied.

From my understanding hearing from all over Protechsport had nothing to do with the new line of CCM masks.

You are buying used equipment, the $100 1S and 1X sticks will be used and probably won't actually be the painted stick as well as no warranty. $10 pro helmet, that is going to be beat up and it says to $100, the $10 is probably a 4500 missing all of the padding. I just bought 2 Easton E600 helmets for $80 total Canadian from Total Hockey. Calgary used to have good pro stock prices, but like most Canadian teams (and recently successful teams) they realized they could jack the price for anything.

What about those prices are reasonable? They are very high.

No issues here either and I block shots like an idiot and take a lot off the holder and blade.

When people don't become "that guy" it keeps happening over and over. It won't stop until something changes and thankfully after a goalie slashed a player in the face a few months ago someone around here is finally doing something about it.

Isles sell in store and usually have a tent sale in the summer.

Personal Details Male 6'3” 210 lbs Forward/Defence B-D level hockey Usage time: 6 months Price: $130 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 Initial Thoughts: I’ve heard a lot of hype for Warrior gloves, specifically the Franchise ones but figured these would be good to try. I also wanted to try another tight fitting glove since the palms in the Sherwood N10 gave me issues and I couldn’t get a good judgement on them. I honestly did not like the colourway but I did like the blue liner and think this is an area Warrior does really well. Just by seeing the liner of a pair of gloves you can tell what brand they are. I am not a fan of the material Warrior uses for the center part of these gloves (called Covert Mesh). I prefer the look of the standard Tufftek but the Covert Mesh has held up fine but I am not a fan of how it is almost see-thru. Fit: The right glove is labelled as a 14 inch glove, and the left is labelled as a 15 inch glove. But they are both 14 inches (I compared them to other retail Warrior 14 inch Coverts). With that said these are the first actual pair of 14 inch gloves that I can actually wear comfortably (I normally wear 15 inch). While I could feel my fingers at the seams of the finger stalls it was never an issue in comfort like it was on my CCM CL55. I feel these fit large for 14 inch gloves but they were comfortable during my use and didn’t simply slide off my hands. They fit snug like a tapered fit but are not the tightest fitting glove I have worn (CL55, QLT and Ultra Tacks are all tighter). The one place I have a bit of an issue with is the thumb. The finger stalls feel long enough but the thumb stall does not and whenever I move my thumb I can feel it right against the end of the stall. While this means I should be in a 15 inch glove I find the finger stalls and the thumb stall doesn’t exactly line up in terms of length (at least not for me). 8/10 Comfort: Everytime I try on a new pair of gloves the first thing I notice is the comfort of them. With gloves retailing at around $200 for the top end models I expect my hands to feel like they in a pocket of comfort. I feel like Warrior does a poor job in this initial comfort feeling. In my opinion these gloves do not feel close in comfort to the offerings of CCM and Bauer. It isn’t like the Warrior is made up of horrible materials that scratch and itch you, but the palm isn’t the softest and is one of my least favourite thing about these gloves. The fingers are comfortable but again are nothing compared to the high end gloves from CCM and Bauer. From the use that these have the palm material on the thumb is already rough to the touch yet there is no wear on the outside of it. These aren’t uncomfortable gloves but compared to Warrior Pro stock gloves I have tried and the top end competitor offerings I feel these don’t quite match up. 7/10 Weight: These gloves come in at a respectable 318 grams (right glove) and 325 (left). For comparison the CCM QLT are 290 grams. You certainly do not notice that these gloves are heavy and to be honest you don’t really notice they are light either. The weight doesn’t hinder anything at all and for the protection they offer they feel well balanced while weighing down your hands. 9/10 Mobility: To be completely honest these gloves aren’t fully broken in yet. I am sure they would loosen up some more with use. The mobility of these gloves isn’t really noticeable out of the box like the QLT and Verbero gloves were. They also don’t feel like they really hinder movement until you start flexing the glove in unnatural ways. There is no flex thumb on these but that has since been added on the new Warrior models. I also never really had issue with gloves without the flex thumb. 8/10 Break-in: While these were never my primary gloves they really never broke in since I have gotten them. That is good in the sense that they never felt stiff, but at the same time it is nice going to a glove that feels more mobile out of the box. But I really don’t have complaints about these. 8.5/10 Protection: Protection of these gloves are pretty good with most of the base glove being really good. After doing my slashing test with a ministick (see the video) I noticed a few areas of improvement. The fingers, backhand, inside index finger and thumb all do really well to protect your hands. The backhand and thumb is one of the best and most protective on a pair gloves that I have worn. The fingers do a good job but you can feel a little bit, by no means is this area bad in protection it just isn’t quite as good as the backhand and thumb. The inside index finger is really good and the design on Warrior gloves here is vastly different than other brands. Instead of having a small piece of foam and plastic protecting the inside of your finger Warrior raises the foam and plastic here to be higher up to be almost another line of finger protection. While I personally think this looks odd and unattractive it does a great job in protection on the side of your fingers. While I like the idea of a foam cuff for added mobility and flexibility I could definitely feel the impacts on the cuff here more than I’d prefer. I believe the plastic (or really hard foam) under the bigger outside cuff could use another layer of soft foam to help dampen the impacts. Considering how well the rest of the glove is I am disappointed at this cuff area. I mention down below about the wrap around palm in the Smart Palm+ and I feel it greatly reduces the protection on the outside of the gloves. The thin foam on the outside of your hand does little to dampen the impact from the jabs I did in my test. Even the foam only 11K gloves do a much better job of protecting the outside of your hand here since the foam is considerably thicker than what is on these DT1s. The other issue with the wrap around palm is that it seems to open up your hand to jabs where everything that hits there is sure to hit your hand. With other gloves with the nylon binding the material leaves an area of separation, even when my jabs missed the padding on the other gloves it didn’t always end up hitting my hand. But with these DT1s when I missed the padding it was guaranteed to hit my hand right next to it. The outside finger protection on the pinkie is also very lacking because of this design. The foam for protection is extremely small and thin. I understand the need to put the breaks for mobility but the CCM QLT’s have plastics and thick foams here without hindering mobility at all. 6.5/10 Durability: The outer shell and nylon has held up really well in these gloves and besides discolouring you can’t tell they have really been used… until you look at the palms. I use Tacki-Mac grips so my palm wear is generally very low. But even on my lower hand the palm has started becoming rough in the outside of the fingers and the inside of the thumb. On the top hand the wear is even more evident and the finger stalls are now rough to the touch and the Smart Palm+ is pilling. This isn’t the first time Warrior gloves I’ve used has very early signs of wear in the palms. I feel this wear is happening far too prematurely and am pretty disappointed in them. While the palms are layered (so 2 layers need to wear completely through) I still am not happy with how fast these started pilling. 6/10 Palm: Like I said earlier I feel the palms on these gloves are the weak link in these gloves. The premature wear is unfortunate especially when the general rule of thumb is that comfortable palms wear out faster. Since these palms were not very comfortable to begin with I was hoping they would last forever. The Smart Palm+ is an innovative idea that removes the binding nylon from the side of the glove to create a wrap around palm. I’ve only had an issue with that nylon binding on 1 pair of gloves before, and since the outside hand padding seems to be compromised with this design I feel the trade off isn’t worth it. The wrap around palm makes the side padding pretty unsubstantial, but I do really like the triangle padding spot on the palm at the wrist. That triangle padding doesn’t get in the way but I like the added protection. 6/10 Intangibles: I like some idea that Warrior has done on these, the wrap around palm is a nice idea as well as the raised index finger protection (even though I think it looks unattractive it certainly does its job). Warrior’s customizer is nothing like it used to be but at least it is still an option where other companies you are stuck with whatever colours stores decide to order. While the liner isn’t the most comfortable liner I love the look but I can’t really comment on the odor fighting properties. Like I said before I am also not a fan of the Covert Mesh and I think the design of the glove leaves a bit to be desired in general. But I do like how the inside of the index finger and thumb colours can be different than the middle fingers, this design can look really nice when done properly (see Coyote retro gloves). The cuff lacking plastics is pretty interesting, since it seems that Warrior put the plastic protection under the main big cuff. It is what I feel is a good solution to a hard plastic cuff that can lead to some hindering of mobility. The stretch mesh finger gussets are a nice touch and can add to good airflow and is a much better option than nash or other non-stretch materials. 8/10 Conclusion: I think these are pretty good gloves, but I feel a bit disappointed in them comparing them to other high end offerings. I understand these are an older model and comparing them to top of the line gloves today is unfair, but my claims for never being blown away with Warrior retail gloves still stand today with the QR1 and AX1 gloves. I never understood the Warrior hype for gloves until I tried on multiple pair of pro stock gloves which felt worlds better than their retail offerings. The protection is pretty good but I feel the Smart Palm+ is more of a gimmick than actually being a useful addition and the palm durability and comfort makes these gloves a very hard sell for me at full retail price. For full retail price I would never select these over the competitors, but for around $70 I feel they would be an amazing option retail. 6.5/10 Bone system does a great job of protection on the fingers and backhand. Palm wear is surprising and more than I'd expect with the amount of usage. Showing the Smart Palm+. Wear on top hand very noticeable even though I use Tacki-mac which helps prolong glove palm life. More fingertip wear. Great index finger protection with a unique design. I like this portion of the graphic. Showing the lateral glove flex. Smart Palm+ lacks protection on the outside of your hand.

Me too, I hope I get to try it out. Shame that they haven't updated their shin pads though...

But then you need the Grinding Rings which are $50 and last about 40 sharpening... A few of my buddies did the math and we'd never break even with 4 of us and that was at $599.

$799 now...

They live! Nice.

Sherwood Rekker EK60 85 Flex P26 Stastny Stick History: Sherwood 9950 Wood Coffey, Bauer Supreme (Sport Chek SMU) Kane, Sherwood T70 Stastny, Winwell GX8, Easton RS Parise, Warrior AK27 , Warrior DT1LT Pavelski, Warrior DT1ST Grandlund, Verbero PM44, Sherwood Rekker EK60 PP26 Stick Info: Height: uncut Weight: 387 Grams Grip: No Shaft: Matte Length: 59 inches Usage: 6 Months Personal Details: Male, 6'3", 210lbs, 26 years old. Adult B-level. About me: I played hockey my life as a goalie and about 4 years ago I decided I wanted more ice time and that I wanted to skate out as a player. I had no idea what kind of stick I liked as well as what curve I liked and what flex, this was all new to me and my shot was terrible to begin with as expected. Since then I have obviously gotten better and stronger but I am still figuring out what curve/length/flex that I prefer. Review Details: I have used this stick for about 5 months as my primary stick. I started out using it with its stock length, and then added a plug to attempt to get the stick to my prefered length. I have then taken the plug out as I was having more difficulties with it in than with dealing with the shorter length. Preface: I got this stick for free so I would do a review on it and give feedback back to Sherwood. This stick isn’t my ideal stick in terms of length and curve. I like heel curves more than toes but there wasn’t a real good heel curve option for this stick. Since I am playing forward now more often than defense I figured I’d try out the toe curve. Grip: I am not a huge fan of grip sticks so I opted out for the non-grip version of the Rekker EK60. The shaft is made of a nice matte finish paint that feels great in my hands. I like the matte better than glossy sticks since I feel the matte gives better grip and just doesn’t feel as slippery while not being overbearing in grip. I feel this is a pretty standard matte stick and the only style of grip I have enjoyed more is the Warrior Velvet grip. 9/10 Aesthetics: I think Sherwood does a really good job with their sticks, from the T90 to T120, retro wooden Rekker EK15 to the newest EK60 Sherwood does a good job of using colours as accents as well as showing the “exposed” weave in certain places on the stick. I feel like the orange, black, white and grey colour scheme works really well and is never too gaudy or loud. The small graphene molecule design on the lower part of the shaft is a nice nod to the new material Sherwood is using there. While the design is good and works well over all price points it still isn’t my favourite looking stick (the Easton Mako) but I have absolutely no complains here. 9/10 Blade/Curve: Like I said earlier I like heel curves and there wasn’t an option for one when picking this stick so the toe curve I have on this doesn’t exactly work perfectly for me. The blade in this Sherwood feels extremely firm and since the day I got it has not gotten softer or felt like it has started to break down. This was a bit of a change from what I am used to but I learned to really like the firm feeling blade as it is great for feeling exactly where the puck lands on a hard pass and I have never felt a pass that a puck bounced off of the blade when I believe I should’ve been able to corral it. Blade flex seems pretty non existent so shooting is extremely consistent in regards to the blade. With the toe curve I had to adapt my passing and how I play defense since I found saucer passing to be more difficult and low shots from the point creeping up too high making it harder for deflections and rebounds on goalies with active hands. Because of the toe curve and stick length I have had a bit of a challenging time reaching for pucks and losing pucks off the toe. I am used to flatter blades and toe curves make the blade slightly shorter I find I am losing more pucks off the toe while stick handling. Since I enjoy the blade stiffness so much I will look for this when purchasing future sticks and the only negative I have about the stiffness is you can feel a bit more vibration on shots and passes.. Curve: 6/10, Blade: 9/10 Stick Handling: I am more of a defensive player and will admit to having a set of concrete hands. With that said this stick has created a learning curve for me when I used it and switched from the longer and flatter bladed Warrior DT1LT. I found that I’d lose the puck off the toe pretty frequently as I’d expect a flatter blade to be there, I also had a lot of problems reaching to stop pucks along the boards and found pucks would squeeze under the curved toe. With that said the extreme light weight of this stick makes stick handling easier and makes my hands feel faster than with heavier sticks. The firm blade helps with knowing where the puck is on the blade. The balance of this stick is very good in the sense that you can feel where the blade is at all times, unlike the Verbero stick I reviewed where it felt like you were playing with just a shaft and no blade at all. With the Sherwood you always know where the blade is and there is never that feeling of detachment. My only negatives with the stick handling are because of a curve that isn’t suited to my liking. 8.5/10 Shooting: I was extremely excited to try this stick out since I REALLY like the Rekker EK15 during my short time using a demo stick (that was brand new). When I used the Rekker EK15 I found that my shots were not as explosive as other sticks by the shot placement and shot consistency was amazing. While my Warrior sticks are 100 flex I used an 85 flex EK15 and they felt pretty similar in terms of flex, so I went with a 85 flex for the EK60. I feel that the flex in the EK60 plays stiffer than it did in the EK15 and in order for me to really get whip on the stick I have to REALLY lean into the shot. I decided to add an extension into this stick to try and help my issue with losing pucks off of the toe and get my prefered reach back, but in doing so the flex of the stick was completely thrown off balance. The stick became much whippier (obviously, adding length does that) but with the extension the flex point of the stick got completely misaligned with where my lower hand placement is. Whenever I’d go for a shot (snap, slap, and wrist) my lower hand would feel like it was pushing against a solid non flexing stick. Lower down the shaft the stick would flex but my hands felt that they had very little to do with it and I felt like I had absolutely no control of the shot and how the stick flexed. I tried the extension for over 2 months until I was sick of flubbing shots. If I didn’t have a shot lined up perfectly I would really “flub” the shot where it would weakly flip end over end in the air and often miss the target by a wide margin. Since I took the extension out my shooting has been much more consistent. I feel that this stick has a very small sweet spot when it comes to really getting off a good shot. If my hands are in the perfect spot and my weight doesn’t go onto the stick in the perfect shot I end up with a mediocre attempt that won’t blast by a goalie because of the quick release, but the shot is accurate. When I really get a hold of a shot with this stick you can tell it is explosive, but my problem is how difficult it is for me to get that explosive shot off. My normal shot with this stick is still considerably better than the Verbero stick I reviewed earlier, but the normal shot with this stick is considerably softer and slower than when I use a Warrior DT1LT/ST. In golf there are “player” clubs and “game improvement” clubs, the “player” clubs give the best performance but you have to be an excellent player to get that performance while the “game improvement” clubs allow regular players like me get a good shot off more frequently. This stick feels like a “players” stick where my Warriors feel more like “game improvement” sticks, and for me the difference is that with the Sherwood 2-4/10 shots become dangerous while the Warriors it is more of 7-9/10 shots are dangerous. I feel this stick has a high ceiling of shooting potential but takes much more effort in getting a good shot off where my Warriors I can get a good release no matter my stance and hand positions. 7/10. Passing: If this stick had a heel curve that I prefer it would easily be the best stick I have ever used for passing. With the firm blade and firm shaft I can make short and long passes with ease without having to worry about a long hard pass becoming a shot (something that would happen occasionally with the aggressively kicking Warrior DT1LT). When I had the extension in the stick I did have the issue with the stick flexing too much on long passes, but I cannot blame the stick on that issue when it was because of the extension I put in it. The firm blade is absolutely phenomenal for passing for both giving and receiving. 9.5/10 Durability: Sherwood advertises this stick to use Graphene in the shaft for increased durability. I really don’t know how much Graphene they actually use but can happily say this stick performs remarkably similar to how it performed the very first time on the ice. There are paint chips like normal but the toe is still in great shape and the blade has blocked shots and been stepped on by the only damage is aesthetics. Durability for this stick has been remarkably good. 10/10 Feel: Since the Rekker EK15 Sherwood has advertised the Rekker line as being the lightest sticks on the market, and they are in fact ridiculously light. Unlike other super light sticks I have used the balance of the EK60 is fantastic. The shaft feels extremely light but I can still tell that the stick has a blade, and at the same time the blade doesn’t feel like an anchor. The stiff blade means I can feel the puck on the stick at all times, with a blade that deadens puck feel you sometimes don’t feel the puck when stick handling but that is never an issue with the EK60. 10/10 Closing: This stick is still my go to stick (since I am getting more and more used to the length and I feel that it is a good valued stick. Sherwood lists this stick at $200 vs $270 for other brands top of the line sticks, to be that feels like a perfect price point for what this stick offers. I rarely got the explosive shot performance that I got from other top end sticks but it is considerably better than anything I have tried before it that are close to this price range. While it doesn’t have the shot power or explosiveness of my Warrior or RS it has stayed firm and has not lost its feel like both the Warrior and RS did. With the lightweight, high shoot ceiling and durability I feel this stick is a great value and a good option for someone who doesn’t want to pay top stick prices. I wish Sherwood would make more curves available and offer different shaft lengths as if I was stick shopping those would be a deal killer for me, but if their offerings fit your play style I would absolutely recommend this stick to someone. Overall Score: 8.5/10 Blade has been well used but has never lost the stiff feeling and doesn't feel like it is breaking down. The heel has damage, but nothing out of the ordinary and it isn't falling apart and doesn't have pieces chipping off. More of the heel. More use at the bottom of the blade. Dents on the hosel and lots of use, but it still plays like it did the first day I got it. Blade sustained a crack from what I think was a skate. Everything underneath seems fine and it has had this for a few months with no ill affects. Toe is worn as well, but holding up better than any stick I had before it (Warrior DT1Lt was good at this too). The paint is chipped heavily from use. But it doesn't flake off easy. Close up of the paint.

I had a team tell me they wanted me to try out for them. I laughed at them and said have fun with someone else. My team beat them regularly after that. You should do the same.

Makes sense. I guess that is the downside to custom orders... having to wait for them.

Why did you get a new glove?

Dangler fixes this ;)

Teammate got a pretty good one of me.

The girl friend (she is breezie on the site) and I played in a tournament this weekend and since it was the 10th anniversary of it they gave us free photos! The first picture shows why I love 11ks so much.

Gloves look great, really interested in their custom options.