bunnyman666

@tedpenguins I have found that on knee guards, you have to go spendy to get good ones. That being said, I spent plenty on my Factory Mad knee guards and they are fantastic.I have had them for well over six months. Dennis does not show them on his website nor is he keen on pix being shown of them, but I have only had one shot that was a real stinger (as in go to the bench for a minute from a MacInnis-style clapper), but the only thing that is wearing thus far is the elastics. I think I would have ended up off of the ice and work for a few weeks had I been wearing my Bauer Supreme knee guards when I faced that shooter. I didn't even get a raspberry on that shot! The only drawback? It will cost as much as a pro blocker for these. But you will see how good they really are if you buy them. I would suggest nearly any of the major SMALL manufacturers (like Brown, PAW, Passau, Maltese or Factory Mad are who I have in mind) OVER the big five manufacturers for knee guards,as the ones from the small guys seem to be built better and some are much lower profile (Brown probably isn't) than offerings from Bauer, CCM, Brian's, Vaughn, or Warrior. The drawback is that they are built one at a time, so you have to wait. This is my opinion, but a growing number share it. What is with beginner league teams bringing in a ringer or two? That kills the spirit of the opposing teams. I always think that ringers that are brought in are not that good when they are in an appropriate league. I am going to keep my trap shut and not comment further... I never thought all of the slides across would hurt that much after a game or for days after. One would think all of that energy expenditure would make me thin, but I am still big as a bloody house. I guess I need to trim back on the beer. Maria Mountain is your friend in regards to exercises to get your muscles up to speed. The poke check is your friend, as so many people don't expect it these days. I hope Corey Hirsch doesn't get his way and have the stick shrunk (I am thinking it's breezers and chesties that get the trimming in the off-season), as the stick saves so many goals. The poke check would be so much harder if the stick were smaller.

Sit in front of the tele with those skates on, that will help break them in considerably. That's what I do for every new skate.

Drop-in Report: Went to my favourite drop-in session and tried my new Wilcox blocker. First, a little info on my blocker and Dave Wilcox: Dave Wilcox was the designer and builder of some of the greatest goal gear in the last 12 of 15 years, having designed and built TPS pro stuff from 2001-13 and Sher-Wood from '11-13. None the less, he built me one HELL of a blocker, and it is only going to get better with use. I have player glove fingers, which was a HUGE improvement over the wallowy, one-size fits a few palms I was having trouble with in my Vaughn blocker. My hands are too big for intermediate, but too small for some of the other palms. I will put it this way- a blocker is NOT just a blocker, as evidenced by the fact that I have been trying different ones. This one is the baby bear blocker- just right! Now, to drop-in: My warm up was pretty lacklustre- I let in EVERYTHING. I thought it was going to be one of those days. It wasn't. Did I have a shut out? No. Did I let in a few softies? Yes. Do I feel better about my game? Yes. Here is where I feel better about my choice in head gear: I got whacked in the head by a high stick in a scrum. Just a bit of noise, that's all. I got my revenge, as the offender skated in too close through my crease. I upended him with a stick on his skates. Of course he skated through my crease again and ended up with my stick in his gut. He stopped cutting into my crease after that. My poke check is getting better, as well. My aggressive play lit a fire under everybody's bum, as fack me the game got fiery! Every time I let in a goal, my team would skate it back and would go either top shelf or back door. The opposing team would start taking huge risks in the neutral zone and my team would make them pay! They were getting frustrated that the formerly easy goalie was getting harder to penetrate. Playing the puck is something I am still not comfortable with. Break aways are getting better, but I am far from confident on them. Back to the blocker- this thing has some curve to it, and it will easily deflect a puck into the next zip code! I am aware of shots on the back of my hand, but no stingers, thus far. I had my concerns with a lack of "air pillows" (really, just soft foam) on the side board and the back of the hand, but I was pleasantly surprised with no stingers. I guess Dave knows what he's doing. My blocker pix are on my instagram @bunnydevildude

@OptimusReim You weren't that bad. You had a LOT of odd man rushes against you. Bloody fackin hell- you defended a fair few 2 and 3 on 0 situations with D men who should wear orange cone-shaped helmets. Stop being so bleedin' hard on yourself; you are better than I.

You need to step back, take a breather, then go back in having fun. I have let loose and have been surprised with how much better I am playing. If I let in one 5 hole whilst standing, I laugh. You're not depending on playing goal to feed your family, right? Keep your pecker (nose) up.

A-freaking-men!!!! Hopefully you can get your goalie on quite easy soon!

Drop-in/New Gear Report: 'twas looking like another low-turnout skate this morning. I thought if nothing else, I can just try out my gear. I didn't bother to get the goals out; if worse comes to worse, I can just work on my slides with no net. Needless to say I summoned a bloke who was coming in to dress that the nets needed to get out. We got nine people- just enough for three-on-three. Ugh. I like 3-on-3, and I don't. I like it 'cos it's fast; I hate it 'cos it's tiring. Now to the pads- those are MONEY! I can't imagine what the G2 or G3 are like. Bloody f***ing' hell- they slide like nobody's business. No Sno Seal necessary... They actually made me better! No pains with strapping- everything was easy to dial in. I tried carpet flies with my skates, breezers, and knee guards on. On ice- there were no surprises. F*** me- they were like they had my name on them. Good thing they were easy to dial in, as I have already removed the knee cradle and cut the flaps to hold the knee strap onto the pad ? The only thing I may do is get softer padding or Maltese Gel to put into the knee stack. One feature of these is what Pete Smith did with his last solo pad incarnations- you can add or subtract material in the knee stack easily. I stoned McDangles several times. He still scored a few on me. I had one bloke's number and shut him out. 2-on-0 plays I still don't save well. My break away defense is getting better; it had better, as that's what you do in pick up all the time it seems. The ability to read the play is getting better. I even got some comments alluding to me getting a ***bit*** better. A funny note was that I had no moorings for the net! There was the occasion where I would unintentionally dislodge the net. Overall, I am feeling nearly good enough to play in a league. A few more months should get me there.

I know when the local rink is closed for "maintenance" or the others are booked for camps, I'm ganning for a skate. I go through withdrawal. I hope you find a skate to tide you over. I believe hockey is an addiction. Playing goal is even more addictive.

New gear report: Got my Warrior Ritual Pro (gen 1) pads from the Brown Santa today. New gear day is ALWAYS exciting. I opened the box and immediately tied the toe ties around the pad to help encourage the perfect "S" shape. I got them home and the most wonderful thing is how easily customisable the strapping is. My strapping is easy, as I am a Monster Hockey devotee. You have a choice of nylon straps (included) or mushroom end leather straps. Both are gone from my pads. I now have enough slick clips to choke someone if they were dumb enough to swallow them. How was I to connect the Brian's Smart toes (which will suffice until I get Hal straps)? Easy- remove the sliding toe bridge from the pad and install the Smart Toe in the inner holes. Tied the skate laces around the pads again. Impressive construction for an overseas pads. Apparently, these pads were very well based on Pete Smith's last solo work. Going to try them at drop in tomorrow.

Monday Drop-In Report: Nothing but break aways and guys winding up their clappers. Nobody even waits until the last shooter gets out of the way and the goalie has time to set up. Ugh. Did work on my poke check. It's getting better. Penalty shot after penalty shot after penalty shot is taxing, to say the least. Ugh. New pads are delivered Wednesday. I guess I am clamping them down to encourage a nice S-shape after working on my strapping. Since I am trying them at drop-in, nothing to lose. Not going to try them at my favourite drop in until they feel great. I don't exactly know when my new Wilcox blocker will get to me as it is coming from the Great White North. Hopefully, I like this a LOT better than my Vaughn, which whilst protective (no stingers yet), my hand swims in it. The new blocker on my instagram @bunnydevildude

These teams have a bit of a history. The Dead Deer are really classy NOT. They jaw, play dangerously, and have a ponytail guy who wears two different coloured socks. Let's just say that the guy Opti shoved asked for it.

@OptimusReim That was an ugly game. Shake it off. Get a bit more resolve to embarass those Dead Deer (what the hell type of name is that?!? Silly name). A few of those goals were from sloppy play in the neutral zone and poorly defended plays. Make your Modsquad bretheren proud and get in touch with your inner Billy Smith.

Yeah, I know. I just kinda had my fill with my Vaughns, that's all. It was not quite impulse, but my pads were just a little too squishy and I realised I needed to Sno Seal the knee flaps AGAIN to make them slide better. A stiffer pad will slide better, and would work better with my strapping style. I also acted now because usually in the big clearance, it would be my luck that only 39+5" in pink/Barney purple/olive green robocop is what they have left. I felt lucky that I had 32+1.5" in two colour schemes to choose from. I have heard that you have to do some heroic things to get these to soften up.

The bunny has decided it's time to get a new set of pads; with the recent reductions, it's time to buy NOW!!!!! Monkey has the Warrior Ritual Pro from 2012 on sale for $434 shipped at the moment. Yeah- no retro tan at that price; that's why G'd invented Padskinz!!!!! Since I am wearing predominately Detroit colours (Detroit sweaters and a red breezer shell), I went with the "Detroit" colours (white/red accents). I am going to wrap the outer rolls in tan and cover the red with white or will add red robocop to my glove and blocker. I could just let them be, as well. Yes, they are different than my Vaughns. Me thinks that they will be stiffer and may fit better with my play. I have read some horror stories with these pads; I have also read glory stories with these pads, as well.

Drop In Report: Yesterday was the first time I went to my home rink with a good turnout in awhile. I first thought it was going to be another day at the rink with no dance partners, as when I signed in, there were two skaters and two goalers. That ended up not being the case, as it was four on four with two subs each bench. As I was warming up, my left hip was killing me. I did not want to go down as I was afraid of not getting up. It was not feeling good whilst stretching. I thought for certain I was going to end up going home. I was in a good amount of pain. I have had problems with over-tight hip flexors dating back to my days as a cyclist, runner and duathlete. Needless to say that I was not going to go down without a fight, so I fought through. Weirdly enough, it got better. After a crappy warm up where it seemed I let in everything, I was on fire. I stopped McDangles on several break aways. I was actually making it hard to shoot against me. The other goalie was getting lit up like a Christmas tree on the other end. After 40 minutes of straight, end-to-end four on four with no significant breaks in action, I made the executive decision to break for a few. "You hurt?", one had asked. "No, but unlike the pros, there are no TV breaks and this end-to-end action has never allowed me to even get a sip of water", I replied. The goalie who got lit up wanted to switch ends. I agreed. Unfortunately for him, his fortunes only got worse, as he was now defending against McDangles. Sure, my new D was bad; McDangles can split the D like a knife through hot butter. Play ended up on the other end so much that I nearly fell asleep! I got a lot of 3 on 0 rushes, which there is no way to defend those. Maybe I am improving, but I think I played well above my pay grade yesterday.

That's a pity about the silly ref, @OptimusReim

Good to know. I bought mine for chips ($160), so I knew I got a bargain; now it seems that I got the bargain of the century! Yours is around 3-4 years old? The former NHL-er who shot at me a few weeks ago didn't give me a stinger, but mini MacInnis just made me feel the puck with a bit of a sting; he did give me a Zowie on my Factory Mad knee guard!

I did like it as far as the instructional aspect. It was just a bummer at first. Those arms are something in that CA, aren't they! I hope this thing holds up! I hope the design sticks around for a long while, as I don't want to go back to anything that resembles a Vaughn or a traditional design.

Drop-in Report: We had four skaters, two goalies. Ugh. Nearly a waste of time. I said *nearly*, as we played cross-ice two on two, then someone was helping me work on my angles. I'm a silver-lining sort of bloke- I got to work on some things I don't get to work on in normal drop-ins. But it was a bummer, none the less. :(

@psulion22 I am in LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE with my Ritual Pro CA for the reasons you state. I don't let in pucks between my arms and body any longer and shots to the body fall lifelessly to the ice, even when mini MacInnis was shooting bombs at me. He was, incidentally, the ONLY stinger shots I have felt, and they weren't terrible.

I like the airflow and protection for the back of the head with a helmet. I am rethinking that right now...

Wearing an open-eared helmet and cage (combo). Freak hit, but I think I am going back to my closed-ear combo or starting to wear my Mage.

Drop-in Report: I played against mini-MacInnis today. Fack me!!!!! Every shot he took against me STUNG, made HUGE noise on the glass and made the goal SING that familiar E flat "tink" of a goal post a whole note (okay, maybe exaggerating a whole note); bloody fackin hell- he has a HEAVY, HEAVY shot!!!!!! He found every stinger spot on my CA (which was anywhere he shot), popped it over the stick blade when shooting my 5 hole (and I have the dents to prove it) and managed to ding my jaw bone and the top of my knee cap (fack me). Every shot against my Factory Mad knee guards were a non-event until mini MacInnis came along. That was in the non-scrimmage part. The scrimmage was challenging, to say the least because we had bonafide benders to mini MacInnis (and every type between). One bloke shot low-speed knuckle ball shots that were vexing, to say the least. One would wind up to compete with mini MacInnis and those shots would be weakly elevated to well above the goal. But the bar I normally go to apres' hockey stepped up fine, as the tender happily provided me an ice bag for both my knee and my face. The beer tasted very good.

I need to get out further to cut off some sightlines for the shooter. I guess I play like some Euro goalies, lol. This is where *dunh dunh dunh!* a video camera would probably convince me that my angles suck. Thanks for the tip. I only need 10,000 more to get better.

Drop-in Report: Does the group you play with make a difference? Hell's yeah!!!! The first shot against me in goal was a softy (and really embarassing), but other than that and maybe a couple of others, I didn't do too badly. I still get beat on a 2-0. I did my best OptimusReim impersonation a few times on break aways with a poke cheque; sometimes they worked, sometimes I was Father Christmas and gave up a goal. Once I was beat on my poke cheque, but the shooter's angle was so bad that the puck went 3" wide of the post. I am feeling more confident and am able to recover better from poor angles. My stick shaft saves more goals that should have gone in, and it has many dents to prove that point. Can't wait to get my Wilcox blocker as that silly Vaughn is so wallowy, especially after I get amply warm.