marka

Howdy, That's the hammer cocking so that the trigger works. Mark

Howdy, 5 best: Coyotes, Capitals, Jets, Rangers, Stars 5 worst: Pittsburgh, Detroit, Islanders, Blues, Avalanche 5 honorable mention: Ducks, Vegas, Flyers, Jersey, Carolina Pittsburgh in particular is a disappointment. Just come out with a totally blank jersey if the best you can do is spell your team / city name across the front of the thing. Horrible. Agree that Detroit looks like a practice jersey. 100% agree that the Islanders just didn't want to play and sent in their current jersey design. The Avalanche jersey is more about a stupid logo (why is there a sad elephant on a hockey jersey) and "Hey Quebec, we took your team away, but at least we made a jersey to remind you of that". Outside of that, the jersey itself is fine. The Ducks jersey has promise, but its like someone snuck in and stole the logo before the designer had time to add color. I actually like the Vegas jersey, but no team that's been around for 3 years gets to have a retro jersey. Stop it. Always liked the Flyers colors and this retro jersey looks good. But its not some huge departure from normal and I live in Pittsburgh, so I'm not allowed to like it anyway. New Jersey's colorway is good. Uninspiring in terms of logo though. I feel like I should like Carolina's throwback, but the colors mostly kinda suck. I have a little less of a "hey we stole your team, here's a jersey" reaction. Not sure why. Maybe because they stole the team from Hartford rather than the land of hockey. But really... Mostly I'm posting just because Pittsburgh's jersey is such a disappointment. Mark

Howdy, Style is such a personal thing. Outside of the whole "Can't see" thing, I like that quite a lot. Mark

Howdy, Yeah. I'm back to this. After thinking that I could play two mornings a week and was pumped to get back out there. That CDC article (and their new definition of what a "close contact" is) really rained on my parade. If masks were required on the ice, I'd play. But they're not around here, coupled with numbers going up at a pretty good clip, so... Guess I'm not going to play. Mark

Howdy, This article was linked on The Athletic... Ugh. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6941a4.htm The "other team players infected" part is the part that bothers me the most. I can do lots of different things to mitigate risk of locker room in particular, but I'm pretty darn close to being back to "not willing to play unless everyone is wearing a mask". Which fucking sucks. Mark

Howdy, Just looking at the pictures, for a half shield I think I'd just wear the UA mask. I don't see any particular advantage to the CCM half-shield setup. Mark

Howdy, In the length pics from @SkateWorksPNW, are those with the back/bottom of the boot resting on a reference block or the holder/steel? Just wanting to confirm that you're seeing boot sizing vs. fore/aft holder mounting location. Appreciate the sizing info... I don't immediately need skates, but the TF7 is what I'm thinking I'll go to reasonably soon since my Mako M8's have seen better days at this point. I don't really care what number they put on there, as long as I can get some that fit! Mark

Howdy, Curious if players on the other team were infected... Do you know? I'm trying to evaluate risk of infection in various parts of "they hockey player experience"... I.e. risk in the locker room changing, risk on the bench, risk actually on the ice, etc. Has anyone heard of anything at all scientific about that type of thing? Mark

Howdy, Dave, are you using the CCM mask in conjunction with the Bauer Concept III? I just ordered that setup. A little worried about the weight of the bubble vs. the cage I use now, but I definitely like the idea of having more of a particle shield for my eyes. If I can't stand the concept III weight, I'm considering going to a visor and trading off puck to face protection for particulate protection... Mark

Howdy, Played today (for the first time since... March? Holy crap was I horrible) with the UA mask. I honestly didn't notice it on the ice, other than that there was more sweat on my upper lip. Didn't seem to affect my ability to breathe well basically at all. On the bench, it was more of a hassle, because to drink you had to unclip the cage, pull down the mask, then drink. Then pull the mask back up (which is now looser / not the same feel as it was before, since you were screwing with it), and clip the mask straps back in. When I got home, I ordered the CCM mask. I figure it will have the good parts of the UA mask and still get out of the way better when I want a drink. Planning to use it with a cage, but also considering getting a fishbowl to maybe help with virus entering my eyes. Of course, there's basically zero studies out there on how much any of that matters, so its all a guess as to if that's reasonable, insane, etc. For you folks that have played with the Bauer thing... How's the fogging? I'd have guessed that would be the major "playability" drawback of that design. edit: One benefit of the UA mask vs. some others we have around is that it didn't turn into a disaster due to sweat. Yes, it got damp, but it still basically held its shape, etc. The other masks we have are either disposable or cotton-ish fabrics and I can't imagine they'd do well soaked in sweat. Mark

Howdy, Darn glad Pittsburgh dodged that bullet. That's CRAZY money given his play the past couple years. Maybe he gets back to something like what his was. I hope he does, for his sake. But that's ALL the money. As for the Pens... Writing was on the wall that Jarry was the way forward pretty much since January. Sullivan didn't get the memo in the play in round and Pittsburgh was packing early with promises for shakeups across the organization. Sounds like there's some interest in Fleury coming back and being a mentor / safety valve for Jarry, but I dunno how much of that is wishful thinking. My bet is probably not, and DeSmith moves back up to backup duty in the big club. Mark

Howdy, For sure. When this whole thing started, I figured it was 50/50 that some team would be eliminated because 8 players got the virus or whatever. Not only didn't that happen, but no positive test at all? Crazy. I'm curious if they had any positive test for any of the hotel/service staff. Those folks weren't bubbled, right? Really nice that they were able to pull this off. From a fan perspective, it honestly was pretty great. Really feel bad for the players who won the cup that weren't able to have their families join them on the ice though. Mark

Howdy, Does it have to be the actual skate its going to end up mounted in, or will any skate do? Because a trip to Play it Again for some ragged out boots might help if its the 2nd one. Mark (Who frankly doesn't like the super secret squirrel approach to these types of things though and would use this as a motivation to move to a profile you can get actual specs for, but still...)

Howdy, I think Cooper announced he was done period now, right? You've got to think that in the game he came back, he re-injured / aggravated everything to be much worse. Glad for him that he was able to get out there and contribute in that game though. Mark

Howdy, Wow. Just a super weird shot landing in exactly the wrong place? Or did your glove fail or something? Mark