marka

Howdy, Assuming you can't find a visor that fits more narrow... Its not out of the question that you could heat the sides of the visor and bend it in, but I'd be worried about changing the optics. Of course, you could just tip the visor up so that you're not actually looking through it. Is there some reason you can't add more spacers to the sides and use longer screws? Mark

Howdy, Well, the most obvious thing is that its flat, vs. having a hollow. Not sure that's an advantage. Seems a lot smarter to establish the start of the hollow with the coarser ring and then final cut it with a normal ring, vs. using the normal ring to establish the hollow as well. It would be interesting to see something from Sparx on what's different that makes this ok to use in the home machine / why they went with flat. Mark

Howdy, Congrats!! Are you partnered up with any distributer / manufacturers? Mark

Howdy, Around here (Pittsburgh, PA area) afaik its either USAH or nothing at all. Just to confirm, you're talking about insurance _for the players_ right? Not to protect the rink? There are a decent # of non-USAH rinks. I assume they have some type of liability insurance and that that's the main thing driving player gear requirements. But AFAIK none of that benefits the players as an excess medical / whatever like USAH insurance does. Mark

Howdy, Its really personal preference. When you have your top hand be your right hand, that's called "left handed" in hockey, and vice versa. That hockey-handedness may or may not match your normal dominant hand and there are plenty of examples of it both matching and not matching. So... If it feels more comfortable and natural for you to have your left hand be your top hand, then just go with it. One way people figure out what hand they should be is to hand them a broom and have them sweep the floor. If they consistently have one hand on top of the broom, that's likely going to be the hand they're most comfortable with on the top of their hockey stick too. But I imagine like any rule of thumb, some folks are out there where having it reversed works better for them. Mark (ps... Welcome to hockey! Don't worry about being brand new at 15 years old... I was 46 when I started playing. 🙂

Howdy, No experience with that jersey, so I can't help there. Some guys/kids I ref with don't wear elbows. I wouldn't do it, but I'm also the guy that wore pads underneath when I went to public skates too. If you're just starting out, want to see if you like it without spending too much $$, and you're doing games where you're not likely to get wiped out I would say you could skip elbows. Wear your player shins though. Sticks to the shins on faceoffs are super common. You could also check with local refs in the area to see if someone has an old jersey you could borrow / buy. Mark

Howdy, I have one of these now as well. Protection feels as good or better than the 7092 girdle I was using before, other than tailbone protection. That seems a bit worse. I used a seam ripper to detach more of the loop on the back of the girdle to make it easier to hang up. Happy with it overall. There's not a lot of choice for a wrap style girdle out there. Mark

Howdy, Has anyone successfully gotten SkateScribe service via mail order? Last I heard from Nathan / the service email, someone was going to reach out with an invoice / whatever and then nothing for a couple weeks. Mark

Howdy, I just spray mine with 91% isopropyl alcohol, undiluted. Everything but skates. Mark

Howdy, Yeah, doesn't look like a helmet piece to me either. Part of your bag maybe? Mark

Howdy, Woohoo! Glad to see you getting back out. 🙂 So, full cage or sticking with the half shield? 🙂 Mark

Howdy, Way to go! Glad to see a pic of you up and smiling. Well, "New England Smiling" anyway. 🙂 Continued progress on the healing! Mark (You're gonna get little tattoo stiches next to the scar, right? And go as Frankenstein for Halloween? :))

Howdy, Hey man, been travelling and just saw this. Hope the procedure went well and you're annoying nurses right now! Mark

Howdy, Stopped there this morning on the way through the area... Pretty decent! New Sticks were $140 iirc. Hockey socks for $10/pair, half shields for $10, game jerseys for $100. Lots of other stuff too. And this was at 11am on day 3. Thanks for posting it! Mark

Howdy, Huh. I'm travelling to Maine this weekend and spending Saturday night near there. How good is this sale usually? Mark

Howdy, "Like" isn't really the right emoticon here for "holy fuck, I hope this goes well and sending you good vibes and hugs". Mark

Howdy, Holy shit! Hopefully catching it early (I hope?) means treatment goes well. And yeah, having a puck bash your face in ending up being a good thing... Wow! Mark

Howdy, I really need to show my wife that sticks picture. Mark

Howdy, I like my Tacks as well, and agree with the "tanks" comment. But if you're looking for lighter / lower profile compared to the 20k I wouldn't imagine that would be it. Mark

Howdy, Maybe to some extent (and I think its due to the stiffness of the boot vs. anything else), but I still think there's a lot to be said for explicitly being able to set lace tension on the instep/forefoot vs. the ankle area of the foot. To me, lace locks are one of the things I wouldn't mind having back on my skates for sure. The bigger question is how easy they would be to integrate well on a boot with normal eyelets. Mark

Howdy, Brace and ibuprofen is what I do as well. A doctor buddy that I played with for a while basically told me that there's nothing that's going to 'bring back' my knee. His advice was to do a brace / ibuprofen and when it became something I couldn't deal with anymore that I should come see him for a replacement. In my case, this is coming from an old meniscus tear though, so maybe your situation is different. Mark

Howdy, So, I finally baked one pair of the TF9 skates I've had for a while, since my TF7s were showing some more significant signs of wear. And then started using them. I don't like the thin TF9 tongues, as it puts a lot of pressure on a bump on my instep. I also don't like the thick felt tongues that one of the tf9 pairs I bought came with... I'm not sure of the name, but they're a thick felt with a sewn on metatarsal pad on the upper part of the tongue. I finally swapped in the tongues from my old pair of TF7s and they're just right. However, when I search for TF7 replacement tongues I'm not finding much stock. Ice Warehouse shows some in size S, which apparently goes up to a size 5 skate. I'm in a 6.5. No stock on the Mediums, which starts at a size 6. Does anyone know how dimensionally different the tf7 replacement tongues are size S to size M? If its just how long the tongue is, I probably don't care. and I have to tuck the sides in when I lace up as well, so if its just a bit narrower... Also probably don't care. Otherwise.. Are the felt cat 7/5 replacement tongues the same as the TF7 tongue, other than the color? I can probably live with the color. Edit: Are the goalie skate replacement tongues the same as the player skates? I see some of those on SLS. Appreciate any leads / advice. Mark

Howdy, Damn dude, that doesn't sound pleasant. You need like a frequent flyer card for medical shit or something. Like an automatic upgrade to the first class waiting room. Mark

Howdy, Maybe counter-intuitive, but if you make the thigh pad sit lower down, will it be less likely to get caught by the top of the shin guard in a deep bend? Mark

Howdy, Holy shit dude. Mark