marka

Howdy, Reads to me like you're overthinking it. If they fit, they fit... Doesn't matter what letter is on the tag and what numbers are on a chart. When you're playing if you find issues, that's a different story, but play and experience the issues before you try and solve them. Mark

Howdy, Also, this review by Matt seems pretty on the money... Mark

Howdy, I've got a set of Skaboots and used them for a game where I changed in the parking lot... They're for sure clunky and a bit of a PITA to put on / take off. I only used them once and I'm sure I'd get better at it & they'd break in a bit, but still... Hard to believe they wouldn't remain clunky and a bit of a PITA. On the plus side... I think you could walk forever in them with no damage to anything. There's a heck of a lot of rubber surrounding your blade. That said.. The idea of a soaker with a bottom that could be walked on for a while on concrete / asphalt without destroying itself and which would protect the blade seems like it would be a better solution. Mark

Howdy, When I was a kid, I was sure that the thumb loop was there to stick the end of the stick through. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, I think I'm a little more old school. And probably just older. 🙂 I don't think a parent's role in sports should be to advocate for their kid. Full stop. They should encourage their kid, cheer when they do stuff well, boo the ref when they make a correct call that happens to be against their team, etc. But in terms of "Hey coach, little Timmy should <blah>, <blah>, <blah>"... Just no. Their interaction, particularly for a purely volunteer coach, should be limited to "Thanks!" with a side of "Hey, seems like maybe you could use a hand.... How can I help?" If a program is bad enough that you feel like you need to volunteer criticism as a parent then you should be offering ways _you_ can fix it or be figuring out how to move on from that program. And that focus should be the _program_ and how the kids are generally being handled, not whether YOUR kid's special snowflake needs are getting met. I expect we agree more than we disagree btw... We're probably just stating it in different ways. Happily, when I've coached my son's teams (mostly soccer, a little hockey before he stopped), most parents have either been overtly supportive or at least haven't been noisy about problems they've had. I think its important for people that are considering coaching to read about issues like this as the exception, rather than the rule. I mean, you certainly need to have a little thicker skin at times and be reasonably self confident, but generally speaking my experience with parents has been a positive one and they've been clearly glad that I was willing to volunteer to coach. Mark

Howdy, There's nothing wrong with coach to parent communication during the season. You can do it in a non-asshole way like "Hey, so one parent asked me about how ice time was working and <insert lots of your first post>". Presumably the bulk of the rest of the parents aren't assholes, so an explanation like that gets them on your side and when jackass parent says something to another parent in the stands, that other parent can say "Oh, didn't you get the ice time email? I thought that was a nice balance and a good way to approach it". Mark

Howdy, Bench his kid next game and tell the kid that if he wants to play that he needs to control his parent. 🙂 Seriously... When a parent comes with a suggestion / complaint, evaluate what they're saying. If there's nothing new there, stand your ground. Do what you did and explain civilly what the plan is, that the ice time will all even out in the end, etc. If the parent keeps pushing, get your commissioner involved. Sorry you're going through it. Sounds like you're already doing everything right and I'm sure the positive thoughts and appreciation from the other parents greatly outnumber the squeaky wheel, even if they don't communicate it as effectively! Mark

Howdy, Seems pretty likely that the creator comes here when he can / wants to / has time / whatever. I've also seen weeks to months go by here without a post from him. Also seems pretty likely that the company's official channels for communication aren't answered by the creator, vs. someone working off a queued "first in, first out" system. Mark

Howdy, This seems like a good place for this article... https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/12/04/hockey-covid-transmission-outbreaks/ Lots of "we don't know" going on with this stuff still. Interesting that typical rink air handling may be exactly what you DON'T want. Mark

Howdy, Sports psychologist sounds like a good choice. Your description makes it sound like he isn't sure what he should be doing in full game context. I see these "game awareness" type training things... Maybe that would help? Might also be pressure to perform... Any player knows there's a difference between the game and practice. If that's the case, and if he sees himself as having to perform for his team, I wonder if dropping him to a "less important" role would help him gain more confidence? Take some of the weight off his shoulders. But really... Sports psychologist sounds like the best idea to determine what's happening. As to how to introduce that to him... Depending on age and what the parents are like, I might go through them. Wouldn't hurt to have an example of someone he looks up to that's used a sports psychologist successfully as well. Mark (Way not an expert. And I haven't stayed in a holiday inn in forever.)

Howdy, I know that's the excuse they use. But I can't see it without thinking that someone is throwing a ball to a sad elephant / elephant that had an unfortunate encounter with a car and got its trunk run over. Mark

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