marka

Howdy, So, for faceoff locations... I'm trying to put together a list of exceptions to the "nearest dot to where puck was last played, without advancing the puck for the offending team" face off location... What I have so far: Intentional offsides -- faceoff in their defending zone. playing the puck with a highstick -- faceoff in the defending zone. Offensive team shoots the puck out of play in the offensive zone -- Face off in neutral zone (this may just be "closest without advancing" in reality... Just that it almost never happens below the dots?) After the whistle, if any offensive player comes from above the circles into a scrum at the net, faceoff in the neutral zone Any others? Mark

Howdy, Are you willing to share more details on this? Particularly with exact products and procedures you're using? I think I've mentioned in this thread before that I use a Wissota Speed Skate after a Sparx sharpening, but I wouldn't describe the resulting finish as a true "mirror", as there are still subtle longitudinal lines. Mark

Howdy, Skates are expensive enough and enough of a PITA to fit / make work that I'm pretty much only going to have one pair. And given that, black is going to be the best bet for me even if I cared a ton about looks. And to be fair, I have a pair of white gloves (along with others), so I must care some... 🙂 Mark

Howdy, Thanks. I use a 5/8 Fire now and have no issues with grip / finding my edges or anything like that. So I was thinking of trying out the 3/4 Fire. I realize this is all mostly personal preference, just wanting to see if folks thought there were a large change between the two. I haven't ever skated on either 3/4 or 1" ROH. Mark

Howdy, Anyone directly compared the 5/8 Fire to the 3/4 Fire? Curious if its a big difference or a more subtle one. I'm likely going to need to get another ring soon and was thinking of trying out the 3/4 Fire at the same time. Mark

Howdy, I have a rink about 5 minutes from my house. Unfortunately, they've basically completely screwed up any adult hockey there, so I drive to other rinks. One is 35 minutes, the other is 45 minutes. Mark

Howdy, Yeah, I saw that. For folks that are on here / pay attention I don't think there's really anything particularly new in the story in terms of tech. Its more about the adoption by pro players, etc. Still a good read. Mark

Howdy Damn dude. You need to catch a break. Keep fighting! Mark

Howdy, Are there any P28 Max blade patterns out there for intermediate sticks that aren't only on the top end retail models? Pure right now shows just the Alpha DX and that's a little too rich for my blood. Mark

Howdy, Fun day today. My son, now 12, gave up hockey a couple years ago after giving it a year or two and it never really clicking. His gear has been hanging around the house since. Today we went over to visit a long time friend of my wife, whose 8 (?? I think) year old daughter has just discovered the game and is falling in love. She's been going to learn/practices twice a week in rental/borrowed gear and LOVES it. We took along my son's old stuff and between that, a trip to Play it Again, and a stop at Perani's her daughter is all setup. Super cool to see how excited she was as well as how involved she was in getting gear that she liked. If she keeps having even 1/4 as much fun and enthusiasm for the game as she showed today, she's a lifer. Mark

Howdy, Throw a party and get to know them more off the ice? Get everyone together for a practice? Mark

Howdy, IIRC its something impregnated with with a very fine abrasive / polishing compound. You essentially wet sand with it. Mark

Howdy, I use a Wissota Speed Skate after sharpening with my Sparx and it seems to help the finish both visually and in terms of having a bit more glide on the ice. Recommended. https://wissota.com/product/speed-skate/ Mark

Howdy, Given what you've described, I would oxy-clean / wash your gear now and drive on. Mark

Howdy, Looks like he's failing the pencil test by what, like a 1/2"? I don't think tube socks are going to account for that. 🙂 Hope you can get the skates to work for you, regardless. Mark

Howdy, Good. 🙂 I got in the habit of listening to it in the car last season and miss it now. It was just weird that I couldn't find anything about when its supposed to start up again. Made me wonder if it was gone for good or something. Mark

Howdy, Anyone know when / if the Hockey Central at Noon podcast will start back up? Mark

Howdy, Amazing how much "normal" shifts... I started out with this reffing thing last December as a way to still skate with my wife. Didn't plan to make money doing it. NEVER wanted to ref a kids game. Fast forward to yesterday. At this point I've got ~90 games in. Earned $3.6k (gross). Gotten certified with USA Hockey. And I reffed a kid's travel game. Something I was adamantly against doing. 🙂 It was fun though. I've mostly done beer league stuff (no stats, refs run the score board, running clock, etc.) I did do a couple informal-ish kids summer games. But this was my first game where I needed to see / report goals and assists, penalties, etc. Luckily it was a pretty easy game. I'd liked doing Squirt age stuff when I did those few kids games over the summer and this was no different. The pace isn't overwhelming (I did one highschool game as part of the summer stuff, and my brain just didn't process hockey that fast). Parents and coaches still seem to realize that these are 9 and 10 year olds. Etc. It was also nice that my partner was a good ref (Highschool senior kid of a guy I played with on a beer league team. He's been playing since he was 4. 🙂 Honestly though, the absolute best part of the whole thing is that they play music when the play is stopped. That rocked. Literally. 🙂 Just kinda struck me how different this is from where I started. It is very much still just a hobby / "something to do". But I've enjoyed learning more about it, getting better at it, etc. No question that a big part of how I got here was messing up my wrist in April and wanting to keep skating. Of those 90 games, 74 are from that point. I've still got a SHIT TON to learn to be anything like a good ref. And reading back over this thread I'm seeing plenty of stuff that I said I needed to get better at that I still 100% need to get WAY better at. But I see myself making progress and that's fun. Appreciate the advice I've gotten here! Mark

Howdy, Not fair to the other team. They paid to play too, and its the responsibility of your team to show up with enough players to give them one. Mark

Howdy, I would say a little more bent, yes. Trying to do it with knees vs. back, but it ends up with both. For sure a bit of an adjustment period, but after not playing for 3-ish months or whatever it was, there was an adjustment period anyway. Its about 6" shorter, btw. I notice it most in terms of reaching out for poke checks or to knock the puck down / keep it in the zone or something. I would say its also messed with how the flex of the stick feels to me. Hard to say if the lack of wrist pain is from the stick length, different knob, different wrist brace or just lots of rest. At this point I don't have much incentive to isolate each of those things to narrow it down. I'm just enjoying being able to play without my wrist hurting. My bigger focus is to see if I can get my wind back a little after months of doing nothing but "ref skating" 🙂 Mark

Howdy, So, the hard cast has come and gone. I can't say I'd recommend that... My wrist felt WAY worse coming out of the cast than it had going in. Holding my old joint in one position apparently let everything atrophy and degrade... Any sort of movement of the joint hurt. The only positive was that it hurt in different areas. Followed that up with a soft brace for 3 weeks or so. Some of the pain went away with time. For the last week of the soft brace I also started doing wrist exercises from the PT I'd done prior to the hard cast. Still hurt, still in places in/on my wrist that were different from before. Saw the doc again last Wednesday and we agreed that I should just start playing and see what it felt like. My hope was that the pain now is due to being in the cast but the pain from the tear would be healed up with all the rest. So played Friday and... No pain! Played the whole game without any twinges or anything else. 🙂 Followed that up with a game last night and the same thing. 🙂 I'm playing with a shorter stick, that large knob, and a shock doctor 824 3 strap wrist support. The wrist support isn't super bulky, but I like pretty tight gloves (14" QRL / QRL Pro), so I ended up buying a single right hand 15" Bauer glove on ebay and removing the back hand padding to get that to fit. So in terms of where I'm at today, its sorta the opposite of how this started out... My wrist (and now hand... Maybe from the big knob?) now ache some when I'm not playing hockey, but when I'm playing they feel fine. So... Progress! Mark

Howdy, Depends. The short answer is to just do what the owners manual tells you to do. Actual engineers for the thing you're using almost always beat Google. Mark

Howdy, Call / email them and ask? Are you continental US? Estimated shipping to me in Ohio is $15 on a pair of gloves. Mark

Howdy, Glad you guys were able to move down there to spend time with your mom. Hoping things go as well as they can for you and her! And yeah, watch out for stray hurricanes. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, I mean, yeah, blue is better than red, but the purpose of either is still to stick the threads together and prevent them from backing out. If your goal is to stop corrosion, use a little oil on the threads, anti-seize, or a product designed to do that. Blue Loctite isn't that. Mark