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, 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, 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, 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, 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, No. Seems to be a "wear this brace and we'll check in 3 weeks" thing. I'm doing some stretching exercises this week to try and get some range of motion back, then I'll start doing some resistance band exercises. If I can get it back to at least what it was pre-cast, I'll play and try to just manage the pain. Mark

Howdy, I certainly didn't expect my wrist to feel WAY THE FUCK WORSE. Maybe unrealistic. I'm guessing the pain is from other things (ligaments / tendons / whatever) than the TFCC tear, just because they've been immobile for so long. Still sucks. Mark

Howdy, Per my wrist tendinitis thread where it turned into actually being a TFCC Tear, I've been in a cast for just under 4 weeks. Got it off today. Was hoping maybe I'd be playing pickup tomorrow. Uh... No. Another 3 weeks in a brace and even if that wasn't the Dr. recommendation my wrist feels like pounded shit. Crazy, CRAZY stiff and sore when its flexed beyond what the cast allowed. Going to work on gentle stretches for a while and then hopefully wrist exercises if the stretching helps, but apparently I won't be playing any time soon. 😞 Mark

Howdy, That looks great, but I wasn't able to find anyone selling it in the US? Mark

Howdy, When I didn't get much response, I ordered finger tape from Amazon. I got the .3" version the other day and its pretty narrow... Not sure if its too narrow or not. Otherwise it seems roughly equivalent to hockey tape. Because I thought it would be a little too narrow, I then ordered some actual 1/2" athletic tape. Should be here today. Unfortunately my wrist is casted up at the moment, so I can't actually do a knob and go try either out immediately. 😞 Mark

Howdy, Are there any sources for 1/2" hockey tape? I want to use that for knobs on sticks. Tearing 1" tape always leaves sticky thread hangers / whatever. I haven't found any hockey tape that's 1/2", but I have found 'finger tape' for rock climbing that looks to be 1/2" athletic tape... Same thing basically? Or do I just need to suck it up? 🙂 Mark

Howdy, How is this holder the giant step forward that folks were talking about? It looks like just another holder with a quick release? Is the pitch adjustable, is it way lighter, or ?? Mark

Howdy, So, as my world turns.... About the only positive of my wrist being bad / not being able to play is that I'm reffing a decent bit more, mostly as a way to keep skating and keep my 'game eye" as much as I can. I'm getting slightly better at forcing myself to mentally note which player I've just called a penalty on, but I'm still relatively horrible at it. My latest way to screw that up is on a delayed penalty to focus so much on not losing the player I'm calling the penalty on that I miss a possession change and don't blow the play dead until too late. It's always something. 😕 I would say at this point that I'm decent about recognizing when I should be calling a penalty though, so that's progress? I registered for real with USA Hockey and I'm taking the level 1 seminar in a couple weeks. Really looking forward to this. Against my better judgement I've reffed some kids games. Middle school kids, mostly. It actually hasn't been that horrible. Its a summer league at the rink I do most of my playing (and nearly all of my reffing) at and the coaches and parents mostly seem to have the right attitude. All of that brings me to probably one of my worst moments reffing, at least in terms of embarrassment. Kids game. One of the kids checks another kid, both go down. I raise my arm to call the check (non-checking) (and hear one of the coaches agree with the call). The loose puck is picked up by the non-offending team, play goes on for a bit. I apparently then have a mental seizure or something. Anyway, after the puck changes possession a couple times, the other ref (a 14 year old kid, been playing since he was 3) blows it dead. I review my mental picture of what happened, think its this one kid on the team. Point at him, call the check, get the "whatever, idiot ref" look/mumble. I go to the scorekeeper, give him the #. Coach on his team (the one that agreed with the call) says to me "the penalty is on the other team, right?" At this point, I look around, realize that there are four players out there for the other team, five for the team I just called the penalty on. Coach for the other team says "Hey, I don't have a 57, and then laughs saying "don't worry, I know who it was on". At this point, I give mental thanks that everyone else in the rink knows what's going on, go in, drop the puck and the game goes on. So yeah, I've got a little room for improvement. 🙂 Mark