marka

Howdy, If he loctite's the screw into the t-nut, it'll make it worse, not better. For the OP... you need to increase the friction between the t-nut and the helmet itself. You could maybe try using epoxy to glue the t-nut in place (let it fully dry before putting a screw into the t-nut, but mostly I would just go with "get to the back of the t-nut when it happens again". 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, That screams "wear a thicker sock" etc. to me. 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, Pro Hockey Life in Vaughan Mills north of Toronto is the biggest hockey store I've ever been in. No clue on what they have in stock for ref equipment however. https://www.prohockeylife.com/pages/store-vaughan-mills-ontario?utm_source=Organic Search&utm_medium=LSS 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, My experience with the 7092 GIRDLE is that the tail bone protection is pretty good. That's what I currently use as someone wanting good protection for that area and my hips both. Easton Pro 15 pants are freaking tanks. Lots of protection and lots of weight. I protect the stomach area with lots of built in fat. 🙂 Seriously, Monty22 has it right in my limited experience. Mark

Howdy, Yeah, I've not heard of adult rental gear around here. You could maybe piece something together from lost and founds... 🙂 There's nothing much at the PPG rink. I think there are some private penguins alum type things, but not much for mortals. RMU Island Sports Complex is fairly easy to get to from downtown (with a car). You might call them and ask about rental gear and pickup. Not sure what they've got going on there. https://www.rmuislandsports.com/ Baierl Ice Complex is a little further away, but there's always some hockey available. I don't think there's any rental gear though. http://www.nextstephockey.com/view/baierlicecomplex There's other rinks around as well. In terms of shops, KO is what I'd recommend. South of the city. They usually have some prostock stuff and are probably the biggest shop around. http://kosports.com/ Mark

Howdy, Get her out there with you. Worked for me. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, So yeah, you're fine. Stop making excuses and go play. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, So, officially a TFCC tear, not tendinitis. In a hard cast for a month to see if it'll heal while its really immobile before surgery is considered. 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, I'll echo some others here... As long as you can stop, you'll be fine at a general drop in that's welcoming to beginners. If you've got folks attending them already that have seen you skate and they're encouraging you to come, just go. Also, look for a beginner league in your area. Around here (Pittsburgh, PA area) there's a few different beginner leagues and they're GREAT for adults just starting out. At the ones I've been involved in, people that can do good backwards crossovers / transitions are considered advanced skaters. 😉 Having a group of similar level folks out there is a great way to learn and have fun. Mark

Howdy, My wife has a plated ankle with screws. She wears regular skates (Vapors) without any particular issues. I would not immediately jump to full customs out of the expectation that they'd be needed to accommodate the screws/plate. Mark

Howdy, Tried the knob that @puckpilot described on a stick that was about 3" or 4" shorter than what I'd been using tonight. First time I'd played in a month. I think the knob definitely helps. I switched back for like half a shift to my regular length stick with a tacki-mac kane / pro grip and just stick handling back and forth hurt a little more. Less sure about the length and even less about the curve (I did this to a P28 / TC4 that I had laying around, since I didn't really care much about that stick. I'd been using a P30). But the knob seemed to let me hold the top of the stick with my hand less "closed" and perhaps also reduced the twisting torque it was applying to my hand? Stuff still hurt, but it wasn't as bad. And after two lower level games, my wrist doesn't feel as bad as I remember it feeling the last time I played a single game (which was what prompted the OP). Its clearly still not 'right' though. I've got an MRI scheduled for Tuesday. At this point I think I'm hoping they identify a tear they can repair arthroscopicly, so that this can actually be fixed. But either way, I think that knob is here to stay for a while. Thanks! Mark

Howdy, I did have a question though... I'm considering using a decently shorter stick, just to see if that helps. I figured it might change the angle my wrist is at when I'm playing, plus would give the stick a little less leverage to put through my hand. Anyone ever done that type of thing? I'm assuming I have a stick laying around with a more vertical lie that I don't mind cutting 6" off. I know there will be an adjustment period to the length change, but I figure it'll be a lot easier than a full hand swap. Mark

Howdy, So a couple weeks later and I actually got in to see my buddy the orthopedist. I play hockey with him occasionally, so its nice to not have to explain why that's important to a 50 year old even though the wrist doesn't hurt for day to day stuff. Plus I can trust him to just tell me if I'm fucked or whatever. 🙂 Anyway, we're going to do an MRI, but his best guess at this point is a TFCC Tear. I guess the MRI should be definitive though and once we know more about what's actually wrong we can discuss best ways to fix it. On the plus side, he told me that basically I wasn't going to make anything way worse if I play, it'll just likely hurt. So I'm going to tape it up (with regular athletic tape, not KT stuff) and give it a go this weekend on that low level team with my wife again. Looking forward to it, to say it mildly! 🙂 Mark

Howdy, Yeah, all of that screams "time for mail order sharpening, Sparx, or ProSharp Home" to me. Give the MSH profile project a go? Mark

Howdy, I think there's every reason to expect that your old steel had the toe and heel ground off, so that you were no longer on a standard 10' profile, given what you've described. Pop the blades out of each, overlay them, and look? If they're both still 10' radius, they should line up. That's not going to tell you anything about pitch differences (since that involves the holder), but it would at least tell you if your old blades had essentially been re-profiled to something like a multiple radius by sharpeners taking off the toe and/or heel. Mark (who is very much not an expert, so you get what you pay for here. 🙂

Howdy, You mentioned you were taking shots with biscuits... Long shot, but the Green Biscuit I have is noticeably more noisy than a noraml puck, FWIW. As for the tiles, no direct experience with those. If you thought it was the tiles clacking together, maybe take a couple snapshots off just one and see if the noise was different? Seems unlikely to me, but the tiles I have use a different locking system so ?? Mark

Howdy, Hey man, takes all kinds. Like others have said, seems like its easier / safer / whatever to buy close out name sticks or pro stock stuff. But if its something you're into and you don't mind paying $100 for a dud every now and then, experimenting with the off brand / no name stuff seems fine to me. Like was mentioned, there's maybe some IP concerns but plenty of people are able to live with that. I've also heard decent things about All Black. The one a buddy had that I held / flexed didn't seem like anything special, but it didn't catch on fire as soon as I touched it either. If its something you're into, do some reviews and such. As long as you're not expecting to actually find a $300 stick equivalent for $50 or whatever, seems like it's going to be hard to be disapointed. 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