marka

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

Howdy, I don't want the officiating to improve. Makes me feel a lot better when I totally blow a call reffing beer league. Mark

Howdy, So, lots of those exercises and stretches are things I was doing in PT and at home over the past three weeks. They didn't seem to help all that much. I mean, I'm planning to keep doing them, but it makes me wonder if something else is going on or whatever. Has anyone played with different knobs as it relates to this type of thing? I've been using a Pro / Kane tacki-mac grip on my sticks, which basically has no knob at all. I'm kinda wondering if I should try a bigger diameter knob, which maybe gives me a little more leverage on the stick in terms of turning it one way or another? I'm not sure about the angled knob... Right now I put the very top of my stick into my palm, like I think is common. It seems like that would make the angle mostly irrelevant? Mark

Howdy, One thing I wonder is if the PT stuff (stretching, then fairly mild wrist exercises) hurts or at best is neutral. If the whole idea for healing is that you don't use your wrist, then I wonder if that activity works against that? I'm pretty done with KT tape. For me, its main benefit is that I look like a cool beach volleyball athlete, not that it seems to actually do anything particularly useful. I have two wrist braces... One with a metal support thing, one with a thumb hole to anchor the strap then you wrap the strap around your wrist. I've tried both a bit during this process and it didn't seem to do much, but maybe its worth trying it again. I think next week, as long as the stiffness I have right now goes away, I'll try the thumb hole wrap with athletic tape over the top to give a bit more support. Maybe I can try switching hands to righty. REALLY not excited about doing that its the last thing I need as a shitty hockey player. At least this whole process has been good for my wallet, as I've been reffing a lot so that I can keep skating some. Woo. Mark

Howdy, Apparently he also was asking to be traded there during the season. I like him as a player. Bummed to see his time with the Pens come to an end, but it seems to clearly have done so during the season from both sides. I'll be interesting to see how he does in Arizona with Tocchet. After he left the Pens to coach Arizona, the Pens performance definitely slumped. Not all due to Kessel, which makes me wonder if Tocchet was more than just the Kessel whisperer. Looks to me like it might be a trade that works out well for both parties. Mark

Howdy, So after playing hockey basically 4 or 5 times a week for 3 years starting at age 46, about 2 or 3 months ago I tweaked my right (top hand) wrist. I noticed it when I was reaching out to put a stick on a puck to deflect a shot, but I'm not convinced that it wasn't building before that, that just hurt enough for me to pay attention to it. I tried playing through it, but after a couple games I gave up on that, and took a week off. That helped a little, but the same pain was right back when I started playing again. Took a little longer break, maybe 2 weeks, then tried again, this time in playoffs. By the end of the 4 games of playoffs, the pain was back full strength. Its enough that I think about the pain, vs. playing and am somewhat wincing as I'm reaching out to do anything with my stick on a puck. Had an xray done during the 2nd break btw. No fracture, diagnosis of tendinitis. Dr. Lady says that I need to not play, could be a month or 6 months. Obviously that's not really ok, but after the 2nd attempt I give that a go, plus see a hockey buddy who's a physical therapist. Did the PT thing for about 4 weeks. Pain gone, able to do exercises, etc. Started shooting pucks in the garage last week and that went ok. Able to take 50 or so wrist shots without any serious pain, but could certainly feel the wrist working. Tonight, played a laid back game on a team my wife and I are on. The pain is back by the 3rd period, similar to the same way it was after the 2nd break. Not "this is clearly broken" or like a 10 level or anything, but certainly at the "that hurts a bit now, is getting worse, and if I keep going its going to be back to as bad as it was". So, with that long introduction... WTF am I supposed to do with this? Anyone worked through wrist tendinitis and have success? I'm reading about voodoo bands, recommended by a guy at the rink, but I have no idea if that's something that would actually help. As far as I can tell, the PT stuff hasn't actually helped beyond just giving the wrist a rest for a month. This sucks. edit: I've tried taping with KT tape. Maybe helps a tiny bit but ?? I've also tried wearing a compression strap, but that hasn't help much either. Mark

Howdy, Isn't "uses old stuff that's since been replaced in common use" basically exactly the hipster credo? Mark

Howdy, I frequently turn the alignment clicker a few clicks one way or the other based on my edge checker / experience with specific grinding rings. I never enter the alignment mode to do it. I'm reasonably sure all that does is move the carriage to the right spot for the alignment tool. For me, most rings are centered pretty well as compared to one another. But I do have one or two that need four or so clicks to get the edges level, as compared to the other rings. YMMV. Given the required tolerances, this really isn't surprising to me at all. And its one of the main reasons why I think anyone serious needs an edge checker. Mark

Howdy, Crazy. Happy for the Blues. Pretty amazed that Binnington didn't get the Conn Smythe. ROR certainly had a great playoffs though. What a story. Mark

Howdy, Sounds pretty similar to the 50 flat profile folks have tried with the ProSharp thing here. 9.5/10.5 with 50mm flat in the middle. Mike (I think?) just posted a review of it and I did one as well. I really liked it, but ended up sticking with the Zuperior S mostly out of concern that it was working my (bad) knees a bit harder. No clue if that was actually happening though. The thing I liked most was the increased stability fore/aft on my skates. Mark

Howdy, You want it to stay on for the year right? I'd just use a normal patch and sew it on by hand and then rip/cut the stitches after the season. Mark

Howdy, Wow! So do you push the tube back in or ?? All of this sounds awful. I can't imagine. Mark

Howdy, I think its different. A ref up in the press box with a microphone talking to the ear of the refs on the ice, who you see in person before the game and between periods is a much different thing than someone you see twice a year phoning in a call from Toronto. That's a way different vibe for when the four on ice refs gather together for a conference and in that conference there's another ref on-site watching from above. Challenges should still go through Toronto / whatever. This is just a mechanism for the on ice refs to ask for help whenever they want it plus a way for the on-site press box guy to say "Hey Harry... I think we ought to talk about that one" real time, just like he/she was on the ice with them. Mark

Howdy, I don't see how you "get rid of video review" in this day and age. Right now we have the situation where there's video review on everything, its just that the refs (vs. the fans) are only allowed to watch it in very specific situations. Of all the stuff I've heard talked about, I like the idea of having a ref in the press box / whatever watching from on high with video screens available to him/her and communication to the officials on the ice. I'm also not opposed to allowing a coach to challenge anything, with a 2 minute minor assessed if they're wrong. Mark

Howdy, I think they care, but I also think that you can miss a call and with 900 cameras everywhere, any time a mistake is made, its going to be caught. I do think there's a pretty big disconnect between "this guy was 5 inches offsides 30 seconds before the goal, so NO GOAL!!!!" and "The 2nd assist was a hand pass and we all know that 15 seconds after the goal was scored, but we can't change it, so... Sharks win?" Mark (edit: as a sometimes ref, this makes me feel a LOT better about stuff I miss. 🙂

Howdy, You may not like it, and that's totally understandable, but to the average guy that wants to get his damn skates sharpened, most shops _DO_ suck. And there's no way, as a regular consumer, to reliably find the ones that don't. Particularly when its the standard thing like "Joey is the guy at Pure, but Billy sucks and Jill isn't bad but can't deal with weird stuff either. Good luck! May the odds ever be in your favor". Oh, and then Joey leaves anyway because, surprise, working retail isn't a destination career for most folks. Meanwhile, despite your obvious dislike of these machines, lots and lots of people are happily using them very successfully. Because they do a pretty good job and do it consistently. You sound _EXACTLY_ like the typical machinist from 20 or 30 or 40 years ago when CNC machines were taking over. Manually sharpening a skate is an admirably skill. And, done well, you can get an extremely good result. But that takes lots of training/practice/feel and at the end of the day, there's not enough folks around that do it well vs. a hack job that destroys profiles, has edges so uneven you can see it with the naked eye, that nods their head when someone requests a roh and uses "the standard" anyway, etc. etc. etc. This is a process that begs for automation. The stuff about consistent travel speed, consistent pressure, etc. that it takes a while to get the right feel for is exactly what automation is good at. edit: And in the beginning, where was the money for Sparx to build those free sample machines for the shops? I would imagine they weren't doing a kickstarter project because they decided to turn down big money investors. They saw a need, had an idea for a product that filled that need, and were able to successfully market it to the people that wanted to fill that need. And guess what... Those people were mostly consumers, not pro shops. Or at least they were, until pro shops realized "hey... Wait a minute. You mean I can teach someone to sharpen skates in 30 minutes? And the results will be good?" Mark