marka

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

Howdy, It would be really interesting to see how VT's results changed as a function of fit. Seems like it would be fairly easy for them to test as well, since helmets are adjustable. I don't know what would happen. I can convince myself either way. 🙂 I'm not convinced that fit is as important as some here think it is (in terms of protection... Obviously its important in terms of comfort and distraction). But I'm not convinced its not either. Mark

Howdy, You missed a step or two. I.e.: "but if we hit this other helmet exactly the same way, significantly less force is associated" "does that mean that helmet is better?" "Maybe? It means that for that type of impact, less force gets transmitted to the head which is likely a good thing, but there are other factors to consider as well." "But what if that helmet is uncomfortable and looks ugly?" "Sounds like some of those other factors bud. Good luck. Be sure to rant and rave on the internet either way though!" Mark

Howdy, I agree that there's no new information here, on either side. However: What they actually say is "Helmets with more stars provide a reduction in concussion risk compared to helmets with less stars." Along with the lawyer words: "Any player in any sport can sustain a head injury with even the very best head protection. This analysis is based on data trends and probabilities, and therefore a specific person’s risk may vary. This variation is likely dominated by genetic differences, health history, and impact factors such as muscle activation." Mark

Howdy, Yeah, Warrior Pro bag here too, and similar issues. The piping on the outside is just cosmetic, but the inside mesh pockets being torn is irritating. One of my skate pockets is mostly useless and all of the side mesh pockets have the bottoms ripped out at this point and stuff migrates out into the main compartment. Having said that, when I finally get sick of it I dunno what I'll get. $crazy for a Pacific Rink or something is a hard pill to swallow. Mark

Howdy, If you can get a Pelican case for half the cost that holds the Sparx, there's no question at all that that's what I'd do. Those are great cases. You're going to have to configure you're own foam setup (either the packing foam it shipped in or pick and pluck foam I'd imagine). Mark

Howdy, So... Been occasionally reffing here and there. Slowly getting better at stuff, still have quite a ways to go. A thing I particularly suck at is recognizing a penalty. And I suck even more about mentally marking and remembering who it was on. Same thing in terms of "who scored and assisted?", but the adult league I ref with doesn't track that, so I sidestep that problem. I'm pretty comfortable with positioning now in a 2 ref system. Starting to be better about watching the players vs. just the puck. Anyway, I reffed my first upper level game last night. B League game here in Pgh, which is the highest level we have in the organization I play/ref with. The guy that runs the league was out of ref options and he talked me into doing it despite me not thinking it would be a good idea. I'm glad he did... It was quite a bit of fun. The play was a LOT faster, so I was skating more and harder which was great. It wasn't so fast that I couldn't keep up, but was fast enough that I stayed warmed up and loose vs. the lower level games I've been doing where you don't skate as much and then tighten up some. It was also a lot easier to read the play, since players typically made decent passes / didn't fumble fuck the puck. So, for instance, if I was at the blue line and a defensive player had the puck on their stick without much pressure exiting the zone, I could cheat off the line since they were unlikely to turn the puck over stupidly. I definitely needed to be better about not being in the way... With the players moving faster and able to change directions much quicker, I needed to be better about reading where they were going and more quickly getting out of their way. It wasn't horrifically bad (I don't think), but for sure there were too many times that a player had to abruptly change direction to avoid me (usually away from the play, when their attention was up ice, not so much where they were going). Also need to be better about dropping the puck. In the lower leagues they're not as keyed into any movement of my arm at all. So I adapted to that and all, but frequently when I'd drop the puck it wouldn't land flat since I was dropping it in one motion from my waist line and I'm just not very good at that yet. I blew one covering the puck call pretty badly... I was on the side of the net at home base, the puck/offensive player went to the net and the goalie was down covering that side. I got screened just a touch and when that player moved through I saw the goalie down with blocker and stick cemented to the side of the net like he was covering the puck, so I blew it dead... With the whistle sounding just as the puck / player emerge into my vision from the other side of the net. Sigh. The guys seemed pretty understanding about it, which was nice. Anyway... Despite some serious misgivings I had a good time doing it. We'll see if I get any feedback from the other ref / teams via the league organizer as to just how awful I was but I'd do it again for sure, if they wanted me to. Mark

Howdy, If someone had offered me a bet that the Pens and Tampa would be 0-fer in the first three games I'd have lost A LOT of money... Damn. Mark

Howdy, Their performance over the past couple seasons makes me wonder just how important Tocchet was. Mark

Howdy, Well, I don't think anyone saw the Pens getting blanked in this series, but at this point its hard to see how it goes any other way. Mark

Howdy, Sorry to read that. It certainly seems like you might have suffered from some self inflicted wounds in your saga, but its unfortunate that True wasn't able to work with you to come up with a solution anyway. Good luck with the CCM/other options. Mark

Howdy, You guys dealing with the medical stuff... Damn. I can't imagine. I also don't know what to say about it other than "good luck" and that I'm thinking of you. Keep fighting! Mark

Howdy, I've seen stuff like that in beginner leagues where its more of a group "do over" type of decision. But never in anything particularly competitive. Is this the reason for the FB post? Mark

Howdy, Semi-sorta related to this... Has anyone compared a warrior W28 clone to other 28's? In pictures I saw, it looked like the toe was more closed (like the CCM P30). Curious if that's actually the case. I'm liking the P30 curve, but not really liking being restricted to only CCM sticks. Mark

Howdy, Interesting. I notice that it doesn't have the 50 flat profile on it... Are there others from Prosharp like that one? I also never knew that the various quads were like the zuperior, where there's a specified size window for each profile! Mark

Howdy, Yeah, just a short sleeve T-shirt before. Reffed 3 games Saturday with the long sleeve cotton t-shirt over a short sleeve T and it worked pretty well. Hands maybe just a touch cold, but nothing crazy. If anything, my elbow pads stayed in place better as well, so win all around. If I find a good deal, I might try and find some long base layer pants vs. just underwear and impact shorts. I've never liked any of that stuff as a player, so I don't have any laying around. Slowly picking up experience. My last game on Saturday was a bit hairy as the guy I was working with had to leave early in the first since he wasn't feeling well. That left me doing it alone with a group that wasn't super fast, but still faster than I could easily go from behind the play to caught up. I kept up fine with offsides / icing / goal calls, but some chippy-ness started away from the puck that I didn't see much of and it escalated a bit. At least one really pissed off guy (who's not "that guy" normally), which sucks. Mostly all "learned hockey as an adult" players, so differing expectations as to allowed contact, etc. etc. Next time if that kinda thing starts happening I'll probably try and focus on it more vs. positioning / keeping up with the play. Maybe even stop the clock and have a quick chat with the captains. I also just generally need to get better/more consistent at the difference between "two relatively unskilled folks trying hard with limbs everywhere" vs. "penalty worthy". That's improving with experience, but it remains a weak point. Mark

Howdy, I'll add one to their causes... You might have a grinding wheel who's center doesn't match the others. My 5/8" ring needs 3 to 4 clicks to get the same edge heights as my other rings. Not sure if its always been that way or if its a wear thing (the ring is in the last 3rd of its life). Mark

Howdy, Yeah, you're going to have to see if other edge checkers also do this before you can know what's up. Could be either the edge checker or a tapered runner. Mark

Howdy, So, first go with a long sleeve t-shirt helped for sure. I was able to ref the game without gloves and without feeling like my hands were going to fall off. One question on doing this 'for real'... I'm registered as a player for USA Hockey. Do I need to register independently as a ref as well? I'd like to access the online course materials now, vs. waiting until the next season stuff opens up, but I don't want to waste $45 for 3 months or whatever. Mark

Howdy, All I can tell you is that I wanted exactly what you're asking for.. A P28 with a more closed face. I just compared the P28 clone I was using (TC4) to the P30 I switched to, it seems exactly like a P28, except the toe is closed instead of open. Blade length and lie are essentially identical. The P30 is a touch more rockered / has a little less heel and the toe isn't _quite_ as rockered / pointy as the P28, but they're extremely minor differences to me. The only noticeable thing for me on the ice is that the toe is more closed. I've never had a P46,so I can't help there. I had a W71 a while back and and don't really remember it being like a P28/P30... I just remember it having a pretty deep / wicked curve. I no longer have it though, so I can't directly compare. Mark

Howdy, P30. Unfortunately only available from CCM, so the stick selection isn't as good something more popular. Mark

Howdy, Let's review. * A customer gets his skates. The skate for _his shorter foot_ isn't long enough. * Skates are sent back to be remade. * True contacts customer to say "Hey, we're going to have to increase the holder length". * Customer (understandably) responds with "what? how come?", because nothing he's asked for would seem to indicate that the holder size would need to be increased. None of that is "expects long detailed messages". At this point what I know about custom True skates is that of the two local guys I know that have bought them, one seems in love and the other is on his 3rd go-around of shipping them back to be fixed. In terms of online experiences, the issues people are raising don't seem to be in the category of "fine tune the fit, like you'd expect" and are more in the category of "The skate was so jacked up that it needed to be completely remade". If I were True, I would be concerned with my image. There is absolutely no question that I would explore options other than True at this point, whereas a year or so ago that wasn't the case. YMMV. Mark

Howdy, FWIW, I think an edge checker is perhaps not _required_ but for sure an "If you're serious, you'll want one" purchase for one of these. If I had to pick between the two, I wouldn't spend money on the optical alignment tool, I'd just get it somewhere near and then dial in with the edge checker (since, in my experience, you have to do that anyway). Mark

Howdy, Did my first games for pay last night... Three games. Went basically ok. I need to be more decisive on penalty calls I think. I think that will come with some experience and self confidence... Looking forward to taking a seminar next spring, as right now there doesn't seem to be much scheduled around here. Question... I've been wearing black mechanics gloves since my hands get quite cold. I'd like to get away from that since I seem to be the only one doing it and Dr. Google suggests its a little unaccepted. The same Google says that either that I skate more / faster or I wear some thermal base layers to try and get my core temp up. I'm doing pretty slow games at this point and don't feel like I'm really out of position in terms of keeping up with the play, so I'm looking at base layers to retain warmth. Any recommendations? I'm worried about elbow pad slippage, since the elbows I use for reffing already aren't great about staying in place. I know there's hockey specific long sleeve base layers, but I'm assuming they're not designed to retain warmth. I'll probably just try a long sleeve t-shirt next time out, but figured I can't be the first person to run into this... Mark