marka

Howdy, I think the Lightning jersey looks cool. In general, I think sublimated jerseys open up some neat options. And I like the effect on the sleeves there. Mark

Howdy, Put something 4" or so long that's flat across the blade and eyeball it. Worst case, use a quarter. My experience is that edges have to be out a decent bit (visible by eye like the above) before it makes a difference. But having said that, I don't have as much experience as most here. Mark

Howdy, Yeah. I kinda wonder if they'll look better in person / in motion, but the pictures I've seen have all been "Blech!" in terms of my reaction. Its like someone washed them and the colors ran or something. Mark

Howdy, Recourse in what way? Season's basically done at this point, right? I don't think anyone would disagree that the situation you both describe sounds like a total sh*t show, but I don't see how you can expect money back at this point. Instead, my focus would be on rehabilitating my kid. And for that, I would say to let him take the lead on it mostly. Give him a break from you talking about hockey for a while to decompress. Go to movies, do whatever. Then after a while see if he just wants to go to a stick & puck or something and see if he has fun. Let him drive how serious he wants to be from there. Mark

Howdy, Yeah. Our school system went from "watch the news / check online" to "call, email, and text both parents". And apparently there's no way to say "Hey, uh... We'd like to keep just the texting part?" Mark

Howdy, So doing this, would you attempt to overtake the play to get ahead of it when a turnover occurs? Otherwise being ahead of the play immediately turns into being behind it, right? Mark

Howdy, Anyone got any links to positioning videos for reffing as a single ref? I've seen plenty of 2+ positioning, but nothing that really talks about strategies for doing it alone. Mark

Howdy, Glad your kid is having fun playing hockey. That other team/coach sounds like a disaster. Mark

Howdy, So, got back out again this morning. This time with the guy that offered to coach me some. It was definitely nice working with him. On positioning, one thing he said really helped me... Basically that I should be thinking like I'm a 3rd, really conservative, defenseman (2 ref system, btw). So I'm down at home base, then as the play transitions out of the zone, I follow the play up, staying even / slightly behind the defensive players. As we get into the offensive zone, then I stay on the neutral zone size of the line and wait for play to transition the other way. When it does, I try and stay even or slightly behind the defenseman again until I'm back down at home base. It's not exactly that simple (I assume) since I may need to call zone exits in the offensive zone and zone entries into the defensive zone, but the concept helped me for sure. Also worked on just dropping the puck. I probably spent five minutes throwing pucks at the ice after the game and just that extra bit of practice helped. I think as part of my warmup routine when I'm reffing I'm going to drop a few pucks just to try and get into that same groove. Worked on signals some as well. The guy helping me is pretty particular on signals that aren't lazy or "happy" / "excited". I would say that when I play games I don't see refs that are that diligent about them, but its still good for me to learn. Anyway... It was a good morning. 🙂 I feel like I'm slowly learning some stuff and working on building my skill set. Hopefully as I get better I won't need to think so consciously about some of this stuff. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, For sure! Already on the calendar for me and Laura. Mark

Howdy, Yeah, my issue is that when I'm reading through this stuff in the rulebook, it pretty immediately gets way too deep for me. Like the picture of that page... I read that and my overriding reaction is "Um, WTF?" Maybe it doesn't matter, at least for now? In the men's league games I've played in, there's basically only been minor penalties and game misconducts. I don't recall ever seeing a major or misconduct called. Mark

Howdy, Another one... As a player, I just go sit in the box until the ref tells me I can leave... That's not going to cut it. 🙂 Is there some straightforward guide to this somewhere? I get individual minor penalties. I don't necessarily get coincidental penalties, how more major stuff works, etc. As a dumb for instance, I don't know when you play 4v4 vs. 5v5 when a player from either team gets penalized. Thanks! Sorry about the dumb questions. Mark

Howdy, Yeah, I have a copy of the basic manual and read it. Thanks for the info! Mark

Howdy, So... Is there no hand signal from the ref when they blow the whistle for a dead puck? Any difference for goalie covering vs. player? I'm not finding one anywhere, but its hard to confirm a negative or whatever. Mark

Howdy, Oh yeah... The tron visor worked great. Didn't fog up, was visually fine, etc. etc. I'm pretty sure I NEVER want to play with it though, since I think I would like it a LOT and I really like my teeth, eyes, and facial structure. Mark

Howdy, First time out last night. I didn't get into any fist fights and nobody called me a motherf*cker, so that's a good first outing, right? 🙂 The guy who's showing me the ropes / runs the league actually couldn't be there, so I was reffing with another guy. Felt bad for him that he was working with a rank newbie, but he seemed ok with it in general and helped me out with advise. My overall impression is that there's just so much other shit to think about / be ready for! As a player, I don't watch other players for anything beyond "which way will the play go". Obviously that isn't the case as a ref, and that's weird to get used to / change my natural reactions. Offsides calls were pretty easy... I play wing a lot so I'm used to watching other players to see if its ok to go or not. I had to get used to signalling a good zone entry every time to tell my partner it was ok though. I also struggled a little with situations where the puck exited the zone, was regained by the attacking team, but they still had players in the offensive zone. At times I was signaling a delayed offsides before the puck actually went back into the offensive zone and I'm almost 100% sure that's wrong. I also would verbally say "get out! get out!" when that happened, which I think is probably ok, in a beginner league especially? I sucked with initiating icing calls... When I was the deep ref (I don't know the right words... I mean the ref down at "home base" or whatever its called in the zone, vs. the "high" ref at the blue line) I frequently forgot to evaluate if the defending team shot the puck out of the zone. I think maybe I was only 50/50 at best on that? The league uses blue line icing, which I think actually hurts me with this, just because it happens more rarely. I need to get better here. As the high ref, it was fine. More time to evaluate and again, I'm often playing wing so I'm more used to evaluating that. Actually, in terms of hand signals I just sorta sucked in general. When the goalie would cover the puck I would blow the whistle and point at them... That's certainly wrong. And when I thought about it, I knew it was wrong, but wasn't sure what the actual signal should be... I'll need to review that. I imagine its either a wave off signal or just a point to the appropriate face off dot? I also initially wasn't waving off good zone entries every time, but my partner mentioned that to me between periods and I started doing it. Positioning-wise, I got a little better as the game went on, but for sure an area for me to work on. I'd read the above manual, but reading a diagram and saying "oh, of course" and doing it in practice in response to situations are two different things of course. When I was the high ref I would frequently get "caught" watching zone exits, vs. getting moving and staying ahead of the play so that I could judge the opposite zone entry and then get to my position as the "deep" ref. Even when I got moving early and judged the zone entry when play reversed, I would sometimes then not keep moving and get down to the deep / home base position. I also need to practice faceoffs. I didn't realize I needed to blow the whistle before I dropped the puck, but that was easily corrected by the other ref. The actual face off itself... I think I had maybe one puck land flat out of the five to ten I dropped? Horrible. Who knew dropping a damn puck would be hard? Counting players is also weird. Again, something I never worry about as a player. Almost made myself look like an idiot at the end of the game when the team that was down by one had 6 skaters on the ice... I realized the goalie had been pulled as I was about to say something. 🙂 Still, cost the team down by a goal a couple seconds while I held the puck on a face off figuring that out. Anyway, that's way too long already. 🙂 It was challenging and now I want to ref a bunch of games to get better at it. Its going to be slower going though, since I'm just doing it for my wife's beginner games. Even if I could, I don't think I'd be comfortable at this point with more serious games where I didn't already know a lot of the people. Got some positioning videos and hand signals to brush up on! Mark

Howdy, I liked it in terms of backwards skating. I think it was the additional stability helping there as well. Basically, it felt like I had a bigger "sweet spot" where if my weight was near the center of the skate (in the fore and aft axis), it was stable and solid. That said... I noticed my bad knee feeling a bit different and went back to the Zuperior S, just in case the (minor) additional torque to turn the blade on the ice was the cause. Only been a couple skates so too early to tell on that, but I would say that I didn't notice a huge stability difference between the Zuperior and the 50 flat, if that helps at all. If anything, the Zuperior may have been a bit more stable as my weight went backwards. Mark

Howdy, A local buddy just received his Trues and was initially raving about them. A week later and I hear he's getting another pair made because these ones were too long and he started getting heel lift. I'm sure there are lots of cases where their first pair is great, though. Does anyone know the stats on how many pairs they remake? And just how big is the profit margin on skates where they can afford to make two+ pairs per customer to dial in the fit? Mark

Howdy, So, reading the basic manual and I realized that I need a visor... What's the scoop on inexpensive visors and their care/feeding? I've always played with a cage. I assume I'll need to protect the visor somehow as well when my gear is in the gearbag? Are the $30 visors that Tron has reasonable? Or do I really need to spend $70+ on a name one? Mark

Howdy, Yeah, particularly this far out, I can make either date work. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, Ordered a t-shirt and a polo. Hopefully MSH gets a good cut of the price! Mark

Howdy, I wonder if visibility could be better for that stuff? Like maybe have one of the ads that show be an add for MSH gear? I was on here for something like a year before I knew hats existed... Mark

Howdy, Things about the current setup I like, but could maybe have a tweak or two (or maybe not)... * Getting the inside scoop on hockey stuff. New gear for sure, but other stuff too. I think that happens already to a large extent with the initial reviews, LTRs, and some of the brand managers that are involved here, but it would be cool to see Bauer and CCM get more involved here particularly. * Events. SummerJam and WinterFest are super fun. I think the format is already pretty good and has a nice "Friends getting together" vibe while still being somewhat open to new folks. * MSH branded stuff. It would be nice to have some more options here, but I don't know how feasible it is. For me there needs to be a range that includes "impulse" stuff that's $30 or less (hats/mugs/t-shirts/sweatshirts/whatever) and "probably should ask my wife if its ok" stuff like gloves/jerseys/bags/whatever. I think one thing that could maybe be a bit better is a little more acceptance of "rumor mill" discussion? Like, perhaps have a subforum just for that, where speculation / posting a screengrab / whatever is ok? Obviously that's out there in other places and its interesting to folks, but equally obviously, MSH can't officially comment on that stuff where there are gag orders, etc. . It would still be nice to have that here, vs. other places. A camera forum I'm on that also has a bunch of industry people does this, where us peons can rumor mill away, but the "official people" don't participate. Technology-wise, being able to directly attach images would ber nice both from ease of use as well as for "10 years from now, that imgur link won't work" perspective. Also, for some reason on posts now, there's a huge (like seconds) delay between typing a character and having it appear. Like I type ahead a sentence or two, and 20 seconds later that pops up on my screen in the editor window. Chrome/Windows 7. Seems to happen when I hit the spacebar? Maybe? I haven't tried to debug it. Overall, I like what's here. :-) Mark

Howdy, So... My wife plays hockey too, but at a decently lower level than I do. We've been playing together in a beginner league, but that makes me the "ringer guy" even if I don't play for real and give the other players chances, make sure to pass, don't shoot, etc. etc. It also means I'm taking up a spot for another real beginner. So instead it looks like I'll be a ref... That's something I've been interested in trying, the guy that runs the beginner league (who also refs it) is up for teaching me some basics, and it keeps me out there with my wife having fun. I won't get paid or anything, but equally I don't need to worry about getting certified. My only concern is that I started playing 3 years ago and while I have an ok grasp of the rules as a player, I'm certainly no expert. Stuff like where faceoffs should be depending on what happened, etc. etc. isn't just built in knowledge for me. So my question... Is there a "hockey ref 101" type of online course or book or whatever out there that presents the stuff you need to know as a ref in 'priority order'? Just looking for something that's organized in terms of more common situations to less common, vs. just reading the USA Hockey rulebook front to back... Thanks! Mark

Howdy, I would say that you can use the alignment tool to get within say 6 clicks or so of actually centered and _maybe_ you wouldn't notice that, but I certainly am happier having one so that I can verify that my edges are even. Mark