marka

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

Howdy, Wanted to post a quick follow up here, after having played a full game with the 9/50/10.5 profile... I still like it! It for sure feels more stable than the others I've tried (Zuperior S w/extra forward pitch, 9/10, Quad 0, Quad 1), but I don't feel like I've lost any agility. The best way I can describe it is that it just feels like I have more blade on the ice when my weight is centered over my skates, but not so much that my feet/skates feel "locked" into whatever direction they're going. It also seems a bit easier to get that little extra contact for toe flicks on skating strides. I may do an actual back to back comparison with my baseline Zuperior S setup before I decide I'm done with profile experimentation and for sure I'll play a few more games with this, but while the differences are kinda subtle I just have a little more confidence on this profile, at least so far. Mark

Howdy, Had a chance this morning to stay on the ice after a game and test another profile... Thanks to JR and ProSharp for the ability to give these things a go and see what I notice for myself! About me: I'm a relatively new hockey player, but a relatively old person. 🙂 I started skating and playing hockey in 2015/2016 at age 46. Prior to that, I'd played a tiny bit of hockey with other neighborhood kids a couple winters on a pond in Maine, when I was growing up. When I started a couple years ago, I could sorta hockey stop on one side and kinda do forward crossovers. Today my skating has greatly improved and I can perform any normal "hockey skating maneuver", but nobody will mistake me for Connor McDavid or even just anyone that played hockey seriously as a kid. I currently play in "D" leagues in the Pittsburgh, PA area, which are one step up from full beginner leagues. I use size 7.5D Easton Mako M8 skates, with regular 263mm Step Steel. I use a 5/8" Fire 'radius' and sharpen my own skates with my Sparx. This set was initially sharpened by JR at 1/2" ROH when it was profiled, then I ran 6 passes with a 5/8" Fire ring at home. 9' / 50mm / 10.5' Please see my other reviews for context! All of my comments and ratings are in relation to other profiles I've tried. A Zuperior profile with a little added forward pitch was my baseline, which I rated at all 3's for each category. This morning, after a game in which I tried the Quad 1 profile out I had a chance to stay on the ice and give the 50 flat a try... I assume that it gets this name by having a 9' profile on the front of the blade, a flat section 50mm long, then a 10.5' profile on the back of the blade. @JR Boucicaut, please let me know if that's not correct! After trying a Quad 0 and Quad 1 without being able to notice much of any difference as compared to the Zuperior S that's my baseline, I was expecting basically the same result with this profile... I.e. that if someone switched my runners without my knowledge, I likely wouldn't be able to tell that it'd been done. Interestingly, while the feel difference was still fairly subtle, I _DID_ notice an immediate difference with the 50 Flat. For lack of a better description, it felt like I was a little more stable when my weight was centered over the middle of the blade. That did not translate into issues with tight turns... Agility felt pretty much exactly as it had before. It just felt like I had a bit more fore/aft stability and it also felt like I had a touch more edge grip. Here's some totally subjective numbers to try and say the same thing... Acceleration: 3.5Mobility: 3Stability: 4Speed: 3 I bumped acceleration a slight bit over my baseline Zuperior S profile just because it felt like maybe I was getting a tiny bit more push from the toe flick during the skating stride. Now, these were still minor differences... If I hadn't known that I changed runner profiles I'm not sure that I wouldn't have put the difference down to just changing ice conditions or the skates being freshly sharpened. But this was a back to back comparison between the Quad 1 with both profiles on freshly sharpened runners. I liked the difference! It was subtle, but that little extra bit of stability / perhaps edge grip made me a bit more confident in my skating. It also didn't seem to affect tight turns / agility in any meaningful way. I'll have a chance to play a couple more games this week, and will be sticking with this profile. If my impressions change at all, I'll post a follow up. Mark

Howdy, Another set of profiles to try out... Thanks again to JR and ProSharp for this chance. Its really been great to actually try things for myself vs. relying solely on reviews / specs. The results I've found haven't been what I'd have expected... About me: I'm a relatively new hockey player, but a relatively old person. 🙂 I started skating and playing hockey in 2015/2016 at age 46. Prior to that, I'd played a tiny bit of hockey with other neighborhood kids a couple winters on a pond in Maine, when I was growing up. When I started a couple years ago, I could sorta hockey stop on one side and kinda do forward crossovers. Today my skating has greatly improved and I can perform any normal "hockey skating maneuver", but nobody will mistake me for Connor McDavid or even just anyone that played hockey seriously as a kid. I currently play in "D" leagues in the Pittsburgh, PA area, which are one step up from full beginner leagues. I use size 7.5D Easton Mako M8 skates, with regular 263mm Step Steel. I use a 5/8" Fire 'radius' and sharpen my own skates with my Sparx. This set was initially sharpened by JR at 1/2" ROH when it was profiled, then I ran 6 passes with a 5/8" Fire ring at home. Quad One Please see my other reviews for context! All of my comments and ratings are in relation to other profiles I've tried. A Zuperior profile with a little added forward pitch was my baseline, which I rated at all 3's for each category. According to what I've found, the Quad One profile is 6', 9', 12', 15'. A Quad Zero is 6', 9', 11', 13'. Finally a Zuperior S (triple radius) is 6', 12', 26'. I mention all of those together because I'm reasonably sure that someone could swap my runners back and forth between all of those without me noticing much of any difference. I tossed on the Quad One this morning for a game, so it wasn't back to back with my baseline Zuperior S, but I was immediately pretty comfortable with it and it felt "normal" to me. Unlike my other reviews I was actually playing a normal game and so wasn't really concentrating on minute differences in profile feel, but even skating around after the game... I struggled to come up with any feel differences. I thought that _MAYBE_ there was a _SLIGHT_ decrease in stability as compared to the Zuperior S, but it was so slight that I don't know if I just imagined it. My incredibly unscientific ratings (The Zuperior S is my baseline, purposely set with all values at 3) reflect this: Acceleration: 3Mobility: 3Stability: 2.5Speed: 3 I mentioned before in my reviews that I was coming to the conclusion that outside of LARGE profile changes... Most any profile would be fine for me. Other factors like ice temperature and blade hollow & sharpness were much higher for me. The runner pitch does seem to be something I notice as well. Up next is the 50 flat profile! Sneak peak... While still subtle I actually noticed a change I liked! 🙂 Mark

Howdy, With mine, you can get a stutter with the height set high and hitting a toe that has a lot of steel / has a sharper angle to the path of the grinding wheel travel, but it has always been a brief momentary thing and the pass is normal as soon as that initial stutter is done / when the steel profile flattens out a bit. Like I mentioned, I prefer to run my height setting as high as I can. otherwise as you sharpen it seems like the profile of the blade is going to eventually get more toe/heal into it. Of course, hitting the toe / heel up high will take material away from that as well. Might be best to swap between higher and lower to account for both? Mark

Howdy, With those additional details, it sounds like you just need to win a little more, vs. cutting back. Getting destroyed all the time is never a good time. Are there other teams / leagues in your area? Is there a way to make the focus of the games less about the scoreboard and more about hanging with friends or something else? Mark

Howdy, "Quit" is strong, but "take a vacation" is my recommendation. Burnout is a real thing. From what I've seen, you've been going hard at hockey for quite a while with no breaks. Take a planned "palate cleanser" break for a few months and see how you feel. Maybe that break is from teams you're increasingly ambivalent about playing for, maybe its from playing goal, or maybe its away from hockey altogether. Its hard to take a break from hobbies we use to define ourselves. I've done it a couple times in my life and its helped me be happier. One thing I always struggled with was the "who will I be without that?" factor, as well as the "but if I want to do it again in a few months, I'll have given up a bunch of ground by taking a break". For the first one, when I've taken a break I replaced the activity with something I was freshly excited about or just wanted to try out. For me, that's the easy thing as I've usually had something else out there that looks fun but I haven't had time for. That helps with easing myself out of "I'm a <blah hobby> guy", if the new activity starts taking over for me, but its still a bit of a blocker. It doesn't need to be though... You'll still be a hockey guy even if you don't play for 6 months. For the 2nd one... Adult hockey is something that will be there when you're excited about it again. You're not going to miss your window. 🙂 Take some time off and get back going when you come back. Sure, it may not be with the same team or same friends or whatever else, but there will be a new team and new people. But the big thing is... You don't have to fully commit one way or the other. Schedule yourself a 6 month break or something like that. Feel it out. See what you want to do. Mark

Howdy, Yes, that's the right order. For some reason I think a 5/8" Fire is just a 5/8" ROH with the bottom filled in a bit, but I may be confusing it with something else. Mark

Howdy, Are you running too many passes? Unless my steel has gotten really nicked up, I use the presence of a slight burr (can feel it with my fingers, but not that visible to the eye) as an indication that I've run enough passes to fully sharpen the hollow. If I run passes beyond that point, it just increases the burr (and wastes steel). edit: I usually sharpen with the height setting at or near its highest point, as I prefer to sharpen most of the blade profile. I would be surprised if the height setting affects the amount of burr... Checking by hand, the spring pressure on the sharpening 'head' seems pretty consistent regardless of where you are in the stroke. Mark

Howdy, Quick follow up to this... I skated a couple games on the Quad 0 and then gave both sets of steel back to JR at Winterfest for the next set of profiles to try. That meant that for tonight's game I was back on my baseline set with the Zuperior profile, pitched forward "25%". It wasn't back to back, since I last skated on the Quad 0 yesterday, but if I hadn't switched the steel myself, there's no way I'd have know it was different. For me, a Quad 0 and the Zuperior profile with some additional forward pitch are indistinguishable. Mark

Howdy, Did you visit around the time that Total was going through the bankruptcy and got bought by pure? The cranberry pure at that time didn't have much inventory and I think was going through employee changes. Doesn't excuse the poor service though. In the Pittsburgh area, if I wanted goalie gear I'd head to KO Sports, if you're ever back this way. FWIW Mark