marka

Howdy, If one of these had a P30 curve and was on the order of 425 grams or less, I'd probably give it a go just to try it. But like others have mentioned, when I can get last year's mid priced sticks on clearance for that same $100 or less... Kinda hard to justify looking at no-name stuff. 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. All the talking heads were wondering if Oleksiak would go after Wilson pregame for the hit on Aston-Reese last playoffs and even encouraging it. An instigator penalty... Maybe. But certainly nothing more than that. Mark

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

Howdy, For what, the fight with Oleksiak? 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, If the boots fit the same, why wouldn't the same size holder work on each, regardless of what the manufacturer says the size is? Mark

Howdy, Most of it is still for sale, yes. Everything except the mask. 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, Does True create a 3d mold based on your foot scan? I'd heard that they just pick a last from an already existing selection that's closest to your foot shape. It would be nice to know if that is actually the case or not. 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

Howdy, Thanks to JR and ProSharp for the opportunity to try out various skate blade profiles! 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 Zero 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. After trying out a dual radius 9'/10' +1/2 deg pitch (see that review in the dual section), I switched over to this Quad Zero setup. I did the steel switch myself on the bench, fumbling with Easton's square headed screws and weird angled T-handle wrenches thinking all the while that that Tuuk Edge holder was seeming more and more like a good idea for my next pair of skates... 🙂 At home I'd compared the quad zero to the dual 9'/10' radius setup, just laying the blades on top of one another. There were differences in shape visible to the eye, but they were _minor_. I didn't actually attempt to measure them, but we're talking less than 1mm difference in blade height at any point along the profile, at least according to my eyes. I was really interested to see if I could feel any actual difference, out on the ice. After the switch, leaving the bench my overriding impression was that if I hadn't just switched the steel myself I probably wouldn't have known it had happened. Skating around a bit more before I started running through maneuvers, I knew I was going to have to be on the lookout for really subtle differences. I still had the ice to myself, so I ran through similar maneuvers as I'd done with the 9'/10' profile. I did forward/backward crossovers around the circles, forward/backward stops & starts, tight forward turns, forward/backward strides, forward/backward one foot glides, and what I call "defensive turns" where you skate with forward crossovers in a large arc, then switch to backwards crossovers midway through and finish with backwards strides. I also did some stick handling and shooting, just to break up the time a bit. All in all, I was on the ice for about 15 minutes with this profile. As I've mentioned before, I'll try to repeat these maneuvers with all of my initial profile reviews. If the differences between my baseline Zuperior profile and the dual 9'/10' profile were subtle, these were even more so. The increased toe contact I'd noticed with the dual profile wasn't there with the Quad 0. As such, when I skated backwards in particular I noticed that I had to think more about pushing on that last toe flick to get good ice contact. However, with a bit of concentration, the grip / push was still there, it felt like I was just as fast, etc. The Quad 0 profile just felt "natural" to me and I'm not sure I'd have noticed a difference between my Zuperior baseline and the Quad 0 even in a blind back to back situation. My feeling was that perhaps it still had a touch more toe contact with the ice as compared to the Zuperior, but it was slight if so. I liked this a bit better than the 9'/10' dual profile just because I didn't have a thought that _maybe_ I'd have a slightly increased chance of toe picking myself. My incredibly unscientific ratings reflect this: Acceleration: 3.5Mobility: 3Stability: 3.5Speed: 3 That's all down to the feeling of slightly less toe contact with the ice as compared to the dual 9'/10' profile, but perhaps, maybe, slightly more than the Zuperior setup. This profile, in the 15 minutes I tried it, felt so similar to the Zuperior profile that I'd been using that I'm leaving it on the skates and will skate with it for my next few games without any worry that it affect my gameplay. Perhaps I'll notice a few more differences during that time and if so, I'll update this with a followup review. Having compared three profiles in a short time at this point, my overall impression is that after you get anything reasonable on the profile, the differences are going to be much more about what you happen to like vs. any actual measurable difference in performance or balance. I seem to notice big changes like ground off toes/heels or decently large changes in pitch, but otherwise all of these differences are things where I need to be concentrating on my skating to feel. Other things, like if my skates are sharp, hardness of the ice, etc. have more of an impact, at least with my completely un-blind and "have to bust out the tools" runner switching. I now think of it more as being similar to a favorite t-shirt... Its not that its measurably better, its just that you happen to like it a bit more and so that's the one you grab out of the drawer over another. Right now though, the Quad zero is my favorite t-shirt. Mark

Howdy, Thanks to JR and ProSharp for the opportunity to try out various skate blade profiles! 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 neighborhood kids a couple winters on a pond in Maine, where I grew 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. Dual Radius 9'/10' + 1/2 deg pitch Please see my other reviews for context! All of my comments 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. I stepped onto the ice having no idea what this would be like. At home I'd compared the steel to my Zuperior setup (also on Step Steel, though with a bit more wear due to sharpening) and the dual radius seemed to be reasonably close, with a perhaps a touch less forward pitch. In the past, I'd noticed a really big difference between steel that had more radical profile differences, and really didn't know what to expect now. The differences ended up being pretty subtle to me. I was immediately comfortable and balanced skating over to the bench area to stretch out and my absolute first impression was "this is fine and I could play with it without thinking about my skates". I had the ice to myself, so I ran through a series of maneuvers to get a better sense of the changes in feel. I did forward/backward crossovers around the circles, forward/backward stops & starts, tight forward turns, forward/backward strides, forward/backward one foot glides, and what I call "defensive turns" where you skate with forward crossovers in a large arc, then switch to backwards crossovers midway through and finish with backwards strides. I also did some stick handling and shooting, just to break up the time a bit. All in all, I was on the ice for about 15 minutes with this profile. I'll try to repeat these maneuvers with all of my initial profile reviews. As mentioned, the differences were pretty subtle to me. In terms of feel, it felt like the blade had more toe contact than my baseline Zuperior profile, which particularly helped with backwards skating and getting that last 'toe flick' on the stride and perhaps a touch more stability. However, the increased toe contact wasn't so much that I had any issues with 'toe picking' the ice like I had previously occasionally had with an unprofiled stock 10' radius Step Steel setup. In every other aspect, I didn't notice any large change. It's important to note that this wasn't a direct back to back or blind comparison to my baseline profile as it'd been a day since I was last on the ice and I was the one switching steel! Anyway, here's my completely unscientific ratings: Acceleration: 4Mobility: 3Stability: 4Speed: 3 My ratings there are pretty close to the Zuperior baseline (see my review in the triple section for specific comments on that) and that reflects my perception of the subtle differences here. There was no drastic change in any category for me. I gave a slight edge for these to acceleration mostly because when skating backwards in particular it felt like I got more productive pushes with that little bit more toe contact. I bumped up Stability slightly because I seemed ever so slightly more balanced when skating backwards. Again though, overall the differences were slight. I have full confidence that I could continue to use this profile if necessary and it wouldn't affect my game. Next up was a Quad Zero! See my review in the quad section for that. Mark