marka

Howdy, To me, this series is about how Murray plays. If he continues to be able to save the team from defensive mistakes, the Pens will win. If Murray breaks down (or gets injured), the Caps will finally move past the Pens in a playoff series. Mark

Howdy, Yeah, not sure I really agree with that. At the time it sure looked like his head hit the glass. And in the replays I just watched it looked like his head hit the glass. Maybe he sells it a little? I dunno. I still think 2 minutes is bullshit even if he did sell it a bit. Mark

Howdy, Bunch of missed chances by the Pens. Particularly the one Crosby missed at the end of the 2nd period. That goes in 99.5 times out of 100. I don't get the embellishment call on Hornqvist. That seemed blatantly bad. I can't make up my mind on the Giroux hit on Letang. In slow motion it looks like he looks over his shoulder, see's what's going to happen, and then jumps/moves to make the hit harder, but slow motion lies so ?? It'll be interesting to see if the league looks at it. Mark

Howdy, I don't imagine this is going to be a "fight all the time" series. Pgh hasn't recalled Sestito. :-) Mark

Howdy, Doesn't seem unreasonable to me, but if you need the money and there's nothing better, you get to put up with shit like that. It still sucks though. Mark

Howdy, Those are sweet! I was literally just looking at some Adidas Pens practice jerseys on clearance at their pens gear store in Pittsburgh and they seem super nice. But even on clearance & 40% off of that they were still too rich for my cheap-ass... :-) Mark

Howdy, https://weisstechhockey.com/team-hockey-systems/defensivezonecoverageboxplus1/ Mark

Howdy, If you're playing a box+1, what's the appropriate reaction when the other team's defensemen collapse down / pinch? Mark

Howdy, So for all you coaches out there... It would be awesome if there was a section here on "general hockey IQ / practices". Stuff like the D-zone faceoff line up that was discussed on one of the topics, basic ways to transition through the neutral zone, how to breakout, etc. It would be even more awesome if there was a guided structure to that, so that important/building block stuff was first, before diving into the weeds on something more advanced that would really only apply once everyone was playing at a high level. As to "why?"... I've noticed a really clear difference between folks that started as an adult like I did (a couple years ago) and folks that played organized hockey as kids (pretty much regardless of level). I've literally never had a coach explain/reinforce 'team' concepts. Individual skills is easier to get, and that seems to be the main focus for most 'adult skills' classes, but the how to work as a team stuff (is that what everyone means when they say "systems"?) basically seems ignored. And now that I'm playing a bit better, I notice more and more that what's holding me back is less individual skills and more "I don't know what to do". Anyway, it would be super helpful to a guy like me. Mark

Howdy, Likely because hosting pics somewhere else and then linking them here is a bit of a PITA / "I don't know how to do that" for folks. Though you presumably know that. Mark

Howdy, Per Sparx, they now recommend toe right, but say its ok to do it with the toe facing either way. https://www.sparxhockey.com/manual Mark

Howdy, Is this your first time on an internet forum? :-) Mark

Howdy, Do they even ship directly to Australia? So far, it feels like my ring usage has tracked what Sparx recommends or is slightly better. I say "feels" because I'm not actually keeping track of it, just watching the little fuel gauge indicator for ring life. I initially didn't get their edge checker or dust cover, but then changed my mind and ordered both later. I think their edge checker is very good in terms of the design. I feel like the alignment tool by itself wasn't good enough for me to dial in the edges without an edge checker, YMMV. I also like the ability to do an easy 'quality control' check on my skates after I sharpen them to help pickup anything that's gone wrong with machine alignment (hasn't happened yet) or a bent blade (ditto), etc. The dust cover costs less than my "hassle factor" for cutting up a pillow case or whatever. Another factor on rings may be that they seem to become backordered a decent bit. Mark

Howdy, Dang! That's getting pretty pricy. What lens was it? I've always heard really awesome things about Canon's Factory Service stuff. I wouldn't have any concerns that way. FWIW. Mark

Howdy, I'm not a pro skate sharpener and have never used a manual skate sharpening machine, but particularly for FBV cuts where its not just a constant radius I would have thought that if you needed to adjust the height of the skate blade, you'd want to adjust all three knobs, so that the pitch of the blade didn't change and it remained parallel in both axis to the grinding wheel? Mark

Howdy, That sucks. Does your homeowners policy cover it? Mark

Howdy, That seems like a lot of passes. When I've made hollow changes (not more than 1/8" either way), I've run 5 cycles and had all the marker I put on the edge taken away. Have you had bad experiences running less cycles? Perhaps the marker test I'm doing doesn't tell the whole story. Mark

Howdy, It's possible / likely that a work out program like that would benefit him greatly. But: * he needs a place to do it (we're in Ohio, there's still snow on the ground). * there are a lot of soccer specific skills / fundamentals that he needs work on. * he's 11 and still needs to have fun playing soccer. A work out program alone isn't going to be "fun". Mark

Howdy, I honestly have no idea. I certainly emailed him that we were coming, but I didn't include a photo or anything. :-) Even if he didn't know who we are though... It was just bizarre. The guy is a 30 to 70 feet away from me for 20 minutes with me standing up, son next to me, looking at him. And half way through that time, I walked out toward him and he motioned "hold on" or whatever. Then proceeded to remain 30 to 70 feet away, walking around, maybe talking to a kid every couple minutes. It would have taken him a max of 15 seconds to walk over and say "Hey, what's up?" At this point, we just taking a pass. There are other folks and programs around and we're just chalking this one up to "better to find out now". There's no point in me emailing him when there's no scenario I can construct that justifies that behavior. Mark

Howdy, Well, just had one of the more bizarre experiences I've ever had. We've been looking for a soccer skills program for my 11 year old. He's been playing rec league in the summers at various teams and wants to try playing a little more competitively. I found a local-ish guy. Another friend had heard of him, the local place he does practices out of recommended him, etc. Exchanged emails with him, he recommended my son coming to the 11 year old group on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6pm. A few emails back and forth, guy was pretty "emailing from a phone" brief, but whatever. Seemed to be setup for us to come up and try out a session. So we do that tonight. My son is nervous, it's a half hour away, etc. etc. We get there ten minutes early. Get him pointed out, he's out on the field with groups of kids. Hang out and wait, standing up, looking at him the whole time, etc. 6pm comes and goes, he never comes off the field. He's not 'actively coaching' during this... He's mostly walking around, occasionally making a comment to kids, etc. A group of kids my son's age come up, take outer clothes off, and go out on the field. He goes over and gets them started. Eventually I start walking around the back of the field. He's maybe 40' away the entire time, I'm the only adult doing that, he never reacts at all. He starts heading back toward the sidelines where the parents are, so I walk back over there and then start walking out onto the field, between two areas of kids, looking at him. He holds his hands up as if to say "hold on a minute". So cool, pretty weird, since its been like 10 minutes of me clearly trying to find out what the fuck we're supposed to be doing, but whatever. So, knowing the guy knows I want to talk to him I wait. I wait for for another ten minutes. He never walks over (like 30' away, he's still not 'actively coaching' or whatever). My son, of course, knows the session started at 6pm, knows its after 6pm, and is increasingly feeling bad / negative about the whole thing during all of this. He was already pretty nervous. After that ten minutes, I ask my son if he wants to leave and he does, so we go. No interaction with the guy at all. Surreal. I've literally never had another experience like it. If it wasn't related to my son / his excitement / nervousness to start / whatever it would just be funny in that "you won't believe!" kinda way. Instead I'm in some weird state of bafflement and wanting to punch the fucker in the throat. But I guess I'm an adult, so I'll just look for a different program. :-) Mark

Howdy, With the guys I play with, mostly the folks that have newer / better equipment don't play as well as the guys sporting the 20 year old stuff. :-) Mark

Howdy, Reading up on speed plates because my wife is thinking she wants something a little more supportive than the stock insoles in her new X600's. Any updates to address durability for these, or are people still regularly having them crack? Mark

Howdy, I bet used rings with life left would have a good market. I've been surprised not to see some of those for sale from folks that tried them and realized they didn't like that grind. Mark

Howdy, Yeah. I haven't seen a pair of Mako's in a 7.5 in any model at any price in the last six months. $150 CAD w/new step steel seems pretty damned awesome to me. Mark

Howdy, Since the machine aligns the center of the clamp (and thus the center of the blade) to the center of the grinding ring, there's no need to align it for every pair of skates. Different blade thicknesses still end up with the center of the blade in the same plane, since the clamping center point doesn't move w/reference to the grinding ring. Mark