marka

Howdy, So, tried the OE steel last night. I would say that I was for sure more comfortable with the more forward pitch. Never got the "too far over the toes" feeling I occasionally got with the Step steel. I did almost lose my balance backwards once though... Perhaps just because the rear of the OE steel doesn't go as far back as the Step? I'll give it a couple more skates, but I'm thinking that I might just want to get the Step steel profiled to match the pitch of the OE steel without matching the rear shape of the OE steel set? Or should I do one of these quad things? @JR Boucicaut, are you setup to profile steel yet? Mark

Howdy, I've got a pair of those. I think they're a similar thing to the Warrior Covert QRL/ QRL Pro in terms of the cuff. Fit wise, they're looser though. The ones I have also have a fairly thin palm which feels pretty good, but got a hole quickly (like, at around 30 games or so). Since they're prostock, I assume the palm will depend on whoever speced the actual gloves you get though. Mark

Howdy, Thanks JR! Is it normal that I would occasionally feel like I'm falling forward on a pitch that was more upright? I'd have expected the opposite. Maybe I'm overcompensating forward or something? Also, in the pic with the steel overlaid... The step steel has a significant amount more steel at the back than the OE steel... What should that feel like / do? Mark

Howdy, So, I recently swapped in un-profiled new Step Steel to my Mako m8 7.5 skates. Its been a month or two skating on it, and I still am having a bit of an issue occasionally loosing my forward / backward balance. I would say that generally speaking it feels fine, but occasionally it seems like I end up with my body too far in front of my feet / over my toes. I'm going to swap back to the stock steel (btw, this was recently profiled by @JR Boucicaut... I'm not 100% sure to what specs, but I seem to recall a 10' radius? Maybe he'll remember) to see if that helps and/or if this is all in my head. But meanwhile, I figured I'd post here with a few photos to see if what I'm feeling is some totally obvious "well of course, you dumbass!" kinda thing. Top steel is the OE steel, profiled by JR. Bottom is Step. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g06SkPFGwYxo2fu9MBsigCWbtnnNHTKW/view?usp=sharing Left is OE steel, Right is Step. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1byQjNIu-LsMNOyjTJV_zeEpgOlDJI8Ak/view?usp=sharing OE Steel on top of Step https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rW4bw91csGLUR3bmjjMRtV3feFtIhVm2/view?usp=sharing Appreciate any feedback.

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, I ordered through the FB Hockey Deals and Discounts group buy ($30 instead of $45), so that wasn't available, but that sounds like a great deal as well! If anyone else is interested in that group, its https://www.facebook.com/groups/183079712265223/ No affiliation, but they seem to have good deals at times. I like it mostly because I occasionally see new stuff like this I didn't know about. Mark

Howdy, I ordered one. I'll post up what I think after I get a chance to play with it. I don't get the dime thing? 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, I sent them email the other day: Here's their response: I'm likely going to try it out with my Sparx. A final buffing / honing step like this seems to make sense to me. Mark

Howdy, Anyone know more about this? https://wissota.com/product/speed-skate/ Seems to be some type of polisher / buffer / ?? 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