marka

Howdy, Today that same Mom and Dad go and buy junior helmet X because its cheap, because they like how it looks, or because its the only one in the store that's yellow. Said another way, its not the fault of the VT study if people are dumb. Mark

Howdy, I think its very, very unlikely that I'll (or anyone), will reach the end of the list before finding a helmet that fits well. Basically, I use the ratings as a way to order the helmets to try for comfort/fit. I'm not doing that because I believe that fit is important to safety (I don't know), but rather because I have enough experience with myself to know that a helmet I hate to put on isn't worth what I'm guessing will be a marginal safety improvement (again, assumption here is that there will be enough helmets at a particular rating area that I'll find one that fits well). I'm less sensitive to price on something like a helmet, but I will do a similar thing in that if the two helmets are very similarly ranked and both fit well, I'll pick the cheaper one. FWIW, that's one of the reasons I'm really interested in results from the new 710... If its a four star helmet it not only gives me another option in terms of fit, its also a LOT cheaper than the ReAkt 200. I treat the VT rankings as an important decision making criteria, but not the only one. Mark

Howdy, Well, I have an actual venting item. Two even! And no, its got nothing to do with helmet ratings... :-) I don't get guys that feel like they need to fight in beer league. Tonight in a D league game (here we have B through E) one of our defensemen made a reasonable aggressive move and stepped into a guy, stick on puck, knocking the puck away and knocking the guy down. Ref later called it a trip. Good enough. It really looked more like two average skill guys at best coming together on the ice. The guy gets up off the ice, throws his gloves down, reaches over the top of our guy's helmet, and pulls it forward off his head. I can only assume that was so that when he started throwing punches he wouldn't hit his cage. As this is going on, he gets partially tackled / bear hugged by his own teammate, everyone crashes to the ice, with this idiot still trying to throw punches. Our guy is now cut on his head, from getting his helmet dragged off. Refs pretty much just stand back and watch, but the guy's teammate pulls him off, etc. I just don't get the motivation there. I mean... I get becoming seriously pissed. Fine. Yell at the guy and call him a cocksucker. Hell, two hand him across the chest in the heat of the moment, whatever. But if you've got enough rational thought left to intentionally drop the gloves, then recognize that you don't want to punch a cage, then pull the helmet off... Then I'm sorry. Beer league is not for you and you should no longer have the option to play it. My next vent occurred about five minutes later. Everyone had adrenaline up, nobody knows what's going on (this is the first "real fight" I've seen or heard about in this league). Things seem to be calmed down and the other team's captain is talking to the ref, asks how this is going to work, what the specific penalties are, etc. The ref apparently takes this as giving him lip or something, but rolls his eyes and disdainfully answers the guy. We're just about getting ready to drop the puck and the other captain _agrees with the ref_ and says "yeah, everyone saw it". Ref looks at him and (disdainfully again) says "you're done, get off the ice". Captain is incredulous, not sure he understood and says "what?", then the ref repeats. The captain at this point looses it some and starts with "are you fucking kidding me?" and the ref says "that's another game". The captain then progresses to colorful names / etc. Its a shit show. And its not the first time this has happened with this particular ref. He's got a pattern of escalating incidents instead of defusing them and his "style" doesn't match any other ref or the league in general. I don't get it. Everyone is there to have a good time. Its also hockey. If someone comes over and calls you a motherfucker... Fine. Toss his ass. But some dude saying "are you fucking kidding me?" to the air in general after you've just made a piss poor call (or even if you got it right) needs to result in you being the adult in the situation. Mark

Howdy, I've been wearing helmets of one form or another for nearly 30 years. I've got lots of first hand experience that helmets built for a head shape that doesn't match mine are uncomfortable, putting excessive pressure on some areas of my head. I don't have any experience that they don't still work to attenuate impacts. Do you have any links to studies or data that shows that two otherwise equal helmets, one with a shell for a more oval head and one with a shell shape for a more round head transfer an impact to the same head differently? You're making a supposition that the helmets that don't score well don't fit the headform well or aren't fit onto the headform well. Do you have any evidence to back that assumption up? Let me be clear... Fit type may well be a factor in how well the helmet performs in the VT test. I don't know. But I don't think anyone else knows either and disregarding the results wholesale is at absolute best throwing the baby out with the bathwater. ipvfreely, I'd appreciate it if you would stop with the personal insults. Your anti-vaxxer analogy is absurd. If it were accurate, you would easily be able to point to studies that show the VT tests are crap. Yet even after being repeatedly asked, you haven't provided any. That situation does not mirror the anti-vaxxer one in any way. I still would like to know if any knows when/if VT plans to test the 310/710. Does anyone have info? Mark

Howdy, Links to the studies / tests / data debunking the VT tests? I'm looking for something beyond the statements like "the old Bauer scored better than the new Bauer" or "The CCM scored worse even though its the same helmet as the Reebok that scored better. Well, except for the padding differences." I still think the best way to pick a helmet today is to start at the top of the VT rankings and work down the list until you find a helmet that fits well / is comfortable and that you can afford. But neither of us is going to convince the other, at least not until there are additional actual studies / tests performed. :-) The question still remains. Anyone know if the 310 / 710 helmets are going to be tested by VT any time soon? Mark

Howdy, One of the upsides of being a programmer that works from home is that later games aren't an issue. Heck, if anything my gripe is the opposite... Its a lot worse for me to have to leave my family and go play at 7pm. For later games, they all head to bed and I head out to hockey! :-) Mark

Howdy, I'm still not seeing the new 310 / 710 on CCM's website. Is it somewhere I'm just not looking? edit: Gah. I'm an idiot, I didn't realize it was a "Tacks" helmet. Mark

Howdy, They're on the shelves at the Total Hockey in Cranberry, PA, FWIW. Mark

Howdy, That sucks man. I hope you and your family can get through these times in the best way possible. You're in our thoughts. Mark

Howdy, First, there's no shame in cutting back. I mean, don't leave folks in the lurch, but don't keep doing stuff if you're not having fun at it either. The question is if you're not having fun because you think you suck or if its just not as fun as it was before to put in the time/energy and you wish you were doing other things. The only help for the 2nd one is to go do those other things and see if you prefer having your time spent there. But for the first one... I get the "not improving" frustration. I started playing a year and half ago and all of the easy to see big steps seem to be done. I was getting a little discouraged. Talked with my wife and other people some and they pointed out various small things that I take for granted now that I couldn't do as well six months ago. They were small enough things that I didn't think of them as "improvements", but once pointed out, I remembered being frustrated by not being able to do that stuff. And so now I look at smaller stuff when I'm looking for encouragement. Like lately I've been working a bit on elevating the puck on in close shots and playing with that in warmup for games, etc. I'm seeing a way that that works now, whereas before I just couldn't ever make it happen. Your "honeymoon period" is a great phrase. To me, the honeymoon period is when you're making huge strides every time out, having fun even if you totally suck, etc. I think that exists in any skill (it certainly does in motorsports, my other big addiction). The trick, for me, of going beyond the honeymoon period is to look for the smaller improvements that you ARE still making and accepting that those improvements still matter. Mark

Howdy, Seems like as good a place as any... Any of you Toronto folks checking this out? http://www.blogto.com/events/hockey-warehouse-clearance-sale/ Mark

Howdy, Not really equipment per se, but I thought some might find it cool... A buddy started doing "found metal item art" Mark

Howdy, Mine has been fine as well, at least in terms of "are my edges wildly off" type of stuff. I would need to have better measuring tools to determine whether this or the "real" edge checkers were more accurate. Obviously at a minimum it will be consistent, which is really the primary thing I cared about since I could reference the local pro shop's name brand tool. I would hope that the person building these has a fixture to afix the reference sticker on that takes into account how the magnet/angle is fixed to the piece. If the magnet / angle wasn't perpendicular to the cross piece, that could make the sticker look crooked, but actually be correct. Or it could be $30 measuring tool QA. :-) Mark

Howdy, I was able to get lace locks from a local shop for reasonable money, and CCM was helpful when I contacted them as well. Never found anything worthwhile online though. That said, I totally agree. I really like lace locks and wish more skates had them. I added them to my Mako M8's and they work ok, but its not as good as my old Ribcors (in terms of the lace locks only), as the mounting point for the lace lock is further out of line with the regular eyelets on those, so that the lock ends up in line with the eyelets. It just works better. I much prefer actual lace locks to fucking around with lacing patterns or whatever. Not sure why it never really caught on. Mark

Howdy, Wow... Scary and happy both! Serious medical stuff for someone you love is crazy. My wife had some serious brain related stuff that started last Sept. Things have since settled down and are back to normal, but for a while there (particularly the first month or so) it was just mentally moving and reacting and constant "what if" with lots of paths leading to bad things. And all through that you're learning way more than you ever wanted to know about various hospitals, medical conditions, etc. Its nuts. I can't imagine also throwing in a wedding! I'm glad that things seem to be moving forward in a good way for you. Hopefully catching it early will mean no issues with a full recovery! Mark

Howdy, Oh man, that one hurts just to see in the gif. :-( Mark

Howdy, Good to see the Pontiac Aztec design team is still getting paid by someone. :-) Just giving you some shit. I've never really cared about a vehicles looks vs. how good it is at its job. Mark

Howdy, Its the St. Paddy's Day jersey! Mark

Howdy, My son got to play an exhibition game at Quicken Loans arena yesterday. :-) He plays goalie and is just starting out despite being "old" at 10. The group he plays with is a local house league and this kinda came up outta the blue. He's been pretty ambivalent about hockey in general, and quit a different house team at the beginning of this past season, then didn't play at all for a few months. He just recently decided he'd like to go up and play with this local more laid back group. Anyway, I figured he wouldn't want to go to the exhibition game and would prefer the more low key approach. His only other 'real' game was a 0-16 or so complete drubbing that really hurt his confidence / enjoyment of the sport, back when he was part of the previous house league. Anyway, he finds out about the game and of course I was totally wrong and he really wants to go. We work out with the house league organizer that he'd go and be the backup goalie, just riding the pine. As the game gets closer, my son is more and more interested in playing, but gets that he's the backup. Anyway, yesterday to our complete surprise the organizer had decided to have both goalies (the other was a fill in from the local Squirt travel team) play! We knew none of this until we see our son skating out to start the 2nd period in net. I was a freaking wreck. The score at that point was 2-1, IIRC. Anyway, over the course of the 2nd period he got scored on 3 times. Two were fairly soft goals, but he didn't have much chance on the 3rd. We also scored some, and the 2nd period ends with the score tied at 4/4. I'm breathing a HUGE sign of relief at this point, because the other goalie is headed back out. :-) My son played ok... I think the best he ever has, but is obviously way behind either our other goalie or the other team's net minder. Still, he positioned himself better than I've seen before and was a little faster to try and cover the puck. Still not going down onto the ice soon enough to try and block shots with his pads, but for sure an incremental improvement over where he's been. Anyway, the other goalie starts the 3rd period and I relax and watch the game since my son is done. He's standing up at the boards, watching what's going on, and more into the game than I'd have ever expected too, which is awesome. Then he's skating out with about 5 minutes left in the game! With 30 seconds left on a penalty kill! What! Turns out the organizer had decided to split the goalie time equally between the two... Score was still 4/4. Game on the line. The kids had played WAY better than I'd expected, plus the other team wasn't as strong as I'd feared. But seeing my son the fairly new goalie, who's had a history of lukewarm interest, headed out to close out the game currently in a 4/4 tie... Damn. Nervous does not begin to describe it. :-) Anyway, the kids are playing well and they're controlling the puck pretty well. But then here comes the break away and my son the newb is the only thing between the puck and the net. He positions himself reasonably well and there's a good shot and wham! the puck goes off his mask and back behind the net. Save! I think he had another poke check save as well in there. Game ends, tied 4/4. My son had fun and is (rightfully) proud of how he did and his improvements. There's plenty for him to improve on, but this was his best performance on the ice ever. And I didn't have a heart attack. :-) Mark

Howdy, Cool. I just wasn't sure you were aware this was a NOS item that whoever the ebay seller is apparently purchased as part of a lot, vs. something they were producing now. [Edit: That's an assumption, of course... But after I won the auction for one of them (for $6) plus a few others (unrelated) I offered to pay another $6 for the other identical modsquad jersey he had listed that got no bids if he'd ship it for free in the package. Instead, he threw it in for literally nothing. It didn't seem like he was really trying to make money by producing new items, which is why I figured he got them as part of some big package deal.] PM me with whatever the profit is on these and I can paypal you some $$. [edit again: Or let me know if you'd rather do something else. I like the jerseys though. Pens/Bruins colors. :-)] Mark

Howdy, FWIW, maybe not... These apparently came from a closeout / "NOS" supply. My guess is that they were made back then and never sold? Dunno. I paid $12 shipped for both of them... http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=modsquad+hockey+jersey&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_ftrt=901&_ftrv=1&_sabdlo=&_sabdhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=44514&_sargn=-1%26saslc%3D1&_salic=1&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50 Mark

Howdy, No real update for a while, so I figured I'd post up my curve dalliances. In the first year, I tried a few things. Sakic / W03 / whatever to start with, then a W01/PM9. Ended up with a W88 / P40, which I mostly liked. Then I read something about the E28 and kinda wanted to try a toe curve, so I got one. I liked it. It felt like I could control the puck better on the toe of my stick during stick handling (particularly to the forehand side) and wrist shots felt better / quicker. I eventually also figured out to rotate the stick forward before taking slap shots and that seemed to really help too. But my backhand passes / shots & catching passes on the backhand were awful. If I didn't have the puck in exactly the right place on the heel of the stick on a pass / shot I had no power at all. It also seemed like when I had to reach even a little to catch a hard pass out in front of me coming from the forehand side, the puck would bump the stick up / get through. Someone here also posted something about how it was annoying that kids were reading about E28 curves and those being popular and that meant lots of kids starting with that curve and how that wasn't good. Not a lot of details as to why, but I figure I'm basically a 47 year old 2nd year Mite at this point so... Meanwhile, I'd sold off a bunch of gear that I'd accumulated in my first year (let's just say that I clearly belong on a gear whore site...). So I didn't have any other curves. But I decided to check and it turned out the guy I sold most of the gear to still had the True MC (A4.5 intermediate) I'd sold him and was willing to sell it back to me. So I did that. I noticed an instant improvement on backhand anything... Shot, pass, puck reception... All of it was better. And I didn't notice any particular difference in stick handling. Maybe the issues I thought the E28 curve helped with were mostly resolved by me just getting a little better at it generally? I haven't decided on shot differences yet... I think I'm still way more influenced by factors like "how much did you just fuck that up?" vs. "this curve is better than that curve". Not sure about receiving hard passes in front of me yet either. It seems a little better, but maybe I've just gotten better at it? Or I'm concentrating on it more? So yeah. Woo? I dunno. I'm tempted to ask and see if you expert type people out there think the W88/P40/P88/MC curve is better for beginners vs. the E28/MC4 curve, but I have no confidence that I'll actually listen to the answers if I get some new weird bug up my ass about curves... Maybe a Sakic curve would be perfect!!!!!! :-) Mark

Howdy, Doing my typical "cruise ebay looking for cheap interesting hockey jerseys" and came across a couple that I bet folks here know the story behind... http://www.ebay.com/itm/MEDIUM-ModSquad-Online-Report-Black-Gold-2-Throwback-Minor-League-Hockey-Jersey-/132118062236?hash=item1ec2d9a49c:g:-SoAAOSwzaJX-URq Mark @JR Boucicaut, what's the scoop on when these were made?

Howdy, Jesus. That's awful. Condolences to all involved there. Mark

Howdy, Last week I passed the "I've changed my work password 100 times" threshold. :-) Mark