marka

Howdy, I have a pair of new 14" ProStock Warrior Coverts. Edler/Canucks. These have slightly extended cuffs as well as extended fingers. Fingers are also reduced in height, making for a snug fit. They also have shot blockers. These would be perfect for someone with "piano hands" / slim & long hands. They're a little too tight for me in new condition and I figured I'd see if someone else wanted them before wearing them for a while to see if they'd break into a looser fit. Pics are in the SLS ad. Price for folks here is $145 shippped to the continental US. https://sidelineswap.com/gear/hockey/gloves/6002797-warrior-edler-14-pro-stock-qrl-gloves-w-shot-blockers Mark

Howdy, I have a bunch of girdle shells for sale, since I'm now fat and I finally got sick of squeezing in to them. All in very good to excellent condition. Warrior Dynasty / whatever. All $45 shipped to continental US. Minnesota Wild - sold Calgary Flames - sold Edmonton Oilers - sold CCM PP90. $45 shipped Pittsburgh Penguins (vegas gold) Buffalo Sabres - sold Reebok MPP9KC.SP. $45 shipped Winnipeg Jets - sold Also have a black retail Bauer Supreme S190 shell. $35 shipped. - sold Again, all size Medium and all in good condition. You can see pics on Sideline at: https://sidelineswap.com/locker/marka123 Happy to discount if buying multiple. PM me an offer. Mark

Howdy, I wish there was a specific category for gloves, because I'm all about Warrior gloves, but like CCM for other protective. For sticks, some of it is curve driven. CCM gets the nod from me there right now, but I've been equally all about True and Warrior both in my short time playing. Mark

Howdy, I've got a lightly used (2 or 3 games) Warrior Novium Pro for sale. 75 flex, M03, Left. Its been cut a couple inches, Just under 63" against the wall / 56.5 inches from the butt end to the heel. Nothing wrong with it, I just didn't like the way it felt compared to the Jetspeed FT3 I'd been using. I'd like to get $225 shipped to the continental US, if I can sell it through this forum. Pictures are in my sidelineswap ad. https://sidelineswap.com/gear/hockey/sticks/5984392-warrior-novium-pro-hockey-stick-m03-w03-max-75-flex-left Mark

Howdy, Dang dude, that sounds pretty intense. I've got a 'clean up' shoulder surgery scheduled in a couple weeks to address some tearing in the rotator cuff and a bicep tendon issue, but your procedure sounds WAY worse. Reffing is definitely a nice way to stay involved and skate and such. And while its still hockey and very occasionally you'll get run into, have a puck dumped into you, or just manage to fall on your own it for sure happens way less than playing. For my procedure they're saying that I'll be in a sling for 4 to 6 weeks, then 2 to 4 months of rehab after that. I'm hoping that I can at least get back out there reffing once I'm out of the sling! Good luck with your recovery! Mark

Howdy, So, did my first games as a linesman this past weekend. Some kinda U18 showcase thing* here in Youngstown, OH. Full four man system. 17 minute periods, ice cut between each, etc. Pretty neat. Took me a while to reprogram all my "automatic" moves... I'm so used to leading the play (ideally) or trailing the play (because I'm old and slow) into the zone to establish position in the Golden Triangle. I'd catch myself unconsciously doing that and then stop and get back to the line where I was supposed to be. Also had issues after an in zone faceoff, where I would naturally back towards the corner and just watch. Again, I'd catch myself doing that, and have to get back out up to the line. The other weird thing was being at the line calling icings, vs. being deeper in the zone. Lots of times I would have to remind myself that I was still the "low guy" even though I was even with or even ahead of where the pass / dump was originating. Also different with a referee controlling the line change. I've done that once or twice in a 2 man game, but never twigged to "blow the whistle to start the faceoff procedure when the ref drops his arm". Anyway, it was fun. Nice to have four folks out there instead of two. I was quite happy to be lining and have secondary responsibility for penalties / goal & assist rewards, given how fast it was. Also nice to have time between periods to talk, though it makes the games take longer. And that was another interesting thing... These games actually paid a little worse per hour than the lower level stuff does. Sure, it was $75 to $100 (depending on which game I was lining for), but with 17 minute periods and two ice cuts I could almost do two full lower level games at $60 per or whatever. The only other really surprising thing was that with all the $$ they were spending to get there, have lots of ice time, etc. etc. they saved money in really stupid ways... There wasn't an EMT there and they didn't have enough off ice officials / team personal for at least one of the games to run the penalty box. The EMT thing is just ridiculously stupid... This is a showcase deal with kids trying to impress actual scouts going 100 miles an hour. Stuff happens. At one point a coach asked us to see if there was an EMT in the building because a kid that had been involved in a collision was having head pain. None to be found. At least you don't die quickly from a concussion, but who knows about skate cuts, etc. etc. The "nobody to run the box" thing bit me in a funny (after the fact) way. I'm doing the right thing, covering my line, helping my partner cover his, etc. etc. I'm on the side of the ice with the timekeeper and penalty boxes. Team benches are on the other side. Suddenly everyone is yelling. I look around for something wrong. Don't see anything. People still yelling. Eventually I figure out they're yelling "Door". Sure enough, penalty box door is open behind me from when a kid came out of the box. As I realize what's happening and turn to get the door, one of the refs has waited enough and blows it dead. I'm pretty sure that I was literally the only person in the damn arena that didn't realize the door was open. 🙂 Mark * This was the first time that there were legitimately scouts in the stands when I was on the ice. They were not looking at me, however. 🙂

Howdy, Does anyone know Bauer's Re-Akt helmet lineage / changes? For playing, I currently wear a Bauer re-akt 200, Size M, opened all the way up. That fits basically perfectly. My ref helmet is pretty out of date at this point (CCM Resistance 300). I'm thinking about replacing it. Bauer has lots of different # Re-Akt helmets at this point and I don't know which is the replacement for the 200, if the head shape they use changed, etc. etc. etc. Anyone know how all the different Re-Akt versions are setup? Thanks! Mark

Howdy, I think I'm giving up on this Novium stick. M03 75 flex Left. Combination of it just not feeling like I can load it "right", plus it being a max height Sakic curve vs. the P90TM. I've found I miss the 'more toe curve' of the P90TM more than I like the Sakic being a little more closed. I still think the old P30 curve is the best combo for me. In terms of the loading stuff... I loved the way the AS3 Pro felt with the FT3 non-pro close behind. I was hoping that the Novium would be another very light weight mid kick like the AS3 Pro, but something just isn't feeling right there. I used my old FT3 non pro last night and it seemed like I both had better control of the puck and could get non-muffin shots off better. So, looks like its back to the non pro FT3 for me (I broke the AS3 Pro). I wonder if there's a market for a "used for a handful of games" Novium? I like the idea and such of the super light sticks. I'm tempted to try an Ag5nt just because of that, even though I'd have to go with a P92M unless I went full idiot++ and did a custom order. The 'smart' thing is probably to get an FT5 Pro or maybe an ASV Pro, but the 60 extra grams annoy me and I'm not sure how those sticks will feel in comparison to the FT3 / AS3 I have experience with. Mark (ps: Its kinda shitty that the Novium is marketed as a ~360g stick and mine actually weighed ~390g) (pps: It should be noted that I'm a pretty horrible hockey player.)

Howdy, Guys around here move around on beer league teams sometimes. As long as you aren't a dick about it, I would think you should be fine. The fact that you have friends on that other team that you'd like to play with is a reason anyone would understand for wanting to change. We do this to have fun. If you're not having fun, change something. Mark

Howdy, Huh. My wife was having tons of issues with her elbow pads sliding down. I basically made that there, just using skate lace and some punched holes to tie the elbows to her shoulder pads. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, What I did was to drill from the back of the tendon guard with a normal right hand drill bit going forward. Mark

Howdy, So have you ever gone back to these friends and told them to suck it? 🙂 Mark

Howdy, This is one of those things that can be easy or hard, depending on the situation. If the screw just broke and isn't seized (which is most likely), then you can just use a drill bit that's a smaller diameter than the screw (so like a 1/16" should be fine) and drill in the center of the screw. There's a really good chance that just the friction from drilling the screw will wind the broken bit of the screw out, without you drilling all the way through the screw itself. Try pretty hard to drill in the center of the broken off bit of screw btw. Ideally you'd use a center punch to punch a divot in the center to help keep the drill where you want it to be. From there, it gets harder. 🙂 If the screw is actually seized in there and just the friction from drilling doesn't get it out, your best bet is to drill it with a #29 drill (which is the tap drill for an 8/32 thread). You have to be pretty close to the center of the broken off bolt for this though, since you'll wipe out the threads if you're off center or not drilling parallel to the hole/screw. If you can drill it, then chances are that you can use a pick or an 8/32 tap or maybe even another screw to clean the remaining metal out of the threads. But if you're doing that, chances are that you're going to end up wiping out the threads in the plastic tendon guard... If that happens, you could just use a longer version of that 8/32 flathead screw and use a locknut on the back of your skate. It would end up sticking out of course. Or maybe you could tap the tendon guard to the next size up from the hole you had to drill. In all of the situations where the bit of screw doesn't come out just from the friction of drilling, the easier fix is to just replace the tendon guard. Note that in my case, the screw came out with the friction from drilling. The rest of what I wrote up there is just educated guesses from "I've had to deal with broken off screws / bolts before". Good luck! Mark

Howdy, How were your old blades setup in terms of profile and hollow? The profile is the shape along the length of the blade/runner and the hollow is the shape ground across the couple mm width of the blade. Something has likely changed here and either can affect how "stuck" you feel to the ice. Assuming that you don't know either of those for your old runners or maybe even your new ones... First, makes sure that the edges are level. A really bad sharpening that had the inside edge way higher than the outside edge could cause a feeling like that. Next, figure out what hollow you have on the new blades. The easiest thing to get a "less sharp" blade is to use a bigger radius hollow. So if you're at 1/2" and you feel super stuck to the ice, move to a 5/8". 1/2" tends to be "the standard" in terms of hollows that are ground into blades, but who knows what your local shop does. If you don't have any idea, go to a reputable shop and ask them to evaluate the current condition of your blades (edge levelness and a guess on the hollow) and see what they recommend. My suggestion if you don't have any idea where you're starting out given what you've said would be to sharpen with a 5/8" cut with level edges (if your sharpener isn't checking your edge heights after they sharpen, find a different sharpener), then evaluate from that known starting point. Mark

Howdy, I paid $100+ for the Sparx edge checker because even though I could make one for about $10 in materials I have better shit to do with my time. YMMV. Mark

Howdy, The animation was pretty slick, I thought. No talking / "human analysis" meant that I wasn't all that interested. And I'm an old guy that isn't much into stats / metrics / whatever the hell. But in terms of presentation, it was quite good. Mark

Howdy, https://tenor.com/0Rj6.gif 🙂 Mark

Howdy, I 2nd the "get an edge checker so you know what's going on". Did you use the 5/8 Fire with your friend's Sparx as well? Same skates? Just trying to consider other options. Mark

Howdy, I'm pretty sure you're just shrinking. 🙂 Mark

Howdy, Dear internet hockey people... Does anyone else have trouble with their backhand with the retail P90TM curve? I seem to recall a time when my backhand, while not challenging Crosby by any stretch, at least wasn't horrifically bad. These days, with the P90TM curve, unless I'm REALLY concentrating / making an effort / whatever, it seems like I essentially can't get the puck off the ice on my backhand. Its almost like the puck is coming off the stick / bade too soon, leading to the puck staying on the ice and having no velocity. Now, keep in mind that I'm a terrible hockey player and I expect that I'm causing this.... But I don't remember having similar issues in the past before I was using this curve. I used to use a W88 / P88 / MC, among others. Mark

Howdy, I went through some pretty bad arch area foot pain when I started skating. In hindsight, I think really only about half of that was due to the skates. The other half I think was likely me clenching up my foot muscles all the time because I was unsteady on my feet, etc. So that said... If you just wear the skates around your house walking around on carpet / whatever (use soakers on the skates to protect your carpet), do you also get pain? edit: So I actually re-read and see that you tried this and are not getting pain... To me, that says that you're clenching your foot muscles up out on the ice and either causing or exacerbating the issue. I don't have a fix for this necessarily, outside of "get more comfortable so that you don't feel like you have to have your foot clenched up". Possibly when you tried your buddie's skates, they were big enough that you were moving your foot around inside them and that prevented the cramping, etc? And then unrelated to all of that... If the issue is that the actual floor of the skate boot has a bump in it, you could always try a cheap store foot insole and cut away the insole in the area of the bump. See if that relieves the pressure in that area. If it does, then you can look into shaving down the skate insoles in the bump area with a sander or whatever to relieve some of the pressure. Mark

Howdy, I'm with @puckpilot. When you conflate stick length and flex together you end up with weird crap like folks not understanding that a 75 flex stick that had an uncut length of 63" and a 75 flex stick that had an uncut length of 60" _will feel the same when they are both cut to the same length_ (all else, equal, blah blah). That's an important misconception to correct. And using "flex" to represent the stiffness of the stick and "leverage" to represent what that means when its in your hands makes a hell of a lot more sense to me than expecting people to magically understand that this time you're using "flex" to mean "what the stick feels like" and that next time you're using "flex" to mean "the stiffness of the shaft over a set length". Mark

Howdy, So, I actually did do this... Its been a handful of skates now and honestly I don't think that if I hadn't done the sharpening myself I'd have know I went from 3/4 Fire to 5/8 Fire. Does anyone know what the actual profile differences are between the Fire rings? As I understand it, the Fire profile is just a normal ROH, with the floor of the U shape filled in. I'm wondering if that's right at all first. Second, if that's correct, is the "floor height" relative to the tips of the edges the same for all the Fire profiles? Again, I feel essentially no difference between the 5/8 Fire and the 3/4 Fire on the ice. I'm far from the world's best skater and this wasn't a back to back thing, however. Mark

Howdy, Congrats, I assume? What's next? Mark

Howdy, I read this all the time, but its never made sense to me. If the laces end up tight, how can it matter which way that happens (outside of yanking on them causing a spike in load) in terms of the eyelets staying put in the composite? Just curious if this is a wives' tale or if I'm missing something. Mark