puckpilot

Not here to lecture or judge. Just here to share a worst case scenario. All gloves have "gaps" in protection. It all depends on the angle from which the stick come's from. I have top of the line 1S gloves, and I had the pinky on my bottom hand broken and the tip partially amputated from a slash coming from my right side, while in mid-shot. The result was exactly like what Crosby did to Methot. If you look at your glove, even closed, there's always a small spot right around the tip of the pinky and thumb that are a bit exposed because of the angle when they're facing upward. When you cut the thumb loop, that'll expose the thumb even more because the protection won't move down with the thumb when you grip the stick. It's been about a year since my finger got exploded, and though I've regained function in the finger, it's still not 100% right. I don't think it ever will be. OK, I'll STFU now.

Maybe try this lacing method. It's what I use. When you do the final tug, it's like your foot gets sucked back into the heel pocket. Give it a try at home off-ice. You should be able to feel a significant difference.

Yep. I did some reading up on profiling, runner sizes, etc. and figured out what I wanted. With some help from here, I chose a simple, larger single radius profile. The results were very positive and as time went on I tweaked things until I zeroed in on what I think is perfect for me.

I just wanted to second this. With my current pair of skates, I went down a 1/2 size. At first I thought it was just me and that I would get used to the smaller runners. I couldn't no matter how hard I tried. It just exasperated a bunch of issues I had with my skating. That's when I looked into profiling, and it made a huge difference. Nothing fancy. I just went from the stock profile to a larger one and tweaked until I liked what I was feeling.

Pretty much this. If you look at the clearance sections, if your timing is good, last generation's sticks can be had for 40-50% off, even the top tier ones. IMHO, there's usually no need to pay full price if you're patient.

I've had a +1 pitch added to the lift superfeet insoles give, which gave me a lot of forward lean. This was exactly NOT what I needed. I was way too much on my toes, and that affected my skating negatively. Too much on my toes meant, I wasn't as stable, and I wasn't starting my stride on the glide edge. I was starting it more towards my toes, which meant shorter stride. I'm actually using a -1 pitch now with a really flat profile. Are you trying to address some issues you're having with your skating, or are you just experimenting to see if it does anything for you?

Put some sock tape around the top and bottom of the knee cup, that will keep it in place when you bend your knee. Exposure can happen even when you have properly fitted shins. Part of it is about how well those shins are held in place.

IMHO, I think it's overrated in terms of being sold as a magic solution to your skating problems. You hear about people getting a new profile and when you ask why, they just shrug and repeat stuff the marketing brochure promises. You should have an understanding of what issues you have with your skating and have plan for what you want to achieve with your profile. Simply getting some profile because it promises something special is buying into the marketing. A profile won't make you something you're not, but it can give you a boost in a specific area to help you along. But there's no free lunch. You're always giving up one thing for another. But the hope is you're gaining more in one area than you're giving up in another. For example, I have small feet, and I find because of that, I'm a pretty agile, but I'm also little less stable. So, I sacrificed some of that agility for more glide and stability by going to a flatter profile. I don't miss the agility lose, but I do notice the gain in stability. Over time, I've slowly tweaked things to better fit what I want out of my skates. The profile spec is a bit crazy, but it works for me, but I doubt it will work for many others. So, that probably what's the issue is with you. You were given a solution to a problem you didn't have and it's hindering instead of helping.

I think there's a yes and no component to this. Al Macinnis is proof that wood can be every bit as effective as composites. Not an expert, but the thing about wood is its properties are inconsistent. The tree grows like the tree grows, so no matter how good the manufacturing process is, it's the luck of the draw as to exactly what you get. I remember hearing stories about NHL players picking through large batches of wood sticks, picking out two or three that they liked, and sending the rest back. With composites, you can control everything, so everything can be dialed in to fit the player better, and IMHO, there's no bigger factor in getting dialed in than flex. When a player gets sent 10 sticks with their specs, there's a high degree of certainty they'll all feel the same. And if a player feels confident that every stick will do what they want when they want, they'll perform better. For example, a player practices with a wood stick, gets used to the way it kicks and flexes, but then breaks it. The next stick, though the same brand, the wood may flex and kick differently enough where it's just not the same at all, so there's a constant tweaking that needs to be done with each new stick. So, technique is even more critical, so you can make those tweaks without throwing things off too much.

For myself, I've clocked my shots, and I videoed myself shooting. For the most part, I've found that feel can be a big fat liar. I've taken shots where I swear it broke the sound barrier, but either the clock or the video shows the shot wasn't all that special. I've also taken shots that felt effortless, and either the clock or video shows it came off pretty hot, well... hot relative to myself.

I agree that in order to get more out of the whippy stick, you have tweak your technique. I mean the hardest clocked shot in pro hockey was just broken by 6'1 205lb Martin Frk using a 70 flex stick. It just shows that whippy or stiff, you can get a lot of velocity if your technique is right.

Personally, this definitely fits two needs for me, and this isn't silly at all in my eyes. First, I use really big knobs on my sticks. My knobs are step knobs. 10 time around with 1.5 inch tape. 10 times around with 1 inch tape, and then 30 times around with 1/2 inch tape. Splitting the tape for that last part is a pain in the ass. Now, it's that much easier and quicker. This will be especially helpful when I'm experimenting with stick length. Second, I currently use blade tape, which doesn't cover the edges of the blade. What I normally do is split the tape and line the edges. And not having to split the tape when replacing the worn out tape will be a huge time and hassle saver.

Running every other day, and on days I'm not doing that, might do some slide board and work on some stickhandling on my tiles. Learned how to get the puck onto my blade with the digging under it method to set up for a lacrosse goal, but only with a naked blade. But it's a different animal doing it on the ice.

As soon as hockey stopped, I started to run every other day. I now do 4 days a week for about 2.5 miles up and down hills around my area. Sometimes it’s a constant pace run with no stops. Other times, it’s an interval training run where I run full tilt up the hills, walk over to the next street or lane and jog down. On the days I’m not running, I might do a little time in the slideboard if I’m feeling good and I do some stickhandling with a few limited shots. My set up isn’t really set up for shooting. Cardio-wise, I’m probably in the best shape I’ve been since I was in high school. Weightwise, I’m down about 3-5 lbs. I’ve been kind of seesawing with that. I wanted to lose about 10lbs. But wondering if some of what’s happening is that I’ve gained some muscle. In terms of eating, I’m eating better. It’s been easier simplifying my diet since I’m cooking everything myself now. Less salt. More salad. I’ve also been doing some 12-16 hr fasting.

It takes a special type of goalie to drive with gear on.

Do you do stretches after your run? I started jogging when isolation went into effect. For the first month, after each run, I realized I needed to do a nice stretch on everything in around the hips, especially the area right around my kidneys. I'd also take a nice hot shower or bath to keep things loose. If I didn't, things would become just a little more uncomfortable each time I ran.

For me, I think of cutting stick and flex the way the True engineer describes it in this video. I find thinking of it in terms of leverage makes it simpler to compare sticks.

For me, Warrior feels 5-10 flex lighter than every thing else. I find True and Bauer to be similar to each other and CCM to feel slightly stiffer than Bauer/True.

I'll just make my own. It's easy, see.

I had this happen to me this past January. Went right through my gloves. Not fun. Nurse said, "This is what we call a partial amputation." It's your life, but as some who just went through a broken/partially amputated pinky tip from beer league, count yourself lucky and get gloves that protect you properly. I was wearing gloves and the slash went right through the padding in my glove. I've been playing 35+ years, and this is the first time anything like this has happened, but I don't want to know what it would have been like if I wasn't wearing gloves. It's been four months, and though the bones are healed up, the torn flesh still doesn't feel or look right. If you're worried about clunky gloves, I'd suggest asking your local hockey shop to add some padding to the top of your ring finger. Any ways, I'll shut up now.

The pic looks like the ones I have. They're velcro. https://www.amazon.ca/Elite-Hockey-Lace-Bite-Gel/dp/B00VEEVV2M/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=lace+bite+pad&qid=1587587924&sr=8-6

If you like the glide, have you considered playing around more with your profile? If you want more bite and want to keep the glide, get a flatter profile. You may loose a bit of agility, but that might not affect you much if at all in the long run. But at the end of the day there’s no free lunch. It’s about what you want to sacrifice to get a gain. For me, I played around with profile, hollow, and pitch until I got dialled in on what I wanted.

For me, it's been the opposite. The more shallow I went, the less often I would need to sharpen my skates, because it's harder to ding them up. For reference I went from 5/8 to 3/4 to 13/16 and am on a 13/26 radius. I can go for a month or two without sharpening, and I was on the ice for 3-4 times a week. Have you considered that maybe the shallower hollow isn't right for you?

First thing you can try is to take some footage of yourself shooting and see if you're doing what you think you're doing. Sometimes, we're not as low as we think we are, or we're not doing something as much as it feels like we're doing it. Sometimes, even though it feels like we're over exaggerating, it turns out it's still not enough. Second, I used a p92 and a p28. Shooting low isn't exactly my goto, but here are some things that came to mind. - Release a little earlier. Drive the puck hard, but shorten up on your follow through. -Try releasing off different parts of the blade. With a p92, if it's on the toe, it's going up. Maybe a little more off the middle of the blade or even the heel. -Try more of a sweeping follow through. What I mean by that is, try and keep the toe of the blade on the ice even on the follow through. - Try getting the top hand out more away from your body. The further out your top hand is the more it closes the blade and reduces the initial loft of the blade on the start of the shot. And finally, maybe try looking at some NHL video of players shooting 5-hole. See if you can pick up some things that you can try. Here's one I found. Some are dekes, but there are some nice low shots mixed in.

Have you considered that you can address the lace bite in the Vapors with eyelet extenders or option B skate straps? I use the latter, and they're great. Ugly as heck, but my feet thank me for them. If you don't want to try and work with the Vapors and would rather get new skates, IMHO, right now, I'd stop and think about what you're doing. You've got into two new pairs skates so far in the hopes they work, but they didn't. You're about to get into a third skate, without any guarantees that they'll work either, because you're having trouble finding stock to try on, which sucks. I'd start doing the math on how much you've spent. How much you're about to spend, and compare that to what it would cost to get custom skates, and think about if that might be a better to save up and go with that option.