BruinDust

I remember back in PeeWee a teammate of mine had the black Easton aluminum (Senior). A player from another team in our league came into our room to chat and picked up this black Easton and flexed it and it snapped in half. Needless to say my teammate gave him a pretty dirty look, but they aren't indestructable. I had a Bauer Supreme aluminum (dark grey with blue lettering) at the time I thought it was the coolest looking stick around. There was a used one for sale at my LHS and I badgered my father to buy it. Anyways he did and I think I used it for all about two games. The thing was an absolute tank, it weighed a ton, awful feel, no flex at all. If there ever was a stick that was practically rebar this was it.

Full bubble face-shields being made mandatory would be awful in my neck of the woods. It's rare to see anyone using this type of mask, lots of full cages mind you, just very few of the Itech bubble-type. So everyone would have to get one if made mandatory, and there simply isn't close to enough supply at local stores. It's a problem that would resolve itself with time, but in the beginning would leave a lot of players on the sidelines as they simply can't get one, our local stores had limited supply before as there was minimal demand for that type of mask. Even online, if this becomes widespread with mandatory use, online retailers will run out in short order. Personally with the large holes in the bottom, I can't see how they would do anything to prevent the spread of the virus, droplets would get out just as easily as any other type of normal hockey face-mask.

I've been using the L-Skins for about 3 years now. They are great for reducing/negating glove palm wear. Grip is nice and thin and doesn't ruin puck feel. Durability is an issue. Maybe it's just the way I hold the stick, I don't have much of a knob (almost none), but I find the tape over time stretches and your wrap pulls apart near the upper portion. I've tried different things to alleviate this, such as using a layer of regular tape to help the glue on the grip bond better as it's porous. Didn't do much if anything. I also tried putting down some Gorilla spray glue before applying the L-Skin grip. This worked better but still over time the grip had the same issues. This season I started cutting the roll of tape in half. A full role is 36-38 inches, so I can get two grips out of one pack, works about to roughly two 4-inch grips, I like 6 for stick balance so I just add length using regular tape (my glove doesn't touch this area so no impact on palm wear). I can get roughly 3 months out of a grip, so overall I'm looking at $40 a year for grips, which isn't the end of the world.

Koho EP 5500 Elbow Pads. I keep trying on modern elbow pads, but I just can't bring myself to switch over from my beloved Koho's. As for sticks, my pro stock CCM Ultra Tacks has been the best stick I've ever used.

No I'm up here in Canada.

https://imgur.com/gallery/AJ7OvtH

I recently had a set of Nash tongues installed on my Bauer Nexus 7000s and I really like them. I like them a lot more than the stock tongues that came out of my Nexus.

The stick(s) you have aren't made from Sigma-tex like the retail FT2. I believe they are CCM's 12K weave, which I think (and I could be wrong) was CCM's top material before 2017 and the introduction of Sigma-tex. And LK stands for low-kick, so your stick has an engineered low-kick point as oppose to the hybrid kickpoint found on the retail FT2.

I have a Team Supertacks 2.0 (LK) and my LHS has some of these Team Jetspeeds (LK). My take after sizing up the Jetspeed.....they are the same stick. Same blade construction that the CCM Team sticks have had for years, same low kick-point, same construction material (I believe it's CCM's 12K weave, it's not Sigmatex). Come in at roughly 450 grams. Just dressed differently, but underneath I believe them to be the same.

Is it one of these? https://northlanddistribution.ca/products/jetspeed-pro-team-hockey-stick

I heard all they are doing is letting the EE sizes of Supreme service the customers who previously would of gone for a Nexus. They aren't producing a Supreme skate with the deep heel pocket and wide toe-box of the Nexus line.

Noticed on a face-off in the Boston-CBJ game that Bergeron was rocking a pair of these.

I'm almost certain Nexus skates are done after this year. My guess is the Nexus protective is done too with the exception of the gloves which are still a popular traditional 4-roll fit. Really you don't need 3 lines of protective. I'd be shocked if they get rid of the Nexus as a stick line. I see a lot more guys using Vapor and Nexus sticks than I do Supreme. I can't see Bauer not having a mid-kick stick.

6 actually, it's their oldest brand if you include the first year as Reebok Ribcore. As it's the oldest, it should have the most brand recognition among the 3 stick lines, and would be wasteful to use prime marketing opportunity such as dressing their pro stock team sticks on the what should already be their most well-known stick line.

It comes down to marketing. Ultimately the Ribcore brand is Reebok branding. So CCM pushed Tacks brand, and now the newer Jetspeed. I wouldn't be surprised when CCM replaces the Ribcore brand with something else for their retail low-kick stick, they'll start pushing that new line as it's pro stock team stick.

I've owned a number of Ribcores (Trigger ASY and Trigger 3D PMT) and Tacks (Ultratacks, Supertacks 2.0). And I don't find it to be hype at all. Between the two, the mid-kick Tacks stuff fits my shooting mechanics much better than the low-kick Ribcores. I also own a CCM Supertacks 2.0 Team Stick which really isn't a Supertacks at all but a generic low-kick made for teams, and I think there is a reason why it seems to be generally low-kicks that CCM has been providing the league's they supply. My guess is a lot more pro players are using low-kick sticks than we realize.

You should of been more clear that is the direction they are moving to. Based on your wording in your OP it sounded like that 2-year cycles are the way it's always been.

Wrong, they change the whole line every year. 2018 - 3D - Pro3 - 65k - 63k 2017 - Trigger 2 - Pro PMT - 64k - 62k 2016 - ASY - 49k - 47k - 45k 2015 - Reckoner - 48k - 46k - 44k 2014 - 40k - 30k - 28k - 26k Do some research next time. Took me 30 seconds to find that. Google is your friend.

Wonder if that's a sign the Ribcore as a stick line is on it's last legs (it's been around awhile now, since 2013 I believe when Reebok started it) and they'll replace Ribcore with another low-kick line similar to how the Jetspeed replaced RBK as the variable/hybrid kickpoint model.

What size are you looking for? Pro Hockey Life still has some of the 2014-15 Bauer Nexus left in the Clearance/Outlet section.

At my LHS in Canada, taxes in the stick is $450. I got to hold one at the store a couple days ago, felt like any other sub-400 gram stick. The Sonic Boom taper just looks plain weird. The market for this stick, especially at that price point, is small.

IMO the 2016 1N series and the 2014 8000 series do not feel the same. I used a pair of 2014 Nexus 5000s starting in late 2014. In the spring of 2018 I felt that they had started to really soften up and started looking for a new pair and knowing I loved and best fit in the Nexus line, started trying on the 1N series was starting to go on clearance at my LHS. Tried different price points and sizes (all D, couldn't fine any EEs) and none were really close IMO in terms of fit to the 2014 series. I ended up finding a 2014 series pair of 7000s and went with those instead. I can't speak to the 2N series fit. Hope this helps!

I'm using a True A6.0 (2018) now. Briefly had a 5.2. Coming from a Ultra-tacks (mid-kick), a Trigger ASY (low-kick) and RBZ Stage 2. I can't speak to how True's compare to Bauer's or Warrior's, but to me the True feels like nothing else I've ever used. Not to say it's better or worse, just feels drastically different at least to me. And even if they play like Bauers, be cautious of the blade feel. If I have one complaint about True's, I'm not a huge fan of their blades.

I wouldn't use one of these sticks if I was given one for free. Do yourself a favor and stay away. There are plenty of ways to get excellent sticks from known brand manufacturers at good prices.

I happened to walk by the display at Sportchek a couple days ago and I thought the exact same thing you did. Felt like any other 400g stick I've held. If you held the QR Edge and the Fantom in your hands one after the other you'd probably notice the difference, but in a game situation I can't see the player finding the Fantom to be any lighter than the basic QR Edge.