Westside

Wonder if the Cat5 is $299, would there be a $100 increment between it and the cat7? If so, would the top of the line catalyst then follow the same $300 stair step as the TF7/TF9 meaning the Catalyst and TF9 would be the same price? I loved that $450 intro pricing True did when the TF9 was launched. That got me to try out the skate and eventually switch from a decade in Bauer skates for both ice and roller. I’m not expecting to see that kind of deal with the Catalyst launch but am really curious to see how different (or similar) the two boots are. Definitely not a fan of the yellow, but that can all be blacked out and the only time you’d see the tongue is when you put them on (unless you flop tongues which you can’t really do with this style of True tongue)

Would like to see a photo of how you did this if you have one. I also wear a CCM pro jock (with garters) but this sounds like it’d be more convenient

Tried adding one to my cart and there’s no price

I’m pulling for Edmonton but the last two games have been rough. Really just want anyone but Tampa to win at this point

How do the boots feel compared to the TF?

So… what I said?

I still don't get what you mean. Maybe you can post a photo/video? When you have the skate on the ground can you rocker it backward and forward? If so, that's how it should be. Nothing should be touching

The center R1 bolt should be tight as it doesn’t affect the lower chassis in the same way the O1 bolt does. Not sure I understand your second question

As others have said, I went down 1/2 size from Bauer. Pre-bake my feet barely fit in the boot and I thought there was no way these were going to fit. Post bake they fit absolutely perfect. After a season of play they’ve opened up slightly but not enough that I would have been able to drop an additional 1/2 size.

Acetone and elbow grease. Pretty sure there’s a photo of this in the inline conversion thread. I’ve done it to both my roller and ice boots

With TF customs you have the option to have the same side stripes (silver and blue) as retail or all silver. I’m not aware of any other options? I know with the pre-TF skates you could change the color of the lacing facing but my understanding is that’s no longer available. The Catalyst pics posted of Thompson’s skates show striping patterns on the lower part of the boot in silver that are not present anywhere on the retail skate; so a brand new striping pattern. The other silver accents appear to be beneath the Catalyst name of the ankle (black on retail) and around the yellow honeycomb area next to Cat9 name (this is black and yellow on retail). Cat9 appears to have been replaced by ‘pro’ and the 6 yellow stripes above that appear to be gone. Based on those pics, it’s more than just swapping one color for another. Definitely looks better in black/silver although I’m hoping the yellow on retails will be as easy to remove as the blue/silver on TF boots

Looks like grey accents instead of yellow and a slightly different graphic design. Did the other catalyst skates have ‘pro’ on them? Either way, they look good from these two angles. Thought the catalogue listed the yellow catalyst skates as a mid-summer release

And what was exactly my original comment; noticing more players doing it. From a style perspective, it looks terrible. From a stride perspective, it seems like it would limit it. I could see younger players on the Blackhawks doing it because Kane and Toews do it, but I still find it strange. Flop vs tuck, heel to toe vs toe to heel, I get it all comes down to our own personal preferences, but this one I seem to be stuck on the reason/benefit

Pro stock socks have anti cut materials on the back of the sock already. The socks cover that area regardless if they’re over the tendon guard or not. If anything, wouldn’t having the sock over the tendon guard make it easier for the sock to be pulled up over the tendon guard, thereby exposing your Achilles even more? There are also anti cut skate socks too (not sure how many pros wear them) which seems like they’d protect your tendon even better. Sorry, but your point still doesn’t justify the reason.

I just remembered EQM fixing them. Thought there was one from the Pens, but came across this one from the Wild https://youtu.be/ABZBID-7v8M

Can’t speak to other brands as I’ve only used Frontier blades since moving over to a two piece stick for roller. IIRC, I bought 3 from this place during covid. Thought the site looked a bit sketch, but they delivered: https://www.hockeydogs.com/a096.html

Never heard of this before. Can’t seem to find anything googling aside from some figure skating forums. What’s the point? So the leather doesn’t absorb moisture? Wouldn’t that just make your feet hold onto that sweat and/or cause rivets to rust out even faster?

Same. Probably because I was tiny and the knit socks were massive. Just seems like more and more pros are going back to this and I’m not sure why/what benefit there would be. With modern socks they’re tight enough compared to how roomy knit socks were. Seems like this would restrict movement more

I’m just surprised at how more and more players are wearing their socks over their tendon guards 🤮 why?!

This post got me curious so I decided to weigh my FT3 pro and it came in at 451g. That’s 85 flex cut down to 64”, but also taped up on the bottom and a tacki Mac up top. Comparing it to my Vapor ADV, which came in at 378g. Assuming the tape/tacki Mac weighs approximately 20g, that would still put the FT3 pro 50g over it’s listed weight. Thought my scale might have been off so I weighed a brand new STX Halo in the same specs and it came in at 382g which is pretty damn close to STX’s claimed weight of 380g (which it would be once I cut it down). The FT3 pro was purchased from hockey stick man and had a player’s name on the name bar. Im not terribly concerned as I still enjoy the stick, but the weight is definitely noticeable when holding both sticks side by side.

Buy once cry once is my motto. The CCM jock has lasted me far longer than any other jock I’ve used so while I agree it’s expensive, it’s also lasted

The new True Hzrds is supposed to be what, 340g?!? Looking forward to just holding that stick but also seeing how durable it will be

Not familiar with that, hairspray helps the grip slide/twist on easy then it holds it in place once it dries. Never had one move on me which is obviously important

Same. Maybe you can't remove them with destroying them if you use the tape? I use the hairspray method and they come off by kind of rolling the grip up. Easy to put on a new stick

It’s thicker than tape, but can be stretched out so it’s fairly thin. Feel it’s not much different than lizard skins in that regard