psulion22

I had what was thought to be the gold standard for knee protection - the Ultra Tacks with 3D0. That was until I landed on one knee so hard it destroyed several structures inside my knee, including the PCL, ACL, patellar tendon, and bruised my femur so badly that it took 6 months to go away. The doctor said that it looked like I had been in a high speed car accident. The problem with the Ultra Tacks is that the 3D0 pad is only in the front of the knee. I landed more to the side, where there was very little padding. So I switched to the Bauer 1S that has Poron XRD all the way around the knee. Plus the Curv shell makes it lighter and more protective. I honestly don't see how any shin pad on the market could be better than these? They're absolutely fantastic in every regard. As far as adding, you may want to look into G-form knee sleeves. They're low profile so they'll fit easily inside the shin guard and will provide really good impact protection (since the're just Proron XRD) and a little comfort as well. Bauer makes a version for goalies that is on clearance on IW that would be a good bet. The difference is that the padding is shifted to the inside where goalies would land on their knees. The G-Forms were on sale recently as well.

USA Hockey has a mobile app that has appendicies for things like this. They are also contained in the back of the rulebook.

They already do this for goalie skates. GM sells a stock, retail sized True 2 piece skate. It's still their top price point construction. But maybe a mid point version could be on the way. https://www.goaliemonkey.com/equipment/skates/sr-goalie-skates/true-goalie-skates-stock-two-piece-senior.html

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. First course of action is an evaluation by a orthopedist. During that, the doc will asses likely injuries by your description of the incident and the symptoms, and perform some manual tests. Depending on what those injuries are likely to be, he will order X-rays (for hard tissue damage), an ultrasound (for superficial structures), and/or a MRI (for internal soft tissue and hard tissue injuries). An Xray will probably not show damage to a LCL, which sounds like the likely injury here. A LCL sprain or tear can be diagnosed with an ultrasound, as can an external meniscus tear. If the ultrasound doesn't yield results, and there is additional symptoms and pain not associated with those injuries, the doc will order a MRI. The good news is that ultrasounds can be done in an office visit and don't need special scheduling or facilities like a MRI does. Moreso, LCL injuries can be treated with rest and PT, surgery and MRIs are usually not required. Unfortunately, given your description of the event and injury, I think there's a good chance that it's your ACL. LCL injuries usually are caused by a hard impact to the inside of the knee, which you didn't indicate. ACLs are typically inured when twisting the knee with the weight on it and the foot planted, or a sudden change in direction or speed. In your case, that sounds like what happened. It may be your meniscus also. Pain from that injury usually manifests itself when rotating the knee while it's bent - for example pivoting while skating backwards. Pain while bending could be either or both. Meniscus injuries don't typically cause instability though, so you probably injured one ligament or another. LCL pain would be isolated to the outside of your knee, typically either above or below it where the attachment points are. This also likely means you will need an MRI to determine the extent of the damage.

I did say most. I'm sure there are some who care. And of those, I'd suggest it's because they either had a bad experience with Bauer steel, most likely breakage with the first run of LS4, or they predate quick change steel (or refuse to wear Edge holders). These guys have EQMS to maintain their blades. They have holders that can swap steel out in seconds. If they wanted, guys could have steel with a fresh edge every shift. Edge retention is a non-issue for a guy that's skating 5-10 minutes before a skate could be recut during an intermission. Just stop it. I'd say they are much more likely to worry about breakage or failure with the holder than how long an edge that won't get dull (unless there is a damaging incident) will last. Maybe before quick change holders, or for guys that refuse to use those (but those guys aren't affected by this), I could see it being a concern because that meant taking off a skate and a long change process. But not anymore. Most guys just want sharp edges that feel the same every shift, they don't care how they get them.

Yes, but it's in reverse to the player lines. Supreme goalie skates fit like Vapor player skates - less volume, less foot wrap, less width, tapered boot. Vapor goalie skates (because they're built off the Reactor line, not the Vapor player line) fit like Supreme player skates - wider, more volume, more foot wrap, more room in the ankle, more anatomical boot. The stiffness of the boot is a product of the quarter package composition, both lines will have the same stiffness when using the same quarter material. Unlike player skates, the pitch is the same on both models. One key difference is that the Supreme goalie skate has an asymmetrical ankle, where the outside of the ankle is lower than the inside. Vapor goalie skates have a symmetrical ankle, both sides are the same height. Other than that, the features are the same across the product levels.

I'm in the same boat here. My MX3s are starting to break down and it's becoming time to replace them. Tacks are interesting because of the one piece boot, but the heel profile is a deal breaker. The heel is what I like most about my Supremes. I can get my foot locked in there and not tie any of the laces too tight. The Supremes fit my foot the best, with no issues or compromises anywhere. Why would I switch away?

I'm not a store owner or expert, but I believe that the Tacks line is the equivalent to the Bauer Supreme in fit profile. What I've seen is that the CCMs have a wider, shallower heel so you don't get the heel lock of the Bauers. If you are having to tighten your skates more to achieve that heel lock, it will affect your range of forward flexion and may cause lace bite. So all that may be one cause. Another cause may be that your Tacks are not the correct size. If they are too big or too wide, you will have to lace them tighter to get the same support. Then the aforementioned things happen. It is also possible that your skates are too stiff. If you are absolutely confident that your skates are the correct size, you may want to look into the Supreme skate to get better heel lock and possibly be able to loosen the laces some. If your foot is on the wider side, Nexus skates may work as well. They're built on a wider last similar to the Supreme, but have more volume and a slightly wider heel. You might be able to get more forward flexion because of the volume.

Why would most pros care (or even know) what kind of steel they're using? They have EQMs to care for them. Things like durability and edge retention matter to guys like us that want to have sharp skates without having to pay for sharpenings or steel more often. They matter to an EQM who has to sharpen and maintain dozens of pairs of skates/runners in a short period of time. As long as the skates are sharp and cut to give the characteristics the player likes, pros don't give one second's thought to what brand of steel is on the skate. Bauer isn't going to alienate any pros by doing this. They may piss off a few EQMs who have to cut skates more often, but that's not likely to affect thier usage amongst players in the league.

I think people may be confused on what exactly Step does as a company. As far as I know, they are a fabricator, not a manufacturer, of steel runners. They are buying the steel from a manufacturer and stamping out blades in their facility. They have their reputation because the composition of the steel they used was better for durability, sharpening, and edge retention than OEM. However, that composition of steel is available to anyone, including Bauer should they want it. What exactly does Step offer that would benefit Bauer, that Bauer couldn't do on its own? Why would Bauer want to reach an agreement or partnership with Step?

If a P90T is in fact a Benn clone, then it is not a P30. The P30 is a P88 with a kinked toe being the only change to the curve (the rocker is different). The face of the blade is closed until you get to the toe, and the curve is a true mid. Bauer's Benn was more of a P92 variant, with a heel-ish twist and straighter blade of a P92 until you got to the toe where it had a sharp curve and kink to it like the P28. The Benn had a higher lie than the P30, again closer to the P92 but not quite that high. The toe was roughly the same shape and not as tapered as the P28, closer to, you guessed it, a P92 with a more square top but rounded bottom. Compared to the pic of that pro stock P90T, the Benn was more open throughout the blade and had a rounder toe. That P90T does look very much like a P30, the difference being the toe isn't quite as kinked at the bottom. I'm hoping they bring it to retail, as it really seems to be a full size blade version of Bauer's P14. I do not have them both in hand, but did compare them side by side at my LHS with the new Bauer Pro Custom samples.

The Supreme and Vapor in goalie skates is the opposite of the player skates. Supreme skates have a narrow heel and less volume. Vapor skates, which were really based off the Reactor skates and got a name change, have more volume and space in the ankle. Supreme's don't wrap around the foot well, and have an asymmetric ankle, where the outside portion of the top of the skate is shorter than the inside. Vapor's wrap much better and have a symmetric ankle. If you're comparing them to player lines, the Vapor fits much closer to a player Supreme. And the goalie Supreme is kind of like a EE width Vapor player skate, it's not as narrow as the player version.

Blue Loctite is a rust inhibitor and is removable. So it would likely help long term.

I finally won a game in net, and kept my GA under 4, for the first time since returning from knee injuries almost a year ago. Not that I've played poorly, I've been playing really well. But I just seemed to allow too many or one I could/should have stopped too often. It was frustrating to have that happen so many times.

No, that's short sighted. What you need is to have 5 or 6 guys that are above the league level, one or two of them being far above. Then you rotate them in and out as subs during the regular season, making sure that they all get the required playoff eligibility, but never all show up at once. This is important because you have to have a 7-5 regular season record so the league doesn't want to move your team up a level. It helps if you start off 0-3. Then for the playoffs, you bring all your ringers and play them as much as possible, including only the 6 of them for the last half of the third, and all of any ensuing overtime. Collect your trophy and free beer certificate every season. Or at least that's what one team in two different leagues I play in does.

He likely just doesn't understand the stick codes. It looks to be a 1X Lite skin.

It’s a 2016 1X with the SE build, meaning thicker sidewalls.

Yeah, it makes sense. I just did the same thing. I've used 77 flex Vapors cut down about 1.5", which makes them 80-84ish. But I found a pro stock 70 flex and I am getting much better velocity from it. Push my hands forward and flick, and I get some power and pop. So you think the 77 Flylite flexes and releases the the same as the 77 1X Lite, with some more pop behind it?

I agree with you. On some shots, the blade opens up on the 1X Lite. The video breakdowns say they thickened and stiffened the bottom of the elliptical taper and the blade. That would cause the two things you've noticed - less opening up and a higher kick point feel. I'm personally pretty excited to try one of these. The '16 1X got me back into Bauer sticks. And I think a 70 flex 1X Lite is better than that stick. But I play mostly D and while a quick release is great for in close shots, and even getting outlet passes off, sometimes I want a little more velocity on writers from the point. A little higher kick point should do that. How do you feel the flex plays compared to the 1X Lite? Does the slightly higher kick point and elliptical taper give a little more flex?

BGP2P sticks have a fused extension. I have personally had to cut one down, so I know this from experience. I can also say that my BGP2P is noticeably lighter than my 1X 3.0 at the same length, even with a larger P10 vs P88 blade. So the Pro Stock ADV is still lighter than a Pro Stock 1X Lite. Edit: I just went and found what I could of the extension I cut off. The pieces I found are about 5.5" long, which account for the 4" extension and an extra 1.5", but there is still some of the tenon from the extension in the stick. Those 5.5" pieces weigh 39 grams. It's also not all of what I cut, I'm still missing about 1/4-1/2". So the extension plus the epoxy used to fuse it in could easily weigh most of that 60 grams.

Since the P08 is really just an amped up P92, I'd go that route. The P28 is made for that player that shoots by pushing his hands forward, moving the puck onto the toe, and quickly catapulting it in stride. I don't think you'd see the benefits of a curve like that if you're a.) taking a lot of quick one timers without the puck on the blade first, b.) taking a lot of full motion wrist shots with your hands more neutral and moving the puck along the entire blade, or c.) not doing a lot of dangles. I'd also check SWS for some Oshie pro curves, a few guys use it. I believe it's something similar to a Crazy Ovi.

The Kucherov was definitely more closed in the toe compared to a P28, and I feel the toe had less rocker also. The blade was more flat and the toe a little wider. I didn't compare them to a Pastrnak though.

Part of me wonders if the Pro blade choices Bauer is now offering are kind of a de facto market survey to see what the popularity of those blades would be as a potential retail option.

No, no issue is going to fix it. But the process is the process. Stick the damn thing in, stay it doesn't fix it, and move on. I wondered that also. The kid is still growing, I figured. How long before the skates do fit, and you can take out said padding? If they remake the skates, he'll need another pair soon enough. There's some kind of happy medium here when you consider all the factors.

This is exactly the point. The first established procedure is to try the insert. If that is unsatisfactory, then the boots will be remade. OP seems to be angry that they would not skip directly to step 2, before even trying step 1. And now that he's been called out, he refuses to try step 1 at all, therefore eliminating the possibility of step 2. There's a significant difference between "The inserts won't work" and "I tried the inserts and they didn't work". Even if he's upset that the skates weren't perfect the first time and didn't want to use the insoles as a cheap fix (which seems to be the case, and is understandable), it's easy to just play along and say the inserts didn't work. My guess the 'more" to the story is he reached a stalemate when he wanted the skates remade and True said to try the insert first which he refused out of principle.