psulion22

My experience with Flare blades is that they are like a FBV on steroids. Much better glide, and better bite for the angle. After a few sessions, I can confidently say I'm faster on these runners. It's to the point that I was actually out of control until I learned to adapt to the speed. I was running into other players and the boards/net because I was going faster and cutting faster than I thought and misjudged things. It's resulted in a few pretty hard hits, in non-checking hockey. These blades are definitely as advertised, more than I expected them to be. There's more of a learning curve than I anticipated, and I'm still finding how deep I can get and still have an edge. There is also a spot where you do lose an edge if you were to very lightly turn your ankle (I guess it's in that 0-6* range before you engage the flare). Even with that, I still very highly recommend them.

I don't have one of those either. I'll go with a combination of something across the blade and using a marker on the bottom of the blade to see if the wear is in the middle on the first pass. Also adjusting the wheel to give even edges on regular steel, and assuming it will be the same on the Flare. Hopefully Flare will eventually get more Squares in, and they'll still be reasonably priced.

Anyone have a method of checking for level edges without a flare square? They're out of stock, and I'll need to sharpen them soon. I used to use a speed square on my regular steel,, but that won't work on these.

This is probably a good point. I'd likely stay somewhere in the neutral zone until one team establishes possession in their offensive zone.

As a single ref, I'd stay in the lane and go from end zone faceoff circle to end zone faceoff circle on one side of the rink. Exit the zone in stages from low to blue line to other blue line to low, staying ahead of the play as it transitions.

Crappy sellers, and Sideline Swap in general. I bought a used Bauer 1X tower bag on SLS for a pretty good price. After a few days, I got a message saying that the shipping label provided by SLS didn't cover the cost when he went to drop it off. We worked with SLS to have the label reissued to based on the dimensions of the box. A few more days, and the seller says the box came back because it still wasn't enough. Since it didn't ship within 14 days or something, the sale was cancelled and I was refunded my money. That's a good thing, so at least I'm not out the money and having to file a dispute to be resolved. The seller contacted me and apologized profusely for the delay and thanked me for my patience. He offered to ship the bag on his own dime, via UPS which gave him a better price, if I just covered the shipping via Paypal when the bag arrived. I told him that was fine, and I'd even send him the agreed upon amount from SLS. That was 2 weeks ago. The bag hasn't shipped. He hasn't replied to my messages. I guess I'm not getting it. It's not a huge deal since I'm not out any money. But it's disappointing because that bag is frickin' expensive and I can't justify spending that. This was a way for me to get the bag at the price of a regular one. It sucks because the guy didn't honor the deal that he offered himself. And Sideline Swap sucks in general because they require package dimensions prior to listing. So if a seller doesn't list them accurately, the estimated shipping cost won't cover the postage. In this case, the seller nor SLS was accounting for the dimensional weight of the item.

Will the Flare square work on regular steel also?

No, this was years ago. Maybe back in 2014 or 2015.

Yes, many people wear them so loose as to seemingly be useless. But I think they still provide an end point to how far the pad can travel in certain directions, even if that end point is probably further out than it should be. I hate using personal anecdotal evidence as a basis for an argument because of the small sample size. However two weeks ago, I was having all sorts of issues with my left pad. It wasn’t rotating correctly, over- or under- rotating without much reason, not returning to neutral, pulling away from the leg. It was the strangest thing. Until I got undressed and realized I hadn’t strapped the boot strap. It’s elastic, so it was just stuck up between the pad and skate. Even though I use the Lundy strap and the strap itself is elastic (so no real tension on it), not having it attached blatantly cause issues with the way the pad moved and performed.

I don’t know about that. The bootstrap used to be there to keep the pad locked onto the ankle. But now it’s being used behind the ankle to keep the pad from rotating or sliding out too far. I’d suspect that the lack of a boot strap is exactly the reason the pads aren’t coming back to neutral. Elastic ties are definitely the way to go. But the boot strap is still important to providing control to the pad.

Thanks, JR. I saw he had mentioned trying a jig. I wasn’t sure if he had actually gotten it to work. I’ll hit him up.

Has anyone found a way to put a ProSharp profile on these yet? Thinking of pulling the trigger, but I really like my Quad 1.

First things first, just to get it out of the way. Have you been hit in the head recently. Unexplained depression and lack of motivation is a symptom of a concussion. You don't always have to have headaches to be concussed. Moving on, to me it sounds like you need to find a new team and/or place/way to play. The hockey isn't fun, and though you like the guys, that's not worth the time and effort you're investing. You want to say it's not the losing, but it is. You're trying to rationalize it to be nice. The reality is your team isn't good enough to be competing in this league. And the prospect of continuing to play uncompetitive hockey is bringing you down. I get it. I've been there. In fact, I'm there now. It's not your team's fault. They're playing where they should be and the other teams have ringers. Too many mistakes are being made, and too many games are being lost. Getting motivated to show up and probably lose is hard. Given the reactions of some of your teammates in your latest video, I'd say they might feel the same way. Just go, man. Play somewhere that doesn't have the pressure of having to win and maybe will help you start improving again. Don't stay and be miserable because it's the nice thing to do.

You can typically buy pro stock return visors in good condition on sites like SidelineSwap for the same price as the crappy Tron ones.

Does this tech make the edge feel sharper for longer after a sharpening? Obviously the steel isn’t coated, so it won’t actually retain the edge any longer than other uncoated steel. But will the increased bite in typical turns and skating keep that sharp feeling longer like coated steel does?

Part of the reason I’m interested is because of the reduced level of drag and also force/resistance needed to generate the same level of bite. That definitely will be easier on knees. I’m concerned about situations where a skate blade is at an extreme angle to the ice where a normal blade would slip out but this blade will grab. Picture a goalie doing a butterfly slide but then accidentally having an edge engage in the middle. He’s going to stop, and all his weight and momentum is going to go over that foot, likely causing a knee or ankle injury. This is how I hurt my first knee. I got hit from behind while engaged along the boards. My foot was against the other guy’s skate so it couldn’t slide out. I ended up going over that foot and tore the MCL (and only MCL unlike an injury where the player goes back as well as over the foot, typically causing much more damage). In fact, have you tried any goalie testing with this? It seems like increasing bite at that angle could lead to these kinds of injuries plus difficulty shuffling.

Bringing this one back from the dead since I noticed mention of Flare in the Sparx thread. Are there any more reviews or input on these? I'm going to need a new ring for my Sparx in the next month or two and this concept seems interesting. SO if it really is something worth trying, I'd like to do so to get the appropriate ring when needed. Also, I see that pros are liking them and not having "blow outs". Here's the thing. I have compromised MCLs in both knees from injuries. I've blown the right once and left twice. I am at risk of continuing to injure them. The biggest issue would be if I got hit at an awkward angle and go down with my knee under me and blade engaged in the ice. Having the edge slip somewhat easily likely would reduce the injury risk and could possibly save my knee. How much increased "lateral" grip are we talking here for someone that doesn't have the balance and edge strength of a NHL'er? Is every play going to anchor my blade to the ice and not allow it to slip out for safety, even if I wanted it to? Or are we really talking more about increased grip when skating because of centrifugal force?

That may make a lot of sense. It was early October 2016. The inventory of player gear was also pathetic. All they seemed to have was mid/low level gear and leftover models. They were even low on things like tape and laces. I was there visiting friends who live in Cranberry, as a surprise for their daughter’s birthday. So I couldn’t be driving around looking for stuff. We needed to go to Walmart to pick something up for school the next day. The TH is in the same parking lot as the Walmart, so we decided to stop in to drop the skates off, run over to Walmart, and then I’d just look at what I needed real quick before we left. So that extra time meant we were gone for well over an hour for something that should have been 30 minutes. Bad employees are definitely everywhere. That’s why I had to buy a Sparx machine. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than what I have available to me down here.

The Monkey Sports store in NJ has a ton of inventory. The Total Hockey in Sterling, VA had a pretty good selection. Great Skate in Buffalo had a decent amount. Even the Peranis in Pittsburgh had some. I get that most of the small shops, like the ones near me, have little goalie stuff because of the cost and space limitations and the specificity of goalie gear. A big store like a Total Hockey should have more than they did. There are wayyyyyyy more goalies who buy off the shelf than buy custom. I don’t think expecting a major large retailer to have at least one set of the most current and popular gear from a major manufacturer like Bauer or Warrior, so I can at least get my hands on it, is anywhere near unreasonable.

That store is a pile of garbage. They had next to no inventory when I was there, particularly on the goalie side. I went in hoping to get my hands on some gear because my LHS in Florida is, well, in Florida so that's all you need to know. Pure (Total at the time) barely had much more. I dropped off my skates to be sharpened, and my friend who I was visiting had the sharpening plan so it should have been free. We went to pick up the skates and they told me one skate was done, but the steel on other was cracked. I am 90% sure it wasn't broken when I brought it in. I had no issues in the game I played the night before that would have indicated a broken runner. I didn't notice anything after the game when I cleaned the runners and put on the skate guards. The bag went from the locker room to the car and stayed there until I brought them into the store. But since I didn't know for absolutely sure they broke the runner while sharpening the skates, I couldn't do much about it. So my "free" sharpening cost me $100 in new steel. Then it took them nearly 30 minutes to sharpen the steel after I approved the replacement despite there being no one else in the store (and they didn't call to let me know it was broken, they waited until I came back, which is also ridiculous)

What about a Jets vs Jets uni game between Winnipeg and Phoenix?

What is everyone’s thoughts on teams honoring a heritage franchise? Like the Dallas Stars would have a North stars throwback, or at least nods to it. Colorado would have Quebec, Carolina would have Hartford, etc. I think it would be a cool way of bringing those teams and logos back for just a little.

Bigger thigh rises? Lundy strapping? They're freaks? I'll take the last line next. When I say "frozen in place" I mean that your weight is aligned and distributed in a way that it creates too much friction between the pad and ice and makes it impossible to recover or change direction without first adjusting your body to alleviate that friction and get your skate into a position to engage an edge. The result is a situation where your pad won't slide because of that friction and you can't move because your body isn't aligned/controlled correctly. The only option at that point is to lunge or dive with your stick and body to try and make a save because you don't have the time or ability to use your lower body. This is a terrible situation to be in for a goalie. If you are going to go to the ice, you must do so in a position where you can recover from the ice, even if that means back to standing to move laterally, and that means being able to lift a leg/knee off the ground in the direction you need to go.. You are dropping into positions where you can't lift your leg in order to engage an edge to move - feet behind you, butt down or all your weight on the leading pad, usually the right. I didn't say one before the other. I said you're only dropping to one, typically your right. Often you do this half butterfly type thing with the trailing leg off the ice. Your weight should be centered towards the push leg, not over the lead leg so you can lift your push one. It's more apparent when you have to move to your right at the same time. Let's look at the very first play of AA vs Black Knights, interestingly a game where you got beat and were disappointed in your (and your team's) performance. You're square to the first guy on a 3-1 with depth where you should be. Your D makes a bad read and essentially turns himself into a cone screening you. The puck goes to your right. And since you have to move that way, you drop all of your weight onto your right knee, with your body way over that leg. You're leading with your head and shoulders into the play rather than the pad. And your left pad trails behind you, off the ice. The result is that the pad sticks to the ice, you lever over the top of it, and you can't even attempt to do anything when the puck goes the other way. Not completely your fault by any means, and you probably couldn't have stopped it anyway. But all you could do was watch. If you would have dropped to both knees when you slid to your right, your weight would have been centered, and you may have been able to engage your right skate or even just throw out your left pad. But it was a flukey play, so let's look at the next one in that video. You are on your angle with your shoulders square. A shot comes high glove side, with very little angle to the short side. Instead of dropping to both knees in the center of your stance, which would probably have just put the puck into your glove naturally, you drop to your right pad, moving your entire body AWAY from the shot and have to reach all the way out with your glove to make the save. If anything, you should have dropped to your left to bring your body and head behind the puck. But I know dropping left knee only is an issue, so it definitely should have been two knees. If you didn't catch that puck clean because you had to reach out for it, you'd be stuck on your right knee, all the way to the right post with no way to move to your left to stop the rebound from going in. Two plays later, an attacker comes in wide from your left and tries to cut back from behind the net. You think he's going to cut across, so go to slide to your right and lean over that pad, leaving the entire short side exposed. He doesn't score, but it should have been an easy goal. If you drop to both pads, you still would have been square to him and moving across. At 1:35 (pause it right there for a visual representation of what I mean) same thing. You slide, weight on right leg, left leg and arm trailing behind you. Eventually you slide into the play and get your left leg down, but your weight is still over the right. When the play cuts back, you have to lunge to your left to try and cover it, which puts you off balance and teeters you forward. You can't control the rebound, miss the cover, and have to lunge to try to stop the empty net goal. If you would have been centered, you're covering that puck in front of you rather than reaching for it. Do you see what I'm talking about now? So that's all frustrating and disheartening, I know. But the thing is that you CAN do it right. That's how I know it's a technique thing. What I find most interesting is that you have mentioned playing better in games when you tend to fix the issues more often. Pretty much every save you show in the next video vs Ironside is good. You drop to both knees, square to the puck. And as a result, you can see how much more "quiet" you are. Not moving too much. Pucks are in the chest and gloves easily. Rebounds drop directly in front of you. At the 1:00 mark, you drop evenly and perform a great pivot to the new angle by turning your head->hands->hips and engaging the back edge to push (but get up instead). On the last scramble, you drop evenly so when you dive to cover the puck, everything is in front of you instead of off to the side like in the last game. Your lateral slides are all both knees down, body weight centered. I think you're sliding further and easier as a result. At 1:30 you make a great save moving from your right to left with good technique. At 1:43 you make a good save and are able to regain your edges because you're balanced. You end up diving for the puck but I think that was more because you lost sight of it and were on the wrong foot when you realized where it was. You probably would have been able to push with your right foot if you had seen it the whole way. 2:41 is another good lateral push to the new angle. Even the last goal was good technique. You were on both knees and were able to adjust to try and make the save. Just a bad bounce to an uncovered guy. But the attempt wasn't a desperation one where you just threw something out there with no chance. Hopefully that all helps.

You keep saying this, but there are plenty of times that your feet are flared more in your videos. You're using the lack of flexibility as an excuse. Your issue is in technique. When you drop down, your natural instinct is to pull your feet completely behind you, to the point where your heels are almost touching, in order to get your knees closer together. That freezes you in place. Often, you make it even worse by dropping all your weight onto one leg, typically your right. Then because you're used to being frozen in place, your instinct on a change of direction is to lunge with your head and hands. There are certainly times where that's necessary as a desperation option. But you're doing it more often than that, where better technique would get you in position faster to be making saves by planting a foot and pushing or even using your momentum to load a push leg to recover to standing. I know you'll say you just can't do that. But watch your videos, there are times when you have good flare and lateral movement, so you can do it (ie, AA vs DD at 1:35-45). No one needs you have a Niemi level flare. You have enough to be more stable than you are, and have lateral mobility. Your knees don't have to touch, that's what thigh rises and sticks are for. Mine don't. I'm not trying to be mean or abusive, honestly. I just know that if you fix some things in your technique, you can solve a lot of your issues. And you can fix those things to work within your level of ability and range of motion. I'm telling you, your issue is in technique and body/weight control (it's typically over one and/or the wrong leg) and not flexibility.

I agree with all of this. Even if the Isles didn't want the actual fisherman logo, I think the "wave" jersey with the lighthouse logo would have been a good option. Ducks should absolutely have been eggplant. I would have preferred an eggplant based more modern jersey with the old logo than this. I applaud the Hurricanes for consistently finding ways to add unique theme elements into their designs. The overall result may not be great, or even good, sometimes but they always have some little touch in there. I like the flying skate logo, but would maybe have preferred some nod to the V uniforms. Let's forget the Orca ever existed. I still want an Av's set with the Yeti foot as the primary logo.