flip12

I find your reasoning not so simple. Considering whether "young players should train on what the pros use" and using your Bedard example, I come to the opposite conclusion. If a young player finds something that elevates their play (as you say you think Bedard's boot and steel choices did for his skating) they're optimizing their performance, which is directly connected to their visibility and chances of making it to and beyond the next level. If instead they opt to stay inside the box of what's in the pro arsenal, they could be leaving performance on the table, diminishing both their chances of making it to higher levels, as well as their degree of excellence at those levels. Once they get to a level where they're professionally outfitted (team buys, EQM does the work, sponsorships could be available, etc.) then the element of "being a team player" with your equipment preferences could come in. Until that, I'd say it makes the most sense to do whatever you can that's legal to elevate your play. Not to mention that "what the pros use" isn't static, it evolves. Those pros who do use what pros used when they were kids are few and seen as curiosities--Sidney Crosby being the best example. Consider the clap skate as a counterexample. The technology was there collecting dust for around a decade before some elite skaters finally gave it a fair shake. Then everyone switched and all the world records fell, not necessarily in that order. Just because the pros don't use it doesn't mean it's not any good. There's a significant familiarity bias when the margins are razor thin.

I do tend to use my Dolo with an end plug, but that also helps focus the feel for me with newer sticks like Hyperlite and Praux VF. Torquegate never bothered me with my Dolomite. Balance is a stick by stick issue and I don't think stick balance has improved linearly over the years. A lot of super light sticks have really strange balance. The only stick I've used that felt perfectly balanced for me without any counterweight like a 25-30g Tacki-Mac and or a 20-30g end plug was my RibCor 2. I think that was around 430g. Felt amazing. My least tweaked stick with good balance right now is a Malkin pro stock SE16 that's right around 450g and has a 30g Kovalchuk Tacki-Mac on it. Without the Tacki-Mac, it feels dead to me. With it, it sings. I don't sense much more power from newer sticks. This could be tested though. Get one of those testing machines to shoot pucks with NOS Synergy, TPS XN10, G3, etc., and compare it to the latest and most expensive models and see how much more powerful the shots are with the same swing.

I have an original Dolomite I bust out sometimes. I think it shoots just as well as anything I've tried since. Sure it's heavier, but the balance is nice so I don't notice the weight. I think the newer sticks are mostly marketing hype. There has to be a narrative that promotes their superiority otherwise there's no reason to try anything new, and certainly not anything more expensive than its previous iteration. The original Synergy is a lot closer to today's sticks in performance than it is to the sticks that were around at the time of its release.

Good find! My vote for best skate of all-time.

Easton had the exposed shell thing going for a few years before the MLX acquisition. Mako is 100% MLX crossed with a full-fledged production capacity and budget. I think some of Cruikshank's ideas were emphasized as well. True still hasn't really done a flex tendon that comes close to the flex of the MLX tendon, and the Mako tendon guard was even softer.

I can't say definitively he wasn't involved at any point--maybe Cruikshank consulted him here and there? But from all I've read and heard about MLX going to Easton, Cruikshank was the one that was touted as their personnel acquisition. Scott seemed to distance himself from the Mako when presenting his initial launch of VH Footwear hockey skates on here. It could be anything, but the tone of his remarks makes me think he didn't think Mako was the way to go with what they had started. Maybe that's how he got to sell his portion of MLX and not get blocked for 5-10 years with a non-compete clause, if he had anticipated or even just contemplated launching into hockey under VH, it would have made sense to make sure that that was legally possible.

Scott wasn't involved with the Mako at all from anything I've heard. Somehow he didn't even have a noncompete after the sale of MLX or VH Footwear wouldn't have been able to release hockey skates. Dave Cruikshank was involved. Easton already had plenty of engineering and product development in house.

I finally found a good visualization for this. Please excuse the tone, this is not my video, if it were, I wouldn't use the patronizing voice, but I believe the presenter means well. In any case, the summary is short and to the point. You see the "foot shaped" shoe discussed more readily. The usually mean the toe box looks ugly because it's meant to allow the toes to spread naturally rather than wrap them up in a pretty torture machine. Old Bauer toe caps were much more like the left "Standard Shoe" and have drifted toward the right "Foot Shaped Shoe," just without the extra space for the big toe to splay. I'm not sure what a pasty is. Duck footed I had to look up again, but it seems like that's more about the alignment of everything between the toes and the hip where something makes the toes point outward rather than straight ahead. That wouldn't affect the alignment of toe box shape though. What part of your foot did the 2S Pro toe cap hurt?

Where is this info from? Flylite has the highest facing over the instep of any Vapor to date, and it doesn't have the thickest Vapor tongue of all-time to compensate.

Some of the CXN pitch came from the stock steel as well according to Icehockey360.ru: https://icehockey360.ru/baza-znanij/geometricheskie-parametry-stakanov/ I don't know if it's just me but his pitch percentages don't translate to what I feel on the ice. CXN's pitch is supposed to be the same as True Shift's. True Shift didn't feel at all forward to me (although I know to many it does). CXN felt more like skating on Cobras, but they're significantly less pitched according to his measurements. My current set up is LS2 with the steel pitched by shifting the balance point back 20mm, which is standard on most Prosharp profiles if I'm not mistaken. The +1 makes it feel much better. I'm thinking of trying +2 next. My guess is +2 might feel more like the CXN or Cobra feel I prefer.

Warrior's customizer has been broken for about 10 years.

I actually really like the Vapor 8 and 10 steel, the black perforated steel with the series of triangular cut outs. They went with fewer cutouts but larger cutouts on the XX. I think by the time of the XXX that was pretty much dead. I'm not as experienced with the XX perforated steel, but from what I've heard it was more prone to breakage. The black finish on the Vapors 8 and 10 perforated steel was more than just cosmetic going from posts I've read on here from more knowledgable members (I tried searching for the references but Google's not helping). I currently have three pairs of that original black perf steel. I have some Fly-Ti steel I can compare it to once our rink's compressors get fixed. The problem for me has been the Custom+ holders. They're so old they can only sustain a couple of hours of skating before they crack or shatter.

Yes, exactly because of the changes in toe length. The height of the toe box has never been a problem.

Same size from Bauer to True, even with the difference in toe cap shape? Bauer's most recent toe caps have all been more anatomical than True's. True's are more symmetrical. That's what kills it for me. If True's toe caps had the same floor plan as Bauer's, I could do a 9 in True no problem. That would probably be better even, considering the roomy, disconnected feel I got from my Catalysts no matter what I threw at the problem. With each step towards a more anatomically shaped toe cap, I've dropped a half size in Bauer: 10D in Vapors in the 90's toe cap (Vapors 8 - XXX), 9.5D in the XXXX generation toe caps that were more anatomical, and 9-F1 in the 2X Pro that were even more anatomical. Hockey Tutorial says they've made further adjustments to the toe cap on the FlyLite, but I haven't handled them in person yet to see if it makes any difference for me. In my 9.5R Catalyst 7s my toes were as pressed against the toe cap as they could be without restricting motion or causing discomfort.

Were the 9D and 10D Trues baked? Personally, I felt like the 9-F1 Hyp2rlite felt like I'm used to from 9.5D Vapors: snug all around the foot, just feeling the toe cap but not jammed. Catalyst 7 I have 9.5D and I'm confident I couldn't do a 9D. I think ideally I would have 9.5C, because the Trues just feel too big in all areas but the length. Tying them tighter doesn't help because then I have no forward flex...so 9.5C and a different pattern cut probably. Before they were baked I was worried I had ordered the Catalysts too small. I couldn't get my foot in. Post bake they were comfy but not really the fit or flex profile for me. I'm guessing 10D will be way too big once they're baked on you. 9.5D is a decent bet if you're happy with 9-F2.