flip12

What's BLBR? It's nice to have options though, isn't it? 🤠

Chosing money more than anything. I get that making money is the point of running a business, but their strategy looks to have shifted to carving out as much quality as possible to save on cost and charging even more because they think they’re the ‘Apple of hockey.’

#allout

True had a nice spongy felt tongue with very little stiffness at one point. I don’t know what they call(ed) it but it was on the True custom display model skate at the LHS a few years ago—before the railroad stripe detailing on the quarters. I’d go for something like that if possible.

@xfrost11 see if you can find a tongue with little to no stiffness to it. The boots are so stiff that any stiffness in the tongue can become inhibiting to your forward flex. My favourite tongue in my MLX is an 80’s felt, leather, and nylon that isn’t stiff at all. The first time I skated in my MLX with those was an eye-opener.

Also his -^

I feel ya. When it clicks for you, it's hard to make the little adjustments all the time that you can but don't want to have to with another pattern. It really shaves time off of execution, which isn't going to affect our paychecks, but will have an impact on our enjoyment, which is why we still play. You know what you like. I can support that.

@Jbear, I thought you said you like options. Loving an endangered curve puts you at the mercy of who continues to produce it multiplied by who continues to stock it. It’s a matter of what you want to prioritise.

True calls it HCS (heel curve, square toe). A quick search showed IceWarehouse has Catalyst 9x and 7x and even Catalyst standard blades if you’ve got some old shafts lying around.

Isn't TF already as low cut as any boot out there?

The dead zone on the P28 is because of the sudden change in flat heel-mid to aggressive toe rocker. It's quite open from heel to toe, making heel-to-mid saucers quite smooth if one is able to adjust for the deadening of the usual release point.

If Gepetty didn’t change the lie, it’s an E4 with toe curve and shaved toe rocker. G usually references P92 or P88, but Kovalchuk’s old curves are variations of E4, so very low and flat rocker for most of the blade: not everyone’s cup of coffee.

TC4 is more gradual in rocker and the curve is more like a blend of P92 and P28. I wonder if its origin isn’t from a TC2-5 into TC4 by adding toe curve and shaving the toe to have that classic P28 shape.

How many eyelets are on your boots?

But you don’t lace your skates. Your facing could be made of gelatin and it wouldn’t make a difference.

@Miller55 what blades do you have? I was just thinking about needing some tips because I want to try to put a slight toe and wedge on some E4 woodies. Does anyone know of some good sealers to use if some of the lamination does end up splitting on the bottom?

Anything you consider buying online, get them to post a picture where they measure the footbed. Sizing can be messed up, but the footbed length is a pretty foolproof method for gauging if the boot length is around what you'd prefer. Volume can be tricky. Trues are luckily on the adaptable end there: highly moldable, easily swappable tongues so volume can tilt up or down depending on what you're experiencing and after.

Even the pattern doesn’t matter much if the balance is right. I was surprised by that. I definitely have preferences in patterns still, but by far the most important thing is the balance.

I’m a 15” length, 13” volume so I wear 14” because they’re easy to find and a decent X-Y compromise for me.

Did you try the cuff flare shown in the videos for reducing pain and hassle putting True boots on and taking them off?

It’s starting to pop up online. So far someone has found a Canadian listing:

I'm curious, how many pairs of gloves do players go through at the professional level? How many players rotate two or more pairs of gloves at a time?

Is the shell the same between Cat9 and Catalyst Pro?

If you want blue you could buy the TF7 or 9 goalie boot and get a Catalyst tendon guard installed.

Update: According to icehockey360.ru, Catalyst (Pro according to the picture, Cat9 according to the caption) at size 8.0 weighs in at 833. So if that one particular skate is a fair representation of the model average once circulation comes up in the near future, it's about 20 grams lighter than Mako II and 20 grams heavier than HyperLites with CarbonLite runners. It would be interesting to see Catalyst's weight without steel. I'm surprised Alexey didn't shoot that, because I've seen him do it before. We also have to wait and see if True fixed the sizing issue with the TF which ran huge. That could be another factor.