flip12

Could be good in case they encounter an antagonistic sphinx or something.

There's a new dedicated VH Hockey page now. It's the one that's linked to the ads that have started showing up here, which is another thing itself--they're definitely investing in growth at this point.

It was probably smart of them to do that. The thinness of the tongue is the one thing I don't like about my MLX, especially where the piece that screws into the toecap is sewn into the rest of the tongue, makes it so that I can't feel the boot above my falanges, which is essential for quick starts.

Suomi Coverts are nice.

Excellent, thank you!

Thanks for another detailed update on your VH upkeep. I'm curious, what did you find was good to do and good to use for the self-Plasti-Dipped toe cap? I want to do that to my MLX before they get heavily worn.

Thank you! I want to put in a heel lift on my MLX, so I was looking for the right characteristics to match. I didn't know what threading basically.

If the Makos are as high cut and close fitting at the top as my MLX, I actually think that they're still committing the same motion obstruction that Bauer skates do, just to a lesser extent. For me, nothing matches the range of motion I get in standard Graf 703's. Those are the boots that unleashed my skating. Of course there's room for personal preference and all that. I just see a lot of great skaters wearing Bauer who skip and eyelet or two, like flipping the training wheels upwards instead of taking them off completely.

The way a lot of elite skaters (not just pro, but high level juniors all over the world) use work arounds on the degree of structure and stiffness in Bauer boots is a major factor in why I think that. Essentially, Bauer's stock setup just reminds me of being on a city cruiser bike compared to ease of moving on racing bike, which at first is a scary posture for most people.

Chadd, exactly that, and also, JunkyardAthletic, from the little I've seen of the Oilers lately, how can anyone not like Marincin? Sure, he'll make a mistake now and then, but he's a young defenseman on a crappy team, that'll happen. To me it looks like he has huge upside.

The only way that and the ultra high boots make sense to me is they're tailored to the preferences of beginning skaters.

They keep emphasizing their need for bona-fide offense, when they have great parts in place. RNH will be a solid first-line center once he's fully developed. They need guys like Horcoff to exemplify veteran consistency for their young forwards, and probably one more solid veteran defenseman to do the same. It looks like it'll be good for Perron to get out of there. He could be an asset to a lot of teams. Marincin too, if that's who they'd package him with as I just read in a rumor column. But I completely agree with everyone here--they want a No.1 center in return? No way. Not without perfect Inception.

My thought: it could be strange to skate on that aggressive pitch with a short radius. The CXN comes radiused at 9' I believe, while Bauer and CCM are both 10'. Graf, which is more forward pitched, like the CXN, comes with an 11' stock radius. I know exactly what you mean about feeling like you're skating in high heels on that pitch, but I also know what you mean about it feeling more restricting or sluggish to be less pitched. I haven't been able to skate on an aggressive pitch with a long radius recently, mostly because I've been dealing with getting the right boot first, but I will go back to a similar setup to Graf's stock when I get the chance and the spare money. If what you want is that ease of skating feeling from the forward pitch, plus more stability, I'd say go back to the aggressive pitch, almost all the way if not all the way, but just get a longer radius on your blade which will give you a larger blade/ice contact area and thus more stability.

Well, neither does any pro non-goalie either. If it breaks, the eqm fixes it or it gets replaced.

D.Roy was in Makos for a long time, until now. Some guys that had them have switched back out. Personal preference as always, but I still get excited when I see someone new in VH.

I hope it's ok to revive an this thread. I have some questions about Channel Z as I'm considering it instead of FBV, which appears to be incredibly difficult to find in Europe. I skated on FBV twice and loved everything except how much I was grabbing the ice with stopping and pivoting manoeuvres. I'd be happy just finding which FBV suits me, but the only place I've found online that has FBV is a place in Hamburg, and I suspect I may like even less edge than they're going to be offering. 1. Most Channel Z sharpening for hockey appears to be adding the (small, medium, or large) channel to an otherwise standard ROH cut, is this correct? 2. Unlike the FBV, which has a flat between the diagonal edges, Channel Z can be done to skates with that but Pro Sharp only seems to recommend a "flat" middle for bandy skates. How similar is Channel Z's flat grind to an FBV grind? 3. Overall, Channel Z feels similar to FBV in terms of glide and edge grip (both of which were amazing in my FBV sessions) with their normal radiused and channeled sharpening? There's at least one place nearby in Malmo that does it, but I haven't been able to get a hold of them on more specifics about which options are available, and being an addicted MSH'er, I'm anxious to do my research before going in any one direction on it. Thanks for any help! :) Edit: forgot 1.A: How does a small, medium, or large channel differ in its effect on edge and flat feeling from the blade?

I've noticed a couple-three pairs in the KHL, but now, Max Afinogenov:

Bauer already kind of did that with the one90, but didn't they just go back up to their higher cut boots? That's just their thing. Easton/VH will have to take a bigger bite out of Bauer's dominant market share for Bauer to think about doing anything to take back what they lose. I could be wrong, but that's been my projection of Bauer's stance on this trend.

Really impressed with the fit so far. First pair of skates I can say that about since my One90's. In case you haven't seen it yet, there's a huge thread on VH in here. It's a good read :)

Also Jets, Trouba, Stuart, and Peluso. Just spotted Cody Eakin with Dallas. Kulikov still wearing VH, has been since late last season. I think it's new with Hannan. Pictures I've seen show him in Nexus last year.

Sorry, I didn't mean to just throw it out there without clarification. VH stands for Scott Van Horne's company VH Footwear. There's a huge thread on here about the whole history of his current production line, but the short story is Scott's a former Canadian national team speed skater who started making speed skates about 20-years ago and has been making hockey skates for a little over 5 years: first under DASC, which became MLX, which got bought buy Easton and became the Mako, and now VH makes their own skates a lot like the MLX, with some variations made to that design. I'm a huge fan of classic Graf attributes (in a lot but not all of their old skates): lower cut boots, more foot-wrap and much more anatomical fit (for my feet), longer steel, aggressive pitch. I'll finally get to skate in MLX boots once my pair clears customs here, but from what I've gathered, they have a lot more in common with those attributes I like about Graf than they do with other skates on the market, but with newer technology and an extremely thermoformable boot. A few links: VH Footwear thread on here, which has links to VH Footwear's site. MLX thread, which died a horrible death due to seriously sad marketing practices from within MLX. All in all, I'm thrilled about the speedskate's incursion on the hockey market.

Also VH in Winnipeg, not knocking your choice in Graf though. Other than VH, I'm an admitted Graf kool-aid drinker.

Good to know on your follow up. Love the detail of your posts AfftonDad.

Is there a difference in the steel weight? How reduced is the set on your Makos?

Not really, if you follow his reasoning. He's thinking out loud about different production cycles of the same version of a particular skate model, where a batch of Mako I is not in the same set as a batch of Mako II: he is just comparing batches of Mako I to other batches of Mako I, and batches of Mako II to other batches of Mako II. Since MLX were not made by the same people in the same facilities, and also vary significantly materially from the Mako I, they aren't even the same product.