flyerman

Been skating on FBV 90/75 since the beginning of last season with great results. This weekend I'm gonna try out my other set of steel which has ZC-4. I'll report back with a comparison. The steel itself makes a big difference as well. I went with the Velocity runners and the sharpening lasted at least twice as long, even with dings and edge stripping. Plus the steel is slightly lighter than the regular. It comes polished very shiny so it catches the light when I skate, which makes guys comment on how fast I am in my new flashy blades!

Hartnell bit him.

Just watched this little montage on Mark Eaton and the Notre Dame football team honoring him at a game. Makes me think again we really missed out on something special in Philly by trading him prematurely. I remember the whole deal with Clarke drafting him, the first Delaware Valley prospect to be drafted by the Flyers. In fact Eaton is from my hometown of Wilmington, DE. Dave Poulin was coaching Notre Dame and was lobbying for him to stay and at least play a second season there, but the Flyers wanted him to turn pro because they thought he was ready. He only played twenty-something games for the Flyers when they traded him to Nashville. I remember Clarke calling the kid "kind of arrogant." I idealized Clarke as a player but this is just another case of where is personal feelings about a player got in the way of making sound management decisions. On another note, just heard the Pens play-by-play guy going on about the Flyers 4th line and how they put too much emphasis on getting the tough guys out...after Guerin scored on a breakaway because of a bad D change. The only reason Cote and Asham are playing tonight is that both Betts (separated shoulder) and JVR (concussion) are injured. I wish these guys would do a minute or two of research (eg looking at the injury report) before they say such stupid shit. What is killing the Flyers tonight is their sloppy sloppy play in the D zone leading to BAD turnovers. Oh look, Coburn just put the puck in his own net off Emery's skate. Yea! It almost looks like the Pens are in the Flyers heads a bit too much, like the Devils and Sens of old.

Stick and Puck: Don't lollygag in front of the net. Shoot and get out of the way so you don't get hit. Then go get your puck out (if you only brought one) when no one is winding up. Bring more than one puck. Use the neutral zone to practice skating, stick handling and passing, instead of -- yes, you guessed it -- in front of the net. If you shoot your puck out of the rink, remember to go fetch it at the end of the session instead of leaving with someone else's. If you are going to practice deflections, wear full gear. Your body, esp. shins, will thank you later. Never shoot when someone is fishing pucks out of the net. If you divide the ice so little kids can practice and shoot on one end, don't go down there and blast slapshots. Stay on the "adult" side. Most of this seems like common sense, but people never cease to amaze me with the stupid shit they do on the ice. Okay, now go have fun.

Sabby, isn't that an OPS?

I haven't heard anyone mention the human connection factor in this discussion about the "future of skate sharpening in the age of robotics and automation." Even if the technology the Eric envisions was available and accessible right now, I still prefer a personal connection to the LHS employee who sharpens my skates, just like I want a personal connection to the mechanic who repairs and tunes up my car, etc. This is a basic human and customer service issue in which more than the monetary cost of the end product or service is involved. I believe that skate sharpening is indeed an artform in the sense that any highly skilled, highly personalize, highly nuanced, and niche-based craft is. It may not be as "exact" as technological "innovation" continues to move us aside, and it may end up going the way of the shoe repair shop, but there will still be people like me who prefer it because the personal connection in customer service at a LHS is irreplaceable -- from custom profiling and sharpening, to advice on hollows, to free sharpenings from the shop manager when nobody else is looking. A box that we put our skates into can never deliver this, just like saving $50 on skates from Hockey Monkey can never provide the value of having your skates fitted properly at a LHS by someone with whom you develop a long-term relationship and will take care of you as a customer for the life of the product. Automation and technology will continue to come and dominate our lives, but it doesn't have to destroy our capacity for human connection in everything we do....like choosing to get our skates sharpened at a LHS because we care enough to support them and their craft.