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If she doesn’t care about women’s vs. coed, tell her to just skate Stinkysocks D and hunt down a couple clinics or other instructional skates in her area to supplement. As mentioned (I’m the wife in start_today’s post above) I’ve skated a bunch of leagues around Boston over the last few years and frankly I don’t think any of them are big no-no’s as long as she’s skating at a beginner level. This is my first season skating with a women’s team in a few years, (I did for a while back when I was first learning as well, but that was in Pittsburgh), and I totally understand the arguments for it, but I’m personally finding it just reinforcing how much more fun I find playing against men, and how much it challenges me to get better, faster. The only one I haven’t seen mentioned is Hockey New England. I play summers with a C team in Malden and really think they do a nice job running a good league... during the rest of the year I think the games move to Everett.. if those are areas she’d want to drive to, and if she’s decent enough to handle game play, their D level teams are definitely female- and beginner-friendly. If she wants to message me any questions about my experiences starting and learning as an woman who didn’t play as a kid, happy to chat any time, just DM me.

Decongestant isn’t a bad idea... I remember a teammate years ago jokingly tell me about taking Sudafed every time he plays for the speed-like effect (because he read the pros do it, 🙄) but the decongestive effect was a nice bonus for him. I hadn’t thought about that til now... I don’t think sitting on the bench any earlier will do much because it tends not to get bad until I’m actually skating with air blowing against my face, breathing heavy, etc. I don’t wear glasses or contacts at all and don’t have an eye doctor but it’s on my todo list so maybe I’ll ask about eye drops when I go... I’ll try some pregame Sudafed and if it doesn’t work I guess I may just have to invest in some rec specs.

So here’s a thing that has become more noticeably annoying for me, to the extent that I’m now seeking the wisdom of anyone else who’s experienced it and figured out a solution... eyes watering in the cold air. Blurs my vision, doesn’t seem to stop until half way into a skate once I’m warm or they adjust... even if I wipe them, blow my nose, whatever... the tears just keep coming. I’ve taken to just trying to blink at opportune times, and basically skate around with tears streaming down my face, but it’s inevitable that I have multiple moments in a game where I have trouble seeing - blurry tear filled vision. I mishandle a pass or misjudge a puck’s movement. I’ve been playing for about ten years and have always been a person whose eyes water immediately in the cold, but it might be getting worse as I get older, or it might be that I’m getting better and therefore it’s affecting my play more? Who knows. It drives me nuts. It’s not too bad in the summer when rinks are warm enough but every year when it gets cold, I find myself wishing I had a solution. They don’t feel dry, so I don’t think eye drops would help - it seems like the opposite problem. It’s worst in the coldest rinks and games where I’m skating more vs. less, so I assume it’s just my body’s reaction to the cold air. I get the same reaction any time I walk the dog outside in the cold. I’ve tried wearing a neck warmer/gaiter over my nose and mouth, which sometimes helps when I’m outdoors, but it didn’t seem to help with the blurry watery eyes and I couldn’t stand it. I wear a full cage. I assume if I switched to plastic the shield would help but I don’t really love that idea. But if nothing else works I may have to break down and give it a try. Anyone else deal with this? I literally look like I’m crying for the first few shifts of any cold late night game; it’s kinda hilarious, except when I’m missing passes just inches off my stick because I have blurry triple vision if I don’t blink every 2 seconds.

I just saw this and came by to say I have flat feet and found my relief in Bauer Supremes (170s from a few years ago, just bought new 180s last week), and with a pair of Superfeet I've never felt better. Then I saw your last post... haha. If you never wear anything with arches, the Superfeet can make them sore for a while (as happened to me) but since it sounds like you do wear insoles in other shoes, you might not have any issues at all. If nothing else, maybe this will give you an extra vote of confidence pulling those S170s on...

So I stumbled onto this thread since I'm shopping for insoles now, and I'm wondering if the guys who have been skating on these yet have any thoughts to share? I've actually had the old, original gray Superfeet (which were meant for hockey skates back when I bought them) for years, and they've held up great so I never bothered to buy the yellow ones. I assumed when the time came for new ones it would be an easy choice to replace them, but I just got new skates and want to get new insoles-- but with this added choice of the Carbon Pro, I'm wondering which way to go. In addition to the pros/cons of the Yellow vs. Carbon Pro, I'm also curious if you guys can help me understand how these both compare to the older gray version? Was the Yellow a direct replacement/evolution of the original gray? If not, what is different? If I really love the original gray ones, does that point to a choice of one or other (Yellow vs. Carbon Pro?) I'm not a heavy skater, (160lbs), and I'm just a rec league player (2-3 times a week on average), but volume is always a concern for me (I've always been one of those people whose eyelets are always super far apart from each other) and while the gray Superfeet didn't give me any complaints (and helped me get a better heel lock), I don't want to tempt fate with something that people complain about adding volume, compared to an alternative. Thoughts welcome... Thanks!

There are a billion threads about this; if you haven't, use the search function and check out some of the other firsthand experiences people have posted (I know I found old threads helpful when I first started dealing with this). For my part, I just recap what I've posted before, which is that you really need to figure out what's causing the irritation and get it under control right away, no matter what it takes. It might just be thicker socks or better insoles or bunga pads, or it might mean new skates, but if you dick around, they can get bad pretty fast (though not always, if you're lucky). In my case, hindsight suggested my skates were a half size too big and that little bit of room combined with having really flat feet with a tall foot made it hard to get a good heal lock and the tiniest movement was created the irritation. Going down a size and putting superfeet insoles in solved the problem. They aren't getting worse, but the small bumps are still there- so I get skates punched now. I just like to chime in on these kinds of threads to encourage people to get this kind of thing under control right away instead of waiting to see if it goes away on its own.. because it can mean the difference between finding relief and really screwing up your feet.

I'm a total lurker with only a few dozen posts to my name so I probably have no reason to be posting pics, but I always browse this thread and really dig a lot of the jerseys and action shots, so I had to share this one when I found out the tourney I was at a few weekends ago had someone taking photos... it's also the first half-decent photo of our team's jerseys, which are new this season and I'm super into...

That sucks. PM me if you want a great recommendation for sports med in Pgh... What did you do to your back? Venting for me... being in a state of limbo as to what I'll do for hockey this summer... 50/50 chance I'll be living somewhere else for three months so I'm afraid if I sign up for a league here, I'll end up living there and vice versa, but almost everything requires a commitment ($) way earlier than I'll know for sure.. worried I'll end up stuck with nothing in the end.