After about of decade away from the game, I started playing briefly again about 6-7 years ago. At that point, I was mostly using a composite shaft with a wood blade and my old Bauer 5000 skates. Now, after another 4.5 years away from the game, I restarted playing in a local men's league. I'm having trouble adapting to modern equipment and I'm looking for help/advice.
Composite Stick: I have yet to adapt to composite sticks. The puck feel for stickhandling is horrible. Shooting feels and sounds like I'm handling a hollow, plastic hockey stick. A few years ago, I had a Bauer one95 pro stock for a bit and it was the closest thing I could find to the puck feel of a wood blade. Any recommendations on more recent sticks?
Curves: I used the Easton Suter/Shanahan curve for many years and I'm not able to stickhandle, pass and shoot with an open blade as well as a closed blade. I can't find anything similar on the market to the old Shanahan curve. I've also noticed that lies seem to be consistently higher now. Back in my day, the norm was a 5 or 5.5 lie. Now I mostly see 6 & 7 lies on mid-curves. I know Base has the Shanahan curve, but I don't like tapered shafts, as they feel too thin at the bottom. Since I use a short shaft, I have my bottom hand down low on the shaft and can feel the taper. Suggestions on curves?
Ideally, I would like to find a stick and curve that I know will be consistently available, although I'm open to pro stock sticks. Since I'm finding my search very difficult, I am considering ordering two Bauer custom sticks with the "soft" blade and Kane's NHL curve, but the price is outrageous.
Skates: I'm still rotating two pairs of Bauer Supreme 5000 skates. They are awesome! But I also realize they are very heavy compared to modern skates and they won't last much longer. When I tried composite skates about 7-8 years ago, I struggled with foot pain and boot flexing. Any recommendations on skates?
Thanks in advance.