shotty

almost every stick and puck venue i go to restricts goalies. i'm sure it's to limit the competitive nature that a goalie brings out in the skaters, but also to prevent the kind of bs described by phantom. what pisses me off the most about the stick and puck sessions is the selfish little bastards that will gladly accept a pass from you, but never think twice about fishing your shot out of the net and tooling off with it, or picking up your rebound as their own, or skating past a collection of pucks without distributing them. i understand that the concept of stick and puck is to work on your own skills, but returning the courtesy is nice, too. i always look around to see who doesnt have a puck if i'm approaching a pile of them. luckily i haven't seen anyone trying to pick corners from the blue line with a slapshot while there's people in and around the net in a long time... i usually get pretty vocal when that happens.

thats like more than the nhl gave ain't it? NHL was $100K. I work at a HUGE company (did close to $30B in revenue last year) so it's not quite apples to apples. unfortunately, i don't think the nhl would have donated anything if it wasn't for the other major leagues taking the initiative... but nonetheless i'm glad they did it, and that was extremely generous of your company.

of course the incentive is to attempt to earn a new customer, but the instant pay off is the labor fee your charging. regardless if he never shops in your store again, you still made a sale... and it was a high margin sale at that... which is what my point was; i embraced labor sales because there's a two fold advantage.

maybe i'm the anomaly here, but when i worked as a store manager at a sporting goods shop, i LOVED it when people brought products to me for service/repair/maintenance that weren't originally purchased from me. labor sales are, by and large, a much more profitable business than retail sales. yes, he bought the skates somewhere else, but it cost that company a few hundred in OTB money to make that sale. all it cost me was a few minutes and he's helping me pay off my oven, i'm getting the opportunity to talk to him casually (no sales pitch) and i'm showing him how expert this place is. need new rivets? NO PROBLEM! while you're waiting, why don't you go try on that under armor that everyone sells for the same price, but you'll buy from me because all of a sudden you're blessed with time. now i'm a rep... and when i sell product into a store who is apprehensive about who's going to buy one of the full size run of $600 jackets i'm asking them to book, i say "they're going to buy a toque. they're going to get compliments on it, it's going to keep them warm and dry, and last them a couple years, but pretty soon their jacket is going to fall apart, and they're going to buy that $600 jacket because their $40 toque was the best toque they ever wore, and they're tired of buying stuff that fails them, and if this toque didnt fail them, how would this beautiful jacket from the same company fail them?" the point is that not every customer is going to be a big fish. they're not all going to come in and buy a pair of TotalOnes, with a set of backup fusion steel and a 3 S19s all at full retail no questions asked, then give you a reach-around before they hand over their credit card... some start small, actually most start small. and if all it costs you is a few moments to properly do what the retailer who sold them the skates couldn't (and charge them for it!), why not embrace the opportunity? this world is becoming more and more comfortable with buying over the internet, it aint going anywhere. so as a retailer you either have to find a way to beat them (embrace the opportunity to earn their business... or at least get a cut), OR you can move all your inventory into your basement and visit godaddy.com /rant

what a beautiful stadium. livhockey84, looks like you beat him low glove side! there was a photographer at our last game, i'll see if i can track down some decent pics.

i was working backwards, i knew i'd used 3/8 before but i couldn't remember if it was too much bite, or not nearly enough. looks like 7/16 is the one.

guys, i'm having a major brain lapse here. i typically skate on 1/2" ROH, but im felling like i need a bit more bite lately, which direction should i go? i know this is the blackstone thread, but i dont want to start a new one for this lame question that i SHOULD know the answer to.

game 1: 8-2 win game 2: 6-5 OT loss game 3: 7-2 loss talk about a strange series. anyways, we're done. eliminated in the first round (two time champs), and now we wait MONTHS while the olympics run every rink in this city before spring league begins and a complete reworking of the team begins next weekend.

same as the '09 catalogue. must be the internal SKU number for ordering that pattern per model on the e-form. i'm looking forward to the S19 shins.

funny you should say that. i traded a potpourri of pain killers to a buddy for a bottle of '98 Dom about a week ago and here i am in massive pain. pretty sure one of the ligaments in my knee is on its way out.

xtra, i like 'em in the sharks colorway. if you ever wanna sell, keep me in mind.

retail versions are shiny, pro versions are not. apparently the shiny material reflects with the bright lights and camera picks it up.

man, those ccm 4 rolls are hot.

mostly just don't call for the puck. 70% of the time if you deserve it and are in position to do something with it you'll probably get it. Good point. The exception is the point. There are a lot of forwards out there (even ones who aren't total jerkoffs) who end up with the puck down in the corner and it's like their eyes get locked on the net, even though they're below the goal line with a D and the center blocking their passing lanes and their own D is hopping up and down at the top of the faceoff circle, wide open and screaming his lungs out for a pass. ...Not that that's ever happened to me. All the time. Or anything. ;) yeah i f'in hate that. i've stopped calling for passes at the point, now. by the time they look up, see me, and decide that they'd rather get an assist instead of a shot at a goal, the pass gets picked off anyways. and if you are going to pass it my way, make sure it's hard and crisp. i dont have time to settle down your fluttering grandma pass. EDIT: i LOVE how there's twenty three pages of unwritten rules. gotta love this game!

three games in three days. pumped. 8:30pm friday 11:00am saturday 5:30pm sunday

sexy. im glad you chose not to put a number on the thumb. i think it looks ridiculous.

i wrote: THIS BOTTLE WILL GIVE YOU HERPES on my bottle, and everyone stayed away from it.

dont slash my stick after i bust up your lame and repetitive dangle move that hasn't worked once all session.

good choice. i skate on 1/2" ROH and the tech suggested 90/75, i didnt like it, ended up with 100/50. hope you like it as much as i do.

i found that post slightly hard to follow. i wish i didnt though because it sounds like a decent story. i've only ever adopted rescue dogs. my mom was a huge breeder believer and i've seen what messes those purebreds become. even with proper training et al.

What a game by DP and the Blues. I enjoyed it throughly :) I didn't :( <-- Canucks fan once it was 4-0 and perron had two, i was rooting for him to get his third.

and thats the most up to date, AFAYK?

two shops in PA. http://www.blackstonesport.com/fbv_where.cfm#Pennsylvania SouthPaw, the feel is different, so i suppose if you're just figuring out the game, you might as well give it a try now before you get used to ROH. its not necessarily meant for "experts" but, just like anything else, the better you are at the activity, the more likely you are to notice an impact. and use it to improve your game.

they probably didn't respond because you didn't place the order yet. imagine how many emails they get from window shoppers??? stevem above placed his order with additional custom options in the comments box and they came the way he wanted.

that went through my mind as i left... considering my team is falling apart this year.