colins

Based on the New scan, I believe the scanner thinks you're now a Duck?

Been back to summer beer league hockey since the first week of July. Very few cases here in eastern Canada as part of the Atlantic bubble. We have to get dressed in the stands, we're playing two line 10 vs 10 and not sharing any water bottles on the bench. Highlight of me week honestly. The rink has to have the previous group exit the building before we go in, so they are limiting things to the 20 players plus staff in the building but so far so good and we grab a beer in the stands or in the parking lot afterwards.

Here's an observation - some of the best skaters I've seen from a power / explosiveness / speed POV have been the ones with very good ankle mobility and the ability to pronate when pushing off the loaded foot. Some mild supination when using outside edges also seems to be advantageous. So to OP - if you have an ankle issue you want to correct, by all means - but I don't view pronation as an automatic "bad thing" when it comes to skating. We make fun of the "ankle benders" first starting off, but the guys who have above average ankle mobility for pronation and supination along with ankle strength seem to be the ones that are the best skaters, generally speaking.

The history and philosophy behind the design is well documented on Sparx's youtube channel. Look for the series of videos titled 'The Sparx Prototype Series' if you want the full picture - it goes quite in depth from original idea generation to prototypes to the final design & build. colins

Makes a lot of sense. CCM + Step + Sparx = Your Edges never Looked Better.

You sound like the perfect candidate for the P90T/P90TM. Have you tried one? colins

Anyone comfortable with a P28 probably won't see a lot of value in the P90T/P90TM. I think it's more for the player who tends to play low without going to a really short stick and struggles with the amount of heel-only contact the P28 provides. These are the guys who would normally prefer stick handling/passing with a P88 due to the low lie and flat rocker but they want a better pattern for shooting off the toe and for toe drags than the P88 provides. Even someone who uses a P92 and is happy with that doesn't have much of a case to gravitate towards it. To me, the P90T/P90TM is a migration path for P88 folks who want some of the benefits of the P28 or P92 but don't want to give up the puck handling comfort & lie they enjoy with the P88. P92 lie 5 is another option for these kind of players - but it's a rare beast, never seen it at retail and rarely on prostocks. colins

The P90T's I have I would call a 5.5, when compared to a Bauer P92 being a 6. I suspect they didn't change the lie with the P90TM, they just added some height (the 'mid max' as described above).

The problem starts at the definition of the P90T. You can't answer the question of 'is the P90TM a max version of the P90T' before you get people to agree on what a P90T is. The vast majority of sticks I've seen sold as P90T are not marked as P90T. They are unmarked prostock that someone has determined is "P90T like". This leads to significant confusion. Also I've seen the Bauer P90T and the CCM P90T described as very different animals. The two prostock unmarked CCM (one Jetspeed, one Ribcore) P90T curves I have are both best described as this (my own take on it): - Very similar to a P92, with the exceptions being: - Less rocker (flatter) between the heel and mid section of the blade (P88 like in this regard). - Slightly more toe hook/kink than the P92. - Slightly lower lie. If the P92 is a 6 then the P90T I would call a 5.5. From everything I have read/seen so far, I believe that the P90TM is a Max height version of what I describe above. Again, I think the disagreement you'll get on this starts and ends with people having different definitions of what a P90T is (or isn't)! colins

Yeah but the size of the market for folks willing to swap holders to access your steel is hundreds of times smaller than the size of the market of folks willing to use your steel on their factory CCM or Bauer skates.

So buy Tydan if you want to help keep the skate steel market an open one, so skate manufacturers can't sue competitors out of existence due to the shape of the steel.

When everyone gets back to the rinks I imagine it'll have a direct impact on the volume of discussion here. Personally, I've been looking more at inline and ABS blade info lately, strictly due to circumstances. Focus is on off ice training/practice opportunities and that doesn't need much in terms of the usual on ice equipment. I'm using my Sparx beer koozies daily, but my sharpener not so much 🙂

Yes. I go up 10 (from 75 to 85) on the True 5.2 SBP vs. my CCM Tacks and Bauer Nexus which I prefer at 75/77. Speaking about all 3 at the same length. The Trues feel whipper to me, and I have a bunch of them. The 85 I find great, and I can switch between it and my CCM and Bauer 75 and 77 without any trouble. colins

I think we know it's caused by excess pressure on the tendon leading to rubbing/damage and inflammation. You can rehab the tendon through band-resistance exercise and rest. It's cured by increasing the volume in your skate so the laces don't cut into or apply as much pressure on the tendon. This can be done by switching skates to a deeper boot (pencil test), or installing lace eyelet extenders to increase the facing of the boot at the point of the pressure/contact. Everything else is just masking the issue or a band-aid. colins

I used one as a kid on ice, it was my favorite stick at the time. Of course seeing Gretzky using one had some influence on that. The blade though was mostly wooden, it was just the frame around it that had a plastic composite material to avoid the quick wear on the bottom of the blade that plagued all other wooden sticks of that era. Titan's founder describes the construction of the blade here in the clip from Hockey Tutorial (the stick he's holding is not a TPM 2020 it looks like a regular wood blade): Here's a good pic of the blade:

Pure used to sell it:https://www.purehockey.com/product/titan-tpm-2020-composite-stick-senior/itm/17169-41/

The SuperTacks shell has a protective element to it around the kidney area. It also has a zipper to extend it's length. Bauer shells work great too but no extra protection and other than the zippers on the inside thigh no adjustments. colins

Super Tacks gen 1 was indeed a disaster! Just thinking... has there been a worse successor to a near perfect stick line (the original Tacks and the Ultra Tacks being in that category - they were solid, reliable, overall great sticks used by so many)? CCM blew it with the Super Tacks. My kids were big fans before that release - but went back to Bauer and the Nexus when the Super Tacks flopped and everyone's blades were falling apart in record time. colins

I've spent a bunch of time thinking about the same idea on what makes some games great and others it seems like you are just swimming against the tide. I think in my experience, it's a lot more mental than physical, and for the mental side of it - rest, stress, distractions - that seems to be the biggest thing. I think it's why the idea of the pre-game nap is so highly valued - it prepares you mentally for being sharp on the ice. Have you ever stopped to think about things like how much sleep you had the night before a good performance vs. a bad one, or how much mental rest vs. stress you faced that day of a good performance vs. a bad one? I'm not a performance coach so I don't mean to derail the thread, but in my own experience these are some of the conclusions I've come to in analyzing my own performance. Literally some games I know exactly (mentally) what I want to do or need to do, yet that connection between the mind and body seems ever so delayed such that when I go to execute I just seem to be forcing it instead of it 'just happening' automatically. Should have had that pre-game nap! 🙂 colins

There are a lot of important roles, not just those on the ice. Once your kid is playing organized hockey on some type of select team, the manager role is huge. All you need to be a good manager is a level head, good organization and communication skills, and the ability to role with the punches. I coached youth hockey allstar level, and the choice of team manager was huge - the difference between a good or bad season was largely on the quality of team manager you found for that role. So to the OP - if you're motivated and want to help, don't be discouraged if you lack on ice skills, a hockey team is more than that - there are other ways you can be a key part of the teams' success while you work to develop your on ice skills. colins

No I don't think you can have solid plastic on shoulder or elbows anymore. Here's the Cooper Defender ones I was talking about. Lots of these around the bantam/midget hockey world in the late 80's: And these... the chest plate on these below look more familiar, but I remember the shoulder caps being huge like in the top pic... I didn't remember there being two different versions of these but maybe so.

He's got volume down low but near his instep it's anyone's guess. You can't tell from that pic if he's left the laces loose there intentionally to keep the spacing open to assist in that massive crease he's got going or not. There's very little about his skate setup that looks normal or average.

The pair I had we used to call 'Defenders' - I thought they were Cooper branded? You couldn't lift your arms over your head without them riding up and pinching your ears. Everyone looked huge in them though. No, they shouldn't come back.

Ultimately I think you have to decide what type of player you are and optimize for that. Laine - Super long stick and a curve to optimize shooting over everything else. Ovechkin - Nine iron type huge open toe curve to optimize one timers over everything else. Crosby - Short stick with almost no curve to optimize puck control close to his body and playmaking over everything else. Pick the curve / length that suits your style. There's no right or wrong answers, just the answer that lets you optimize your game to be the type of player you want to be. colins

This is very real and can't be overstated. You need to be confident and alert, and wearing proper equipment, gloves, helmet with visor, even elbow pads would be highly recommended first starting out. Chances are you will get knocked down or fall at some point, and the injuries that come from that are no fun.