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 🙂

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/

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

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.

I think Helmet and Skates are the two hardest categories to break into for player's gear. So good on True for jumping in and adding another helmet choice to the market. Hopefully they have enough success to continue to improve and offer more choices.

Yeah that doesn't look Max Height at all. I just don't get what CCM is doing for curve names anymore. How come jeffg's P90TM looks Max Height for sure and your P90TM doesn't look Max Height at all? @SkateWorksPNW what is marked on that shaft for Curve/Pattern? Players name or P90TM? colins

Just noticed hockeystickman.com has a P90TM in stock, and they list it as "Pro Benn/Max Blade". colins

I would just add not all P90T CCM are labelled as such. Some are sold as P90T but with just a player's name on the shaft it's down to the seller sometimes claiming it's a P90T when it could be some other custom pattern. I would just want to confirm for sure we are talking a confirmed CCM P90T build when comparing to the P90TM.

So let me get this straight. You are saying it's not a Max Height version of the P90T? Here's what we know: 1. CCM makes a P90T for custom/prostock. AKA Pro Benn Curve. 2. P90TM is a Max Height blade, as per CCMs own documentation. 3. You are saying the CCM P90TM is not a Max version of the CCM P90T. How can this claim hold up? What manager in his right mind runs a stick division with an existing P90T curve and then releases a P90TM which is something other than a Max height P90T? colins

So P90TM is actually just a Max height version of the existing P90T CCM curve, correct?

So CCM just sent out a survey about home skate sharpening and asked very specific questions about the Sparx and cost of rings, capabilities, etc. Not too unlike they did a few weeks ago about steel before they bought Step. Things that make you go Hmmmm.... colins

How do the stores order batches of the Bauer S19 Nexus League sticks then? They seem to be in stock on some Source For Sports locations. Is there no way for a consumer to order small-ish quantities of these via a Bauer reseller? colins

Thanks for the info, I'll look into that. Bauer the same way? Is it a 6 pack minimum for them? colins