colins

Are your sticks longer, shorter or the same length as his? Higher or lower flex? Assuming the same length and flex, I'd expect most players to not find a W03/P92 better than a P88/W88 for backhand shots. The openness of the W03 towards the toe would typically impact backhand shots negatively vs. the closed nature of the P88 curve. Crosby has one of the best back hand shots in the NHL, using a pretty neutral closed curve, closer to a PM9 than any of the above. Not to focus on the backhands as I'm sure for a D man that's one of the lesser used shots he'll care about - but it just made me think maybe there's other variables at play if he somehow found your stick with a W03 better than his W88 for backhanders.

Oh - he's a D man. Have you looked at the W02? Heel curve, square toe, pretty much a specialty curve specifically for D men.

You could pretty much end the thread here, psulion22 nails it all around. I would just add: - Anyone that likes the P88 and switches to the higher lie P92/W03/P29 probably needs to go an inch or two shorter in stick length to compensate. I used P88 for years and hated the P92 until I realized I needed to play with a P92 a couple inches shorter. The adjustment was needed to give me the right amount of blade I wanted on the ice and to shoot with the puck closer to my body. - CCM P19 is not common at retail anymore but I see it still in team and pro stock sticks - I always found it a great middle ground between the P88 and P92 for someone wanting to transition. It's just a great curve in it's own right. - Bauer's retail P14 (at least on the sr 77 flex 1X's I had) is not only short, but fairly narrow and the toe is tapered a bit too. Overall a small blade. I have a couple prostock NCAA Pat Curry 75 Flex 1S that are unlabelled but look to be a max height P14 variant, and while it's still shorter than a P92 blade, I find it great compared to the retail P14 on the 1X. To the OP - at retail the options are indeed limited. P88, P92 and P28 are pretty much the only 3 curves you can find amongst the big guys in volume across their whole lineup of sticks these days. If you son loves the P88 and is effective with it, I wouldn't necessarily pursue a change that he's not looking for himself. The P88 is not real special for anything, but neither does it have any big downsides. It's a great all around curve for an all around type player, which at age 14 is probably what most kids are going for. Stickhandling, backhand, passing, all excellent with that curve, shooting off the toe is the one area isn't not 'great' for. If he's a playmaker as much as he's a goal scorer, I'd let him stay with it. Out of curiosity what kind of skater is he? Does he get fairly low with a good hip hinge / 'knee bend'? I find those kids are the ones that seem to like the low lie of the P88. The more upright skaters tend to gravitate more to the P92 style lie.

Some Warrior Intermediate sticks are significantly narrower in the shaft than the Sr equivalents. colins

Does anyone feel comfortable in both of these boots? The only way I can wrap my head around that is that they both feel equally mediocre if maybe you have a foot type right in between the two?

See if you can borrow a P92 that's a bit shorter, between your chin and lips for example, it's a great all around curve with the features you describe but I suspect using it at your current length might not be to your liking. That said - for the type of game you describe as being your strengths - I'd recommend trying a shorter stick in general. No easy answers I'm afraid - you've got some experimenting to do. 🙂

When you say long because you are tall - with no skates on and standing in your socks, where is the top of your stick hitting? Chin, lips, nose, eyebrows? Usually long stick and strong on the boards are conflicting traits. Also trying to find loose pucks around the blue paint off rebounds and broken plays - a shorter stick tends to help there as it's usually in your feet or close to your body. Curve wise the retails options are very limited. Retail P92 is out - with it's high lie at a long length you won't be getting much blade on the ice for those board battles or in front of the net. P92 L5 is a possibility but it means ordering a custom Bauer or lucking into one on sidelineswap or similar. I have found them to be rare. P30 might be of interest but CCM seems to be ditching it so that's not a long term option either at retail. P90T is maybe your best bet - pretty popular in pro stock and seems to be trending upwards maybe you can get it with custom orders now, I'm not sure. Have you used a P88 before? It has the lie and pocket you are looking for, but it's closed not open. Just curious what your thoughts are on it if you've used it before. colins

The 2S Pro is one of the better options available for a high instep. My son has a high instep and I didn't find the Nexus was any better for that on the Bauer side, even though the documentation suggests it should be. Custom is an option, you can adjust the amount of facing (the height of the area by the eyelets) to add additional volume to the boot. Did you try the pencil test on the 1S vs the 2S Pro to compare if there's any real difference? The 2S Pro tongue is super thick - is that contributing to the difference he's noticed? Also what footbeds did you have in the 1S vs. the 2S Pro? colins

100% agree with everything darkhors wrote here, my experience has been pretty much identical. colins

The ring should not be dragging, stuttering or stalling at any point across the length of the profile. If it is, there's too much pressure/drag being encountered. Use the risers and adjust the height until you get a nice smooth consistent sound (pitch) from the ring the entire length of the profile. I've been sharpening that way with my Sparx for three years now, my profiles are perfect and so are my Step and LS3/LS5 steel.

The Sparx was calibrated for the majority of steel in the wild when it was created a few years ago. And not just for new steel either, for the average partially worn cheap short steel in 90% of skates out there. It's pretty adjustable to any situation with the height adjustments it provides. That said, the answer for tall (LS3/4/Step/etc) brand new steel is simple - use the risers. I don't know why some folks seem to have an aversion for using the risers. Use the risers, or move the skates up higher in the clamp (don't bottom them out on the holders) and you make tall steel look just like 'average' steel to the machine and your problems go away. colins

The knees bend accordingly to maintain balance, but what you guys are describing is a hip hinge. The key to skating is in the hip hinge, as opposed to the knee bend. As described by the_game when he says 'ass and hips pulled down'. Beflar - you should lookup some hip hinge exercises and practice those and see how that translates on ice and helps your posture without putting all the load on your quads. Then come back and let us know!

Both work. Choose which one suits you best. colins

A $20 extension puts you back to a longer length if you cut too much, so I wouldn't worry about it being too expensive an experiment. You give up shooting leverage and some mechanics when going significantly shorter, adjusting flex can get you part way back but it's still something you have to spend a good bit of time on to re-learn and adapt to. Crosby can't shoot like Laine but he manages to do pretty well for himself all the same right. It's more a case of what style do you want to play and what's the best tradeoff for handling and puck protection and passing vs. shooting to compliment your playing style. colins

CCM is a lot more popular at the Junior and semi-pro level is what I assume drives the volume of pro stock options out there.

You might want to try on the CCM FT480. Or last year's FT390/FT385/FT380. colins

The P40 is short. And the P14 is short. But I didn't notice any difference in length between the P88 and P30. I would put all of P88/P30/P92/P19/P90T in the "medium" length category as far as overall blade length goes.

Can we make this a weekly game on modsquadhockey? Someone posts 3 curves and it's left to the viewer to correctly guess which is which? lol colins

I would have guessed the same as boo10 to be honest. To my eye the P28 retail is on the right. So switch the other two, P90T on the Left and P28 pro stock middle? Hard to see in the 3 pic because of the shadows cast on each other. If that's right then he bottom pic is missing the P28 retail. I'm more convinced than ever that a bunch of sticks in the wild have no P90T label from the factory but are being sold and referred to as P90T, therefore anytime some is talking about a P90T it could be one of a variety of similar but not identical curves. Is the P28 pro stock labelled as a P28? Or was it just sold as that?

1) Daoust 501 2) Bauer Supreme 100 3) CCM Jetspeed

And it scrubbed off pretty easy. I owned a pair of these, had them for 10+ years, haven't found a skate as comfortable since.

To summarize: I know the P30 is very much like a P88 until you get to the toe, then the toe kinks and is open, unlike the P88. I *think* the P90T is also very much like a P88 until you get to the toe, it also kinks and is open, like the P30 and unlike the P88. If anyone has both a P30 and a P90T in their hands and can compare and provide pics side by side I'd be interested particularly in any lie difference and the square or roundness of the toe between the two. colins

@Ryan91330 Here’s a pic of a P90T ordered from hockeystickman that my son is using. It’s a CCM pro stock from the WHL. Coming from a P88, he says he loves this curve.

No but I based it on this document from CCM, which again is somewhat contradictory (they describe the P90T as inbetween P28 and P29) but the pic they use from hockeystickman is identical to what I see as the P30, flat rocker, mid curve just like a P88, toe kink. This document was written a couple years ago before CCM launched the P30 at retail, so I'm just putting 2+2 together. I have seen and compared a retail P30 in store to a P88 and P92 so I know what the P30 is like 100%, but I haven't yet got my hands on a P90T. The P30's I've seen look just like the pic below (always hard to tell with only one angle shown).

P30 is the retail version. P90T the pro stock. It's a CCM thing - P29 is retail, P90 is a pro stock P92 clone. P88 is retail, P80 is pro stock. Makes no sense to me, but that's how they do it. Big problem as well with the pro stock P90T - if you search sideline swap for P90T curves, and have a look at the pics, it seems to me a lot of sellers are selling pro stock sticks that have no curve labelled on the stick as "P90T" , I assume because it looks similar to them. There's a wide variety of "P90T" curves for sale there that don't look the same in the pics to me, a lot of them not labelled on the shaft as P90T. Buyer beware. The most complete CCM chart I've seen is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g0UwtZ8BHbBI10cG9z4YMXvS0UmP28u4/view Notice there is no P90T listed - I'm not sure if CCM actually labels any sticks as P90T, maybe it's just Bauer using that code on pro stock. The P30 is described as "Very close to P88 but different toe (kink and toe)". colins