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Bauer Total One .520 Tapered Shaft -Height - 6'2" -Weight - 215 lbs -Level of play: Beer Leaguer (ice and inline) -Position: "Center Lite" (I play right on front of the net on both ends, with as little puck carrying responsibilities as I can get away with. Sort of like a Center in basketball, but nothing like a traditional center in hockey. So on D, I just try to clear out the area in front of the net the best I can. On O, I suck the D in and free up space on the perimeter for my line mates to cycle the puck around, and occasionally bury a rebound of theirs.) -Blades used- Warrior AXT1 Kopitar & Zetterberg; and Easton Mako II Iginla -Flex- 102 and 87. I used 102 for the first 20 sessions or so, and 87 for the last one. The 102 rips slapshots at insane speeds. However, I rarely seem to ever find myself in position to ever take slapshots (even when I am assigned to play D). In warm ups tho, this thing blasts rockets. I have not taken any slapshots with the 87 flex yet. I switched to 87 just last game because I was feeling like it took too much time and effort to load the 102 for wristshots. I often find myself in position for wristshots, and wanted something I could snap a little easier, still getting decent speed and power on my shots. -Shaft Shape/Grip- Boxy shaft, Tac Spiral Grip, no sticky stuff (none needed). My gloves are pretty grippy as well (Vapor APX), so my hand does not slide as easily up and down the shaft as I would like, but my grip is always strong. Shaft feels nice in my hands. Score: 9.5/10 -Stickhandling/receiving passes- My stickhandling is the weakest part of my game, so I just created a position for myself where I camp the net on D until the puck clears the zone, then beeline it for the goal we are shooting at as the puck carrier leaves our end, often dragging 2 guys with me. So, cannot really comment on the stickhandling for this stick. It feels good when I am just practicing and warming up, but in games, forget it, that is not my thing. This stick does feel nice receiving & sending passes, but I think that is really more the blade than the stick. FWIW, I love stickchecking too with this stick, it wields similarly to how I would imagine a fencer feels about his sword, and I am pretty good at knocking pucks off guys's sticks. Not sure if the stick has anything to do with this, or if any stick would work when I find myself in proper position with the right angle to knock pucks away. I guess balance might come into play here, and if this is the case, them this stick is right. Score: 9.5/10 Shooting- It is my understanding that this shaft was designed to harness the power of TotalOne with the tapered release. It does cover all 3 shots nicely, as I can rip off rockets on all three. I definitely feel a nicer wristshot with the 87 flex than with the 102. The release is not quick though- maybe it is my poor technique, or maybe it is the stick. I am curious to try a Warrior Covert or Easton Mako/V9 to see if I can get off quicker releases on my wristshots. Score: 9.5/10 Weight and balance- I think that this shaft weighs in around 300 grams, so throw a 125 gram blade on it, and I imagine that I am coming in around 425 grams + the tape that I use to shim the blade. Not a Sherwood Wrecker sub 400g stick, but they were not out when this stick released. Balance wise, feels right. Score: 9.5/10 Durability- This is where this stick shines. I fired off tons of slapshots as hard as I can, as it has been a long layoff, and I want my body to balance itself out with the force dynamics of shooting. So, the 102 flex probably has about 100 slapshots on it, plus all the stickchecking, and is showing no signs of abuse whatsoever, with full pop still intact as from the first day I got it. Score: 10/10 Intangibles- Perfect combination of durability and performance. For me, the durability is key, as I am far from an LHS. I am pretty well stocked on these (they are on clearance right now), so I have been intentionally hard on the 102 flex, just to see what these can do. Score: 9.5/10 Conclusion- Great all-around shaft, especially at $67 after coupon code (EMAILME is the coupon code for 5% off, at the only vendor who is still selling these sticks). Hard to find anything wrong with this shaft. I am pretty sure that all struggles that I am having are related to my own skill set liability issues, except the seemingly slow release, which I think is a combo of stick+ me. Even so, when Bauer made this stick, they could have gone for a lower/more taper for a quicker release, but they seemed to want to retain the T1 power, which they certainly have done. Total Score: 57.5/60

Foot spec - Wide forefoot, wide heel, small arch Last skate worn - Bauer Supreme TotalONE Size - 10.5D I have tested Supreme skates for Bauer since 2004 - from 8090 to ONE90 to ONE95 to TotalONE to T1 NXG Length of review - since March 2012 Now to the details - Fit - The TotalONE NXG's pattern is identical to the TotalONE. We will address the changes between the two skates, but certainly won't be in this section. The skates felt very good out of the box; I had started out with the Stiff inserts and did not experience any of the initial problems that I did when I had TotalONE. I swapped the stock insoles out for my custom Superfeet that were in my previous skates. What is different this time around is that I a) did not have to do a rebake, which I normally did with every skate I've had, and b) I never had that "take these things off of my feet" feeling that I normally get with skates. Absolutely zero heel slip, which was something I marked the TotalONE down for in the last review. 9.75/10 Performance - When I reviewed TotalONE, I stressed how important it is to figuring out your optimal stiffness for the inserts. However, this time, I already knew what worked so once I got my XS inserts there wasn't a learning curve. HOWEVER - the biggest difference between that skate and this one is the tendon guard. The area around the tendon guard has been notched, and the tendon guard itself has been re-engineered. The difference is 5°, however, that equates to 15% more range of motion...and yes, it is noticeable. I had that "oh, damn" moment on my fifth time on the skates - started to realize how much more I was getting out of my stride; enough to go back to the TotalONE to see if it was there all along; it wasn't. Starts were very good, as well as cornering. At that point, it was fun to push the limits. 10/10 Blade/Holder - The skate comes with a LS2 holder and LS Fusion steel. Initially, I went ahead and put my old Fusion on there, but decided to take them off once I skated; they felt too low. Instead of putting the new Fusion steel back on, I had found a set of regular LS2 steel in my garage that was never sharpened, however cross-ground. I went ahead and just put that on instead; no knock against Fusion; cross-ground steel is exposed to the elements so just wanted to sharpen them before they rusted. The LS2 is a good holder; not my favorite, but it works. 9/10 Weight- On par with TotalONE, which I called "best in class" in my review two years ago. It still applies. 10/10 Protection - When I do reviews for helmets, I mention I'm not a crash-test dummy. The same concept applies for my skate protection; if I'm by my defensive zone hash mark and it's not because I'm lining up for a faceoff, something wrong has happened. I don't get in front of shots. The skates do feel solid though, they have since ONE95 and the introduction of ALIVE/Curv. One thing to note though, the 3Flex Inserts now have extended material - think Always maxi-pads with "wings." What is good about that is that it does offer more protection across the top of the foot against skate cuts and the like. 9.5/10 (.5 more from TotalONE due to the new inserts) Durability - My pair seems to be well-made. Stitching is spot-on, mount is spot-on, nothing alarming. The liner has not shown any issues of wear around the top eyelets (which was an issue due to the tongue construction of the TotalONE. The NXG tongue was changed with that in mind.) 10/10 Conclusion - I really enjoyed the previous iteration of this skate; they really worked well for me. The thought that the skate could be improved wasn't one that I really had - I expected a possible graphics package change but didn't expect that much more of an improvement when the NXG came around. Simply not true - I believe that the tweaks made do make it a better skate. Overall - 58.25/60 = 9.7/10 Shout-Outs - Once again, must thank Keith Duffy, who is the Sr. Skate Product Manager at Bauer Hockey, for supplying me with a pair. As with every manufacturer, I've always had an excellent rapport with Bauer and our discussions and feedback I have provided to them has been warmly received. Please address any questions you may have in my Initial Thoughts thread. Also, if you want to track the progress (the past month hadn't been reported, lots of work on MSH) here is the Long-Term Review on the skate. It will still be updated to reflect any change on the product.