Stick or skates?

[ktang 34]

In the old days, some players would be curving / sawing / rounding / filing / painting / retaping their (wood) sticks all the time, and others would always be tinkering with their skate set-up (rocker, hollow, lean, lacing pattern, lace tightness, socks, tongues, etc.).

I was wondering if most gear-heads are stick men/women or skate men/women. So, which are you most obsessive / finicky with?

[gee2626 0]

Even though I do have a vast collection of sticks, I would still go with skates, since they're probably the most important equipment for playing well

[A_Steeves12 0]

im always playing with my stick(insert bad joke here) shaving down the handle and paint them taping them etc.

[Eazy_b97 1]

Good Question. I'm more of a stick guy, I'm picky about the sharpening hollow and finish on my skates, but not much else. I guess I've given up on being picky about skates at this point.

[McCabe24 0]

I am definately more picky with my sticks although I don'y really do any of things you mentioned because I use composite. The only thing I really do with my skates aside from keeping care of them is occasionally replacing the laces.

[sonsplayhockey 0]

Does tightening/loosening the laces 2 times in a game count?

I think it would be expensive to tinker with skates.

At least with a stick you keep the old one and fiddle with a 2nd one.

[chippa13 1844]

I am very particular about the profiling and sharpening of my skates. There is only one shop that I'll have new steel profiled at and only that shop and one other where I will get them sharpened. That said, I don't tinker much with my skates as I stick to what has worked for the last umpteen years in the hollow and radius department.

I tend to mess around with my sticks more, swapping blades, trying different shaft and blade combinations, retaping blades, switching between white cloth and black friction tape.

[chippa13 1844]

Does tightening/loosening the laces 2 times in a game count?

I think it would be expensive to tinker with skates.

At least with a stick you keep the old one and fiddle with a 2nd one.

I'll retie often in a game, or, if a skate just doesn't feel right that night, take off the skate completely and redo it.

[Chadd 916]

I'm pretty locked in with skates (S500) but I am very picky about my edges. I still swap out blades pretty regularly but now that I have a supply of comp blades I'm set on the curve, though I am still looking for the perfect feeling comp blade. The Original Response of 2004 Christian comp blades were perfect for me but neither is made anymore.

[notorious#29 0]

There both important, but I spend way more time messing with my sticks. I'm a stick whore.

[Chara3 0]

My stick is much more important to me than my skates. I am a horrible skater and the only advantage I have over everyone else is my wrist shot, so I like to use a stick that gives me the best possible performance when I shoot.

[badsk8ter 0]

I just bought another shaft and am interested in trying out a couple more different ones. My skates I'll probably keep using as long as I can. Sticks (shafts) are my downfall. I'm always searching for that "perfect" one and every time I read about a new or different one, I think, that's it, I've got to have it.

[pdchockey 0]

The legs feed the wolf....skates, and all the issues that go with them, have priority.

[top_shelf_24 0]

I would say skates are more important to spend your money on. I would much rather have vapor XXX skates and a road hockey stick than rental skates and an synergy ST, but I spend way more time on my stick.

[Quintin 16]

Definitely the skates. There'd be no point carrying a high performance stick with crappy skates - it just seems wrong.

Also, you wouldn't be able to get to the puck first if you didn't have good skates.

[Eazy_b97 1]

Maybe I am interpreting this wrong, but it isn't a question of what is more important, it's more, out of the equipment you have, what do you need to be perfect? Will you play around with your sticks to get them just right? Will you do the same with your skates? Do you have a harder time adjusting to a new curve than a new hollow? If your hollow is off 1/8 will you notice as much as if your lie is .5 off?

[tokes 0]

Skates are the basis for everything you do on the ice. If you're not comfortable in them, you arn't going to even be able to use the stick.

[Cavs019 702]

Im nothing without my speed. I know kids with dirty hands that are invisible because they're slow. At the higher levels, ive found that the best way to get noticed in a tryout is to have a pretty stride. :D

[Cliff_12 0]

I mess with my sticks a lot, I have to have my sticks the exact same size, and the same curve on my spare, I cant think of anything worse than breaking a blade or shaft then having to start using a different curve or lie or whatever!!

[Sven 1]

Skates, for sure.

[ktang 34]

Maybe I am interpreting this wrong, but it isn't a question of what is more important, it's more, out of the equipment you have, what do you need to be perfect? Will you play around with your sticks to get them just right? Will you do the same with your skates? Do you have a harder time adjusting to a new curve than a new hollow? If your hollow is off 1/8 will you notice as much as if your lie is .5 off?

Yes, what Eazy_b97 says, to clarify things.

In the old days, with wood sticks, we could get the blade and shaft exactly the way we wanted it - blade toe shape, lie, curve, twist - shaft roundness. It was also a good intro to woodworking.

Now, with the composite shafts and blades, I think most non-pros have to settle on somebody else's pattern and adjust to it. However, taping and length can still be important, and some people have to have the perfect tape job combined with the proper curve selection.

Players like Coffey and Lafontaine were supposedly obsessive about their skates / skate blades, and others like Bossy were supposedly more particular about their sticks. And, I recall reading somewhere that Gretzky was definitely not particular about his sticks and could have used anything.

I'm a skate person myself, seeing as I use the stick mostly for checking and blocking. I can tell if my lacing is off, or if the sharpening was sub-par, or if the hollow wasn't what I asked for, and it bugs me enough to throw me off my game. But if the lie was off I could adjust to it in the warmup.

[Kovy_Ribs_Fedo 3]

both of them equally. and for eazy's question about hollow and lie, I'll notice both too.

[Havok19 0]

Stick is the most important thing to me.

[Neo5370 132]

Skates. I'm an ok skater w/ hands of plaster. Wait, plaster is softer. Not to mention other people pass harder than I shoot.

[Go Pio's 0]

I'm pretty locked in with skates (S500) but I am very picky about my edges. I still swap out blades pretty regularly but now that I have a supply of comp blades I'm set on the curve, though I am still looking for the perfect feeling comp blade. The Original Response of 2004 Christian comp blades were perfect for me but neither is made anymore.

We still have a boatload of the 2004 composite blades left. If you want 'em, we've got 'em!