Eagle Sentry Trapper

[Netminder32 32]

topic open

[hamstercaster 2]

First off:

Height and Weight: I'm 6'1, 280 pounds

Experience: Started goaltending again last July after a 12-13 year break. All in all, have played nights for most of my childhood/teens/early adulthood. Played college in-house league but mostly a beer league/pick up hockey type of goalie

Caliber: A bit above intermediate. Capable of the most spectacular saves as well as the most horrid let ins ;-)

Coming off: Itech 8.8 Blocker and Trapper

Eagle Sentry Senior - 2007 model/Made in China

Price paid: 300$

Intro:

First off, when I bought my Eagle Fusion, I was also on the market for new gloves to match the color, you know :-) Budget was a bit tight so I was somewhat limited to DR's, SWD C-5 etc..... Then I saw the Fusion which matched my pads colorwise and somewhat pattern wise... But they were made in China but decided what the hell, let's try them out anyway.

Apperance Craftsmanship:

Visually they are very nice and appealing to the eye. Nothing spectacular but nice graphics and mix/proportion of colors. The Trapper/blocker are a mix of robocop weave, Polyester/Coton and clarino/Nash. Everything is nicely stitched and there are no imperfections, at least no visible/noticible ones. The trapper came in pretty broken in quite nicely out of the box. Closing the glove hand was very easy with very little resistance. The trapper also comes with a strap that tighten or losen the wrist depending on which side you pull. It works somewhat well but it never stays tight when I tighten it. It does not affect my play in any way though but still, this is something that may need to be worked on. The blocker however was a bit stiffer. Nothing preventing me from holding mys tick right or anything but since the palm is fairly thick and my fingers were thight against the end of the glove but that was to be expected I guess. Now after more or less a couple of months, the blocker feels like butter and is very confortable. It comes with a strap that tighten or loosen.

8/10

Durability:

So far so good. The gloves have held very well for the past two months averaging about 4 hours a week. Not rips or tears, no sign of premature wear, no stitches coming undone or anything. It's still somewhat early to judge but I have heard of other senior gear deteriorating at a much quicker rate where it was noticible within a month.

9/10

Performance:

Here too so far so good. I have not had any dingers whatsoever as of yet wether be it glove or blocker side. The palm seems thick and strong enough to protect me from hard shots while not taking playability away. The blocker, well it's a blocker and performs like one. No dingers, very good thumb protection, nice stopping surface.. the works. The palm is nice although somewhat thick and maybe too thick for some people out there but the palm is nice nonetheless and feels like it will last a good while before holes will start to appear in the palm area.. if any. After two months there is no visible wear whatsoever. That being said, I must add that I am using a composite stick and don't put tape where the shaft and paddle meet so that may help a bit. I do play the puck from time to time but am not what could considered a brodeur or Tuco and thus only play the puck when I really have too or when there is no impending danger that would embarrass me if I was to misplay the puck. So far, I'm very please with the performance but nothing's perfect so I'll give it a

9/10

Conclusion:

No matter how cheap they may be price wise or whatever people say about Chinese made goalie gear, I feel I got a very good deal with that set of matching gloves. So far, I can't say anything bad about the gloves and I know for a fact that any concern would be addressed accordingly by the Eagle Staff. Not that I have dealt with them before but they do come highly recommended by many who have dealt with their customer service, amongst other things. With that in mind, I'm sure if something was to go wrong with the gloves in a certain time frame, Eagle would address the problem accodingly meaning that I don't really have to worry about the fact that they are made in China. They back their product. Although it's been no walk in the park (see pad review) it's been one happy journey so far with my new Eagle Gear which makes me a happy camper and when the time comes to upgrade my gear down the road, I will definitly look at Eagle gear first before I look at any other gear which doesn't mean I'll be buying Eagle again as you never know what will happen down the road but so far I can say that my level of satisfaction is high enough for me to consider buying more eagle gear in the future.

Overall: 8.5/10

[hamstercaster 2]

This is an update on how things are holding up with my Trapper/Blocker. Yesterday after the game I found a tear on my trapper at the cuff, nothing major, easily repareable but still, that means I have to send it away to Eagle. I contacted them and I was told to send it in and they would repair it free of charge. So once again, Eagle proves that they stand behind their product, wether it's made in China or Canada. I only need to pay for shipping going to Eagle so that's not to bad. It still sucks though that a 2 month glove needs repairs although I really can't tell how or why it happened.. could be manufacture defect or could just be the way I store it in my hockey bag, a skate or whatever...