Sherwood PMP 9030

[Eazy_b97 1]

Product: Blue/ light Brown Sherwood PMP 9030 Crosby Curve 95 Flex

Blade - I didn't notice an increase in feel right away. I have used composites practically all of my life. I have not used a wood stick forever, even wood blades are rare for me. I wanted to compare the feel to my tapered combo I had (graphite blade) so I switched back. I notice the puck jumping off of my stick and an overly stiff blade feeling with the composite, which happens to be one of my favourite blades. The stiffness of the wood has been good and the feel is nice. It's not like the puck feels better on your stick, just seems you can recieve passes better

Overall 9/10

Flex It was a 95 Pro-Stiff and I have tried many different flexes. The flex seems perfect for me, I think I may have finally settled on a flex for me, but I did come to the conclusion (that R flexes were probably best for me) before I bought this stick. The PMP just confirmed it. 10/10 (but thats PP)

Receiving Passes/Stick handling - Like I said earlier it has helped me remove some of those little bounces when recieving the puck, it seems to take less effort. Stickhandling I don't notice a big difference, you can feel the puck slightly better than an OPS (at least for me), but the difference is not night and day.

Overall 8.5/10

Shooting - This is where things gets tricky. My shot have never been harder, the puck feels and sounds like it is about to go through the glass. Wristers have not been as kind, hard as well, but you don't notice it as much. However the puck seems to come off the blade slowly. It takes a second to get going and get off of the stick, but it's heaven once it does. So I am going to split this up. into 2 sub categories

Release - 5/10

Speed - 9.5/10

Durability - I's a wood stick and still being broken in really, I don't expect it to last a month, but thats also what I would expect from any Wood stick (part of the reason why I switched to OPS). It looks like it'll hold up to what I want, durability isn't a big factor for me, I'd rather have performance. I got used to breaking easily an OPS a month, and wood blades a week (about 6-7 years ago, when I was 13 - 14) so I don't expect much and this is really another write-off category for me.

Overall 7.5/10

Weight/ Balance - I found the balance to be good, and much like recieving passes the wieght was not noticable until i switched back for a little to my tapered combo. My M-1/Comp T-flex was head and shoulders lighter than this stick, although balance is important I do wish the weight was better and that, along with the release, would be my biggest compaints. 4/10 (compared to all sticks)

Conclusion - I like this stick, I will continue to use it and decide where I will go from there. I am pretty sure wood, complete wood at least, isn't for me. However it has opened my eyes to the lack of feel I have on my stick. I was ignorant to the fact graphite hinders feel. I thought because I always used composite wood wouldn't help me because I had adapted. I will look to a tapered shaft/ wood blade for my next stick and give the Si-Core a try as well. I am glad I went out and bought this stick (30 cdn) and urge others to do so. It has helped me decide on a few things, flex, blades, opened my eyes to feel, showed what I was lacking (Because I didn't know) when recieving passes. This was a great experiment and it will continue to go on until I break the stick. I say this stick is nice stick, in a bind I would not hesitate to you this, for guys who like wood, look this way. For composite guys it may help unless you love quick releases and lightweight sticks. Like I said it has changed my views on sticks, but I have not been sold completely to go back to wood.

7.5/10

[Viking 1]

The stick: PMP 9030, right handed, Bourque pattern - used for a little over a month.

Me: 6'1", 210 lbs. Defenseman in college intramural league/pickup games/pond hockey; 2-4 times per week on the ice.

Blade - Seemingly a fairly hard/stiff blade for a wood stick, but not enough that it compromises the feel or anything. I don't know if this is just the batch that was at the store the day I got this one, or a real change, but my stick (and the other ones they had, and that I've seen recently) do not seem to be completely true to the standard Bourque pattern. I'm pretty loyal to the Bourque, and have noticed that the curve on this one seems a tiny bit smaller than the ones I've had in the past, and it seems to have just a slightly open face compared to ones I've had before. I don't know if this is a manufacturing inconsistency, or if they've changed the pattern a bit, but I don't like it.

7/10

Shaft/flex - It doesn't say the flex on it anywhere, but I have no complaints about it. It's a little less stiff than I usually get, but it feels like a regular/95-ish flex. I have a tendency to buy a very stiff rock of a stick, and this one is a little less than what I usually get, but I do like it for nothing else than just to switch it up from the usual. It's a bit of an ego boost too because I usually use a stiffer stick, so when I flex this, I feel like the Incredible Hulk, because I can do it with fairly minimal force. Not bad, but different. One complaint is that it's a little bit short for me, and since it's wood, it's not like I can just stick a plug in the end. It's not way too short, but a bit of an adjustment. If you're tall, or like a longer stick, it's probably not the one for you. I seem to have that problem with maybe 50% of sticks as I'm not a short guy, and I like a semi-long stick... To get on the soapbox a bit, I don't know why they don't make sticks (especially wood sticks) a few inches longer in the factory - they'd be too long for a lot of people, but that's a lot easier to solve than being too short. I don't remember the last time I actually had to cut a stick.

7/10

Stickhandling/Recieving passes - Excellent. I love the feel of this stick, and I never have to look if I have the puck or anything. I tried a composite shaft/blade combo for a little while, but I just couldn't get used to not being able to feel the puck, and I have a good enough shot with a wood stick that that wasn't enough to keep me from going back to the land of the wood sticks. This is my first stick back to the woodies after my composite adventure, so the great feel is a welcome change.

9.5/10

Shooting - My only major complaint about my shot with this stems from my earlier complaint about the inconsistent pattern. Because the face is a little bit more open than I'm used to/I like, I have a little bit of trouble keeping my shots down sometimes, particularly with a slap shot. That's only personal preference, and I don't hold it against the stick itself a lot. While I didn't notice a great improvement in my shot in my brief stay in Composite-City, I do feel that the switch back to wood has taken a little bit off my slap shot. However, I very seldom use a slap shot, and haven't noticed much change to my wrist or snap shots. I do feel my shot is considerably more accurate than with the composite combo.

7.5/10

Weight/Balance - Feels very light for a wood stick, so the switch back to wood hasn't been a big adjustment to me. I actually like it better being a little bit heavier. The science of sticks/shooting probably doesn't back me up, but it feels a little better in my hands, and a little more substantial than a composite, and not like I'm going to break it or anything. To me, this is what a hockey stick is supposed to feel like.

10/10

Durability - Durability is an important category to me, and I hate spending money and buying a new stick if I don't feel like I've gotten my money's worth. That being said, I don't feel durability is a strong point of this stick. After the first few uses, there were a couple of chips in the blade near the toe, and the bottom is wearing a little faster than I'd like. I'm not usually very hard on sticks - the forwards on my team have forgotten how to pass to the point, and I play a pretty defensive game, so this stick is getting worn out without having to stand up to a whole lot of shots.

6.5/10

Conclusion - This isn't my favourite stick ever, but I paid about $20 (Canadian) for it, and I certainly don't have any big enough complaints that I'd say it wasn't worth my 20 bucks. I'm pretty well decided that I'm a wood stick guy, and I am pleased with the performance of this stick, but the durability is a small question mark. However, if Sher-Wood quits messing up my pattern, I'll be more than happy to stick with this one and have to replace it a little more than usual. I wish Ray Bourque hadn't retired though, so his stick pattern would be a little easier to find, and more models would come in it - I might be willing to give an OPS a try if I could find one in a Bourque (it seems like Sher-Wood makes all of theirs in a Coffey, but none of them in a Bourque for some reason). Bonus points for not looking bad. I like the classic wood look a lot better than some of the rather garish colours and designs in the OPS universe. I don't know who the target market for some of those Warrior sticks is, but it isn't me. I want a nice little wooden stick that costs 20 bucks, and doesn't give me any trouble.

8/10 overall