2011 Warrior Vandal

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

Open

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Product: Warrior Vandal OPS, 85 flex, RH Savard Curve, No Grip

Ht: 5'10

Wt: 205 lbs

Ice: Forward Roller: Defense

Other Weapons in the Arsenal: Pro Stock Dolomite (mostly OPS/1 shaft), Pro stock SE16, Bauer One95 shaft w/ various blades, Inno Megalyte. (Yeah I'm kind of a stick whore but it gives me a good litmus test on testing out the Vandal)

As always, before we delve into this guy, a HUGE thanks to all the Mods, especially JR for the hook up, and of course Warrior for letting me give the Vandal a go.

Stick arrived on Friday afternoon and like I mentioned above I am a stick whore and have never really used a low end or price point OPS before so I was surprised with the weight of the Vandal. Surprised, but not in a bad way, in a good way. I'd figure the stick would be very blade heavy but in all honestly the shaft and blade are pretty well balanced. Graphics are what you would expect out of Warrior, pretty flashy, there's no grip but I don't foresee that being an issue with the palm on my X60 Pro glove providing the grip. Its an 85 flex and it flexed like other 85 flexes I've used from Warrior. The Blade seems a little thicker than say a Dolomite or other higher end OPS I've used, but I guess that can be expected. I did not cut the stick down, normally I'll add a small wood butt end as a point of personal preference but I just taped the stick as the height is pretty much perfect.

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First On ice Impressions: *Disclaimer: I tried to be as unbiased as possible. JR told me nothing about the stick and I did not read anything about the stick from the Warrior Holiday catalog until after my first on ice session.*

Took out the vandal for a nice 50 minute pick up session Saturday morning. Only one sub a side so I got to spend a lot of time with the puck on my stick and also got my fair share or shots and passes too. Two quick thoughts when I got out on the ice, going with a clear grip for the first time in ages I think I'll need to do a 'candy-cane' tape job on the shaft for grip purposes. The other thing, stick felt a little bit short for me, think I'll add a small wood butt end to solve that. Out on the ice, I did notice the weight a little bit more but again not in a bad way, more so that I'm used to a lighter stick and could just feel the stick in my hands.

The puck feel with the Vandal was actually really intuitive. I don't know if it was the lower flex than what I am used to or if this stick/blade just has a softer feel. When stickhandling I liked the feel a lot and the same goes for passing, the softer feel/lower flex was nice on catching passes. Normally with other sticks there's that 'ping' or rigidity but w/ the Vandal catching a pass had a natural feel to it. You weren't worried about the puck bouncing off the blade on a pass.

Shooting on the other hand was a different story. I'm normally a quick snap/wrist shot type of guy, slapshots rarely make an appearance so I rely heavily on a quick release. The Vandal was not helping in this department at all. The loading of the 85 flex on the stick felt good, but the release point just wasn't there. There really was no consistent feel of that kick point that sent a shot off. The stick would just flex, load, and then kind of release. I may need to try to alter my shot or get used to the flex but this was very noticeable and I felt my accuracy, release, and shot speed were all negatively impacted.

The first foray with the Vandal was alright. It had its highs and lows, I am intrigued and will need to put the stick through some more paces before I can say anything else about it. And like I said, this was a laid back skate so there was no hacking. I did manage to have the blade meet someone's skate blade that put a scratch on the stick but durability questions should be addressed over time.

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Game 2 was last Wednesday night, this was my normal 'A' league skate so the pace was quick and I didn't spend as much time with the puck as I would during a pick up game. I ended up not adding a small extension to the stick, I'm trying to move to a shorter stick so I am keeping the length. The lack of grip was easily solved with a candy-cane tape job half way down the shaft of the stick.

I was still working on trying to find the stick's sweet spot for a release point in warm ups but to no avail. The kick point seems much higher up on the shaft than say my Dolomite and its difficult to get a good quick and accurate snap shot off with the Vandal. Being a higher skilled skate than the last pick up I played in, I was anxious to see how the Vandal felt catching much harder passes. On a few harder received passes the Vandal just kind of felt dead or flat is the best way to describe it. I get more of a 'ping' or a better feel that the puck is on my blade with my Dolomites. With the Vandal you feel the puck hit the blade but not with the same response, its kind of softer feel. It didn't impact me catching a pass, but I didn't feel like I was used to with other sticks.

The Vandal performed well enough for me that I used it the entire game. I still actually like it a lot for stick handling and passing, I was able to make a few nifty saucer passers that I don't think I could make with my Dolomite. Shooting is still a problem though. I managed to net a goal on a snap shot from the slot off a 3-2 break but the shot was by no means a laser. I hate to put blame on a stick, but it did cost me a goal. I had all of the goalies short side coming down the off wing, but the Vandal took so long to load and the release just wasn't there and I ended up hitting the outside of the post. The guys I skate with were giving me crap telling me to go back to my other stick after that shot.

The Vandal took a few more hacks and whacks this game, a few chips on the paint but nothing major. I'm not sure what Warrior is using for a paint on this stick but it seems much thicker than anything they use on the Dolomites. The few skate nicks and stick slashes show just how thick the paint job on the Vandal is.

Next game is this Wednesday, I think I'll end up using the Vandal for half the game and one my Dolomites the other half to get a better comparison between the performance and feel of the two sticks to see if its in my head or stick related.

[the_game 452]

Apologies for the lack of updates, work/life has picked up and my time to write reviews has been lacking.

I've used the Vandal a bunch more and still cannot find the 'sweet spot' for my release on shots with this stick. The one thing I did do to the stick was cut it down like 3 inches and add a wood plug to the end. The impact was minimal on the sticks flex (maybe got slightly stiffer but not by much) and the addition of the wood end plug did not alter the dampening puck feel of the blade/shaft. I was hoping that by cutting down the stick it would maybe give the stick a better flex/kick-point but unfortunately that was not the case. The lack of consistent flex was really prevalent on a few one timers I've taken. One game stands out where I was coming down the right side(I'm a righty) on a 2-1, took a pass where I attempted to one-touch shoot/redirect the puck, I could feel the shaft flex and load higher than I am used to and I ended up hitting the side of the net rather than score. I also took a one-timer on a power play from the point, in this case though the load/flex actually went in my favor. Normally that one-timer is all over the place, mostly 6 feet in the air and not on net. This time, the load/flex gave me much better control on my one-timer which found the back of the net going nice and low about a foot off the ice.

I did play one game where I split time between the Vandal and a pro stock dolomite. The difference in shot release time/shot speed/accuracy was night and day. With the Dolomite it was quick, with the Vandal there was a noticeable lag in the loading of the shot and then the release. I still like the puck the feel of the Vandal though, I think the added weight/85 flex gives me a different (wouldn't say better though)touch/feel with the puck.

I also used the Vandal for a game of roller hockey on sport court. The blade got pretty beat up during this game as I don't use tape on the bottom of my blade in roller. It wasn't like I used it outside on concrete, but the sport court did knick up and scratch up the bottom of the blade pretty good. I've never really liked the feel of an 85 flex in roller, especially with the lighter puck and this was the same case here. I had a hard time feeling the puck with the Vandal, stick handling and catching passes just didn't feel right and really threw me off. My shooting was just atrocious, I've never been able to use an 85 flex in roller and this was the same here.

I don't think the Vandal is going to be making many more trips to the roller rink and I'll use it strictly on ice. Its still frustrating to shoot with this stick as I cannot for the life of me manage to duplicate the way a shoot with other high end sticks. Still going to truck along and bring it to the rink and use it for at least a period.