Warrior Widow

[Chadd 916]

Product: Warrior Widow

Flex: 85

Curve: Vanek

White base color

Blue Speed graphic, top and bottom

White logo

Corner texture

Velvet grip

Matte blade

Warning: I want this to be known up front, I hate changing sticks. I like my curve and I've been mostly using the same blades and shafts for 6+ years. I have a tendency to switch back to my safety blanket at the first hint of difficulty. If I mention any minor discomfort, it does not mean there is an issue with the product. It's usually just a mental block on my part.

Initial impressions:

I didn't use the online customizer, so I wasn't really sure how the stick was going to turn out. When it showed up, I was extremely impressed with the final look of the stick. The velvet grip is very nice, as is the corner texture I selected. My only question there is if the lack of clear coat or grip covering will negatively impact the lifespan of the graphics. The stick is fairly light and very long, I ended up cutting 4" or so and I tend to use a fairly long stick. This will be great for guys that are 6"+ and use a stick that comes to their chin or above.

First time on the ice, I took a bunch of wrist shots while warming up. The puck seemed to jump off the blade. My first half dozen shots all hit the crossbar on the way in the net, nice way to start a relationship. Stickhandling was surprisingly comfortable. As we started our pick-up game, I was amazed at how easy it was to catch passes. The blade is very stiff, but has a very soft feel to me. It's better than anything I have used in a long, long time. In the game, I had no problems catching or making passes. The puck went where I wanted it and stuck to my blade when the pass came to me. The feel on this is really stellar. I can't really explain how much I like the feel of the blade. First wrist shot stung the goalie as it went through him, that says a lot about the kick to me. As it was a pickup game, I avoided even attempting any slappers. There just wasn't any need for it. All in all, a very positive experience.

Second time out was my first league game in a month. Naturally, three guys who regularly play defense were out of the lineup and I ended up on the blue line with two other guys. The one thing I noticed was that off the ice, the stick feels fairly average in weight for a top end stick. On the ice however, the stick feels lighter. I'm not sure why or how, but it was something I noticed while playing. I had some issues with slappers, but that happened with my old sticks as well. My timing is just messed up from a long layoff. I was able to make long passes with my normal accuracy. I'm still just in love with the feel of this stick and people that know me are going to be very surprised to read that. All in all, things are going very well. I need to work on my timing a little bit so I can work the stick a little harder next week.

http://www.modsquadh...widow/curve.jpg

http://modsquadhocke...d/widow/top.jpg

http://modsquadhocke...idow/bottom.jpg

If you have questions feel free to PM or place in an existing widow topic in the ice hockey equipment forum. I will do my best to answer anything I see.

[Chadd 916]

Finally got a chance to play again tonight and I'll do my best to shake off the post game beverages and make this as coherent as possible.

I am absolutely loving this stick, as much as any stick I have ever used. Considering how difficult I am to please, this is really saying something. The puck feel is as soft as anything I have used. It reminds me of the old composite TPS and Inno blades before everyone went to pre-preg construction. wrist shots and snappers are absolutely effortless with this stick. My second goal of the game came on a 1/4 slapper that absolutely blew through the goalie and stuck in the top of the net. I still haven't been able to get comfortable on a full slapshot with the stick, but there wasn't any need tonight. I'm a cheap bastard, but I am planning to order another stick once the customizer goes live.

[Chadd 916]

I am still using the Widow from the customizer and still loving it. It has held up well and the only times that I have gone back to my old standby TPS sticks are when teams get a little chippy and I think they may be trying to break my stick. It took a little while to get used to taking a slapper with it, but i found that dropping my lower hand and shortening my windup produced excellent results. The stick still has great feel and pop and the blade has retained stiffness pretty well. There are a couple chips and nicks in the blade, but I have yet to see an reduction in performance.

I was playing around on the customizer earlier today and I think I'll be ordering another stick in the next few days. And I can't think of a single thing I would change.

[Chadd 916]

I've been on a nice scoring streak this season with points in every game, probably not anymore now that I've mentioned it, and decided to look back over the stats on pointstreak and I've only had two games without points since I got the Widow. I'm not saying it's the stick, but you know...

[Chadd 916]

As I've mentioned in other topics along the way, I have been having very good luck with my widow this season. I ran my point streak from the first game of the season right through to the playoffs and it ended in the first game of the finals. We still ended up winning. I also started off our spring season with a three assist game to start a new streak. Wrist shots are fantastic with this stick, they just leap off the blade. I haven't had any problems with the blade as I've read in other posts about the stick. I'm still not completely comfortable taking a big slapper with it, but I will work on that more this season as I am playing defense again this season. After a ton of ice times in the last 9 months, I am starting to get a slight rattle in the shaft, so I ordered a replacement widow and it arrived the other day. I just happened to notice that Warrior made a change to the paint that I didn't notice at first. The white paint goes all the way to the blade now. The only thing I would have changed about my old stick, has now been changed and I am a happy camper.

[Chadd 916]

I've been a little too busy to keep this updated as often as I would like, but I think I finally have the slapshot thing worked out. I am dropping my bottom hand much lower than I normally would, probably another 10" or so, and it is making a huge difference. I still don't put everything and the kitchen sink into the shot, but I feel much more confident in going for more velocity. It really has become a very comfortable stick for me. I have a hard time going back to my XN10s, something I never thought I would say.

[Chadd 916]

Over the last couple years, I have become very, very comfortable with the Vanek curve and the widow in general. The widow is still my go-to stick in virtually every situation and I have picked up a couple of widows and even dolomites with the Vanek curve, as no manufacturer offers anything similar at retail. I use my slapshot less and less than ever before, I'm not sure of that is due to the flex being better suited for wrist shots, tendonitis in my elbow or just more of an effort to be more of a playmaker than a shooter. With the widow, my wrist shot is far more accurate than my slapper and has only slightly less velocity.