Stick lie for game time vs open ice.

[YesLanges 128]

In my experience, unless you're skating into some crisp passes at open ice, you could get comfortable using a pattern that works great for stickhandling and shooting but that doesn't work as well in games. I learned that by blowing some breakout passes because I didn't notice at open ice that the higher lie gave me too little leverage toward the toe for receiving a hard pass that was a little too far ahead that should have been easily manageable with a lower lie. If all you're doing with it is open ice, you can't necessarily rely just on the wear pattern on the tape either, because you're not testing it for pass reception in game situations.

[Kaberle 1]

I'm having similar issues to the original poster: I too bounce back and forth between p92 and p28, having used p88, pm9, e7, p38, p89, p87A, p14, p46...

 

I've come to the following conclusions:

 

1. p28 is in between P92 and P92 lie 5 in terms of lie, but it plays closer to P92 lie 5.

2. P92 is more versatile in game situations, as it is bigger and has more flat to work with for making backhand passes or receiving passes, but I hit the net with more accuracy using p28 and can control the height of shots more easily. Pucks rarely go over the crossbar.

3. I shoot much better with P92 lie 5 or p28 compared to P92 lie 6 (wrist shots especially, as the lower lie let's me corral the puck better with the toe).

4. P92 lie 5 is more open than p28 and plays more open than P92 lie 6 due to the lower lie. Sometimes the puck skips over the blade if my wrist is not turned over.

5. I'm more likely to lose the puck under the heel of P92 lie 5, especially when newly adjusting to it, than p28. But, in general, passes are corraled much easier out in front vs P92 lie 6.

6. Toe drags are much easier with the lower lie sticks.

7. Skating out from the right corner to shoot (I shoot left) is much easier with the 2 lower lie sticks.

8. Both are great curves and work for me. I'll probably stick with p28 as it is easier to get on clearance than P92 lie 5, which is not widely carried by most LHS in my area.

9. As for the other curves I've used, love pm9, but the lie is just too low; it's hard to go back to a closed curve now. Same goes for p88. P89 was just too straight/open: I really had to concentrate on not letting the puck fly off to the left on wristers/passes. Great for overall stick handling. P87A is a nice curve, lie is still a little high and coming from heel curves I had same issue as p89 when curling to my right and firing a pass up the ice: really had to struggle to keep the puck from rolling off the end of my stick. P14 was great for shooting and little else. Iginla curve has an absurdly high lie heel combined with a low lie toe. Datsyuk was better but the low lie art the toe through me off when shooting. P46 was possibly my best shooting curve, but the curve is a bit of a banana making both backhand and forehand play a bit complicated at times. This,  the combo of relatively low lie heel and rocketed toe with toe kink make p28 and P92 lie 5 best overall compromise curves for me.

 

I hope these reflections prove useful.

[MrData 93]

On 2015-10-26 at 0:59 AM, 60PlusWinger said:

I too am very upright when I'm messing around in a stick and puck or just shooting around. I find myself constantly moving and searching for open space, my feet tend to be very far apart and I'm doing a lot of off camber shooting as well as well set up shots of all kinds. This leads me to assume that if I'm in motion I'm much lower to the ice which according to the "rules" about lie would suggest I'm a lower lie player. I've felt very comfortable with a P88 which is a lie 5 but in terms of points scored I was on a pretty hot run with a p92. I find myself not very often in the right position to fire a quick shot with a P28 if that makes sense. I think maybe with a P92 much more of the blade is usable in passing and shooting unlike the P28 where you must shoot off the toe of mid blade for a slap shot, passing with the heel or get a duck of a pass. I made some terrible passes tonight with the position I was in and considering where I had to pass from on the blade. Don't get my wrong though when I connect with the P28 on shots they're fire... I'm not sure how versatile it is for me though.

I do have a fresh 82 flex P92 Nexus 1000 pro stock I can use

 

I see lie as a shaft length modifier. Anyone can use any lie, as long as they cut their stick to the proper length so that the same amount of blade is on the ice for any lie. For example, even if you skate low to the ice, you could use a lie 6 curve just as well as a lie 5 curve, as long as you're comfortable with a shorter stick on the lie 6. Just like cutting or lengthening your stick to compensate for lie, you can also change your lie to use a longer or shorter stick. If you want to get more leverage on your shots and thus more power, you can drop down in lie and lengthen your stick a bit.

 

For me, changing lie changes the length of my stick by about 1" maximum, sometimes 0.5". Therefore, even I go between two extremes (lie 5 to lie 6), it isn't a huge difference. If I really wanted a big difference in stick length, I'd have to go with a custom/pro lie, like lie 4 or lie 7. I came across a pro pattern the other day in a BASE custom spec sheet that was lie 7.5... I guess that guy really likes his sticks short.

[syinx 139]

At the end of the day, these guys are right.  As great a curve is for a specific type of shot, if it doesn't work with your technique, it won't do you any good.

 

Inevitably your technique and stance will change between open-ice and game circumstances.  The find the best fit, and work on improving with that curve.