Shopping for a New Stick

[penguinpelts 7]

When I started playing hockey I grabbed a Bauer Malkin/Stamkos pattern and went with it for years. (I didn't start playing until college.) I tried using a Reebok Crosby for about a month but didn't like the feel and thought it was much heavier than Bauer. A buddy of mine sent me a pro-stock Warrior that I was only able to use for two weeks before it broke on me. I loved the feel of it and played my best game of beer league with it.

But my question is I guess about 50 fifty questions. I very much want to try out some different blade patterns, but what does Bauer only produce three patterns for the lower end sticks? I'm really interested in trying their Richards P106 pattern, but apparently that means dishing out $150 for a stick I may not even like. And what do all Warrior sticks start at around $80? Again, I'd rather get a cheap deal for $50-60 taking the gamble on a stick I may hate.

If anyone has any answers, or just want to tell me to stop bitching, I'm all ears.

If anyone has any suggestion from other brands that they think I should check out, hit me up with those too. For reference, I'm more of an upright skater, usually like to stay in close to net for rebounds, and I have no slap shot whatsoever thanks to multiple shoulder surgeries.

Thanks guys and Happy New Year.

[shoot_the_goalie 281]

When I started playing hockey I grabbed a Bauer Malkin/Stamkos pattern and went with it for years. (I didn't start playing until college.) I tried using a Reebok Crosby for about a month but didn't like the feel and thought it was much heavier than Bauer. A buddy of mine sent me a pro-stock Warrior that I was only able to use for two weeks before it broke on me. I loved the feel of it and played my best game of beer league with it.

But my question is I guess about 50 fifty questions. I very much want to try out some different blade patterns, but what does Bauer only produce three patterns for the lower end sticks? I'm really interested in trying their Richards P106 pattern, but apparently that means dishing out $150 for a stick I may not even like. And what do all Warrior sticks start at around $80? Again, I'd rather get a cheap deal for $50-60 taking the gamble on a stick I may hate.

If anyone has any answers, or just want to tell me to stop bitching, I'm all ears.

If anyone has any suggestion from other brands that they think I should check out, hit me up with those too. For reference, I'm more of an upright skater, usually like to stay in close to net for rebounds, and I have no slap shot whatsoever thanks to multiple shoulder surgeries.

Thanks guys and Happy New Year.

IMHO, the best way to try different blade patterns without breaking the bank is to get a two-piece stick and try it out with a whole different bunch of blades until you find the pattern you like. Of course, once you find the pattern, then you'll have other variables if you decide to go to a one-piece. But try a two piece to at least hit a starting point of finding a blade pattern that works for you.

[Chadd 916]

You get a limited selection of patterns with the low end sticks because it costs a ton of money to build and stock all of the different options. At the low end, they only make the most popular curves.

Pricing comes down to cost of materials and markup margins. It's one thing to have an issue with a $100 price increase, but it doesn't make sense to quibble over $20 if they have a pattern that you want.

I haven't played the stuff in the $50-$100 price points, can't help you out with the comparisons.

[bolt91 31]

IMHO, the best way to try different blade patterns without breaking the bank is to get a two-piece stick and try it out with a whole different bunch of blades until you find the pattern you like.

I would recommend this as well. However, to try the curves that are less popular, you have to spend $60 per blade. The only blades with a lot of selection are the Bauer MX3, Bauer 1X, Warrior HD1, and True A6.0 (at least at Hockey Monkey).

Do you know which player the pro stock Warrior stick belonged to? That may help us point you in a better direction as well.

Another thing to consider is what you want from your shot. Do you want to be able to lift the puck more? Deeper blade pocket? etc. All of these things can be achieved with practice instead of changing curve but experimenting is great too.

Also, clearance sticks can sometimes have the blade pattern you want but not necessarily the flex you need. I've bought a clearance stick before just to try the blade pattern and not worry about the flex.

[60PlusWinger 82]

If I were you I'd get an eBay account. I know I've sold top of the line sticks for foolish amounts of money. Ive sold APX2s, Nexus 1000s, MX3s, NXGs you name it even when they were to current model stick and I only got less than $100.00 for them.

I JUST looked on eBay now and found a brand new in plastic Bauer APX2 P106 77 flex LH with an opening bid of $99.00 which I bet you'd be the only one bidding.

121854507831

That's the item number, just put it into the search block

[start_today 773]

Do you know what model your Bauer is, and what model the warrior was? My guess would be those magical 2 weeks were more about the stick as a whole than simply the curve pattern.

Beware though, most people on this board will tell you that once you start moving up in price points and quality, it's hard to go back to the lower models.

The best (and worst) thing you can do is learn about sticks. Read this board and talk to your teammates about what they like and don't like about their sticks. Borrow a stick in warmups, or borrow it for a game and be gentle with it. The more knowledge you have, the better you are to make a selection for yourself (also, the better able you are to obsess over small details, and blame the stick for poor performance, and convince yourself and loved ones that you need to spend more money on equipment).

[GloriousLeader 31]

Or get used to using popular curves ;P

I've started and stuck with PM9 and E4 for like forever. Although I've been noticing E4 are starting to fade a bit... Luckily my LHS had Makos in E4 curves on clearance for dirt cheap earlier this season and I stocked up.

[penguinpelts 7]

My Warrior was a Petteri Nokelainen, and Warrior was of no help when I tried reaching out to them for some specs. The blade has the least curve, even less than the PM9s I use. I know I should probably suck it up sooner than later and put down the money to try a higher quality stick, but I need to mentally prepare for that argument with the wife first.

The two piece approach interests me though. Next time I'm at the shop I'm going to check out that option as well.

Thanks for the input guys.

[ZeroFlow#Bender 0]

Have you guys checked out Base hockey sticks? I've been directed to then by my coach and think I'll give them a try. They might have the combo you want for less than the bigger manufacturers.

[penguinpelts 7]

Well that's weird. Just yesterday I found a True A1.0 on sale at Hockey Giant for $49 so I snagged it up to try out. And they actually had right handed ones.

[qmechanic 17]

Depending on where you live, you could try out sticks at a store or with BASE hockey. The Bauer Experience store in Burlington, MA lets you try out sticks in a shooting booth. And BASE hockey does stick fittings. They'll spend an hour with you trying out different blade patterns. I don't know if BASE has any patterns similar to the P106.

[60PlusWinger 82]

No, no, no. If you actually give a crap about what you're using stay away from Base, STX, any of that... Stick with Bauer, CCM, Warrior.

This is simple. Get an eBay account, figure out what you want for specs and type it into the search bar and get yourself a brand new top of the line twig for $100 or less. Forget this price point random stuff like BASE and what not. There's no need for it and I don't care who you are you're not going to tell me that they stack up to Bauer, CCM etc.

At the end of the day I think that buying a True 1.0 in store for $50.00 when you said you could swing $150.00 was a bad choice but you can bring the horse to the river but you can't make it drink

[Chadd 916]

No, no, no. If you actually give a crap about what you're using stay away from Base, STX, any of that... Stick with Bauer, CCM, Warrior.

You couldn't be more wrong, yet again. I have been using STX sticks for quite a while and absolutely love the performance and quality. I prefer them to offerings from any of the three that you have listed.

[60PlusWinger 82]

Chadd uses STX and likes them more than the other three companies listed so that makes me "wrong, yet again." Pretty small sample size if you ask me but I'm probably wrong, yet again with that one too.

[z1ggy 81]

Cheapest option like others say is to buy a cheap shaft and then find the blade pattern you want, albeit in probably what will end up being a $60-80 blade. I've found though that 2 pieces sticks tend to be stiffer feeling overall, and offer a much more muted puck feel than a 1 piece does. While you can get a good sense of if you just like the pattern in general, odds are a 1 piece stick with the exact same pattern will feel much different than the 2 piece did.

I've owned $200 sticks and even cheap ones, too. I highly suggest the lower/middle end warrior sticks if you want something cheaper but still performs well. I shoot just as well with my $80 DT4 LT than I did with my QR1. QR1 was lighter and had better feel but it wasn't worth the extra $120 bucks.

[Chadd 916]

Chadd uses STX and likes them more than the other three companies listed so that makes me "wrong, yet again." Pretty small sample size if you ask me but I'm probably wrong, yet again with that one too.

No, you're just obnoxious. Your posts are frequently misleading, incorrect or treat your opinion as unassailable fact. When people come here looking for facts and information, the last thing we want is for them to be mislead or misinformed. That's why you get contradicted so frequently and frankly, it's turning into a lot of work lately.

[IPv6Freely 2096]

Starting an entire thread suggesting there is something wrong with wearing a full set of protective equipment doesn't help.

[adam14 182]

I find sticks like skates where getting a feel for as many as you can in store is your best bet instead of buying online. people that say companies like True or Base are irrelevant are the reason that the big name brands keep getting bigger and essentially eliminate our choices when it comes to purchasing a new stick. Base's new Nasty R is a phenomenal feeling stick, as is the True 6.0 and both of sherwood's the t120 and ek60 have been impressive. I'm a big fan of supporting the little guy given a chance to, just because they aren't popular at nhl level cause they haven't been around since the start of the NHL era should not take away from their quality.

[Utterkaos94 11]

Another option you could look into is a refurbished stick. They're top of the line sticks that were used by teams, broken, and fused back together. You'll get a lot of people saying that they don't feel as good as a brand new one, and they shouldn't feel as good; they've been broken, lol. But you're paying around $70 for a stick that feels relatively close to a $250 one. This is the site I bought from, and they have a refurbished Nexus 8000, Supreme MX3, and Vapor APX2 with the P106 pattern. Some are only specific hands though. I just recently got two refurbished 1X's and their customer service was great, so that's why I'm recommending them.

http://www.hockeystickman.com/collections/refurbished

[Zac911 317]

No, no, no. If you actually give a crap about what you're using stay away from Base, STX, any of that... Stick with Bauer, CCM, Warrior.

This is simple. Get an eBay account, figure out what you want for specs and type it into the search bar and get yourself a brand new top of the line twig for $100 or less. Forget this price point random stuff like BASE and what not. There's no need for it and I don't care who you are you're not going to tell me that they stack up to Bauer, CCM etc.

At the end of the day I think that buying a True 1.0 in store for $50.00 when you said you could swing $150.00 was a bad choice but you can bring the horse to the river but you can't make it drink

Just curious what you know about True and why it is such a horrible buy. Please explain.

[60PlusWinger 82]

To be completely honest True sticks do perform well and I've heard good things about STX top of the line model but from experience of a lot of people that I know and first hand the durability of True has been very poor. Depending on what level you play at you may not experience the same fate simply because more advanced players are typically harder on sticks and so isn't the game they're playing in.

One of the reasons I stay away from Easton, it's not the performance that's the problem, I love the sticks but I'm also not getting free sticks anymore I have to pay for mine. It's a tough pill to swallow when you shell out $300 bones and the stick doesn't last very long and what's the point of changing how you play to make your stick last longer?

[qmechanic 17]

I've done a BASE stick fitting and I just want to say that you are not obligated to buy any sticks after a fitting. You get charged for the fitting, but you don't have to buy any sticks.

I found the BASE stick fitting very useful. I got an hour alone with the stick fitting guy in a nearly empty ice rink, and we tried at least four different patterns. Shooting on ice is so much better than shooting in a synthetic ice shooting booth.

[Zac911 317]

To be completely honest True sticks do perform well and I've heard good things about STX top of the line model but from experience of a lot of people that I know and first hand the durability of True has been very poor. Depending on what level you play at you may not experience the same fate simply because more advanced players are typically harder on sticks and so isn't the game they're playing in.

One of the reasons I stay away from Easton, it's not the performance that's the problem, I love the sticks but I'm also not getting free sticks anymore I have to pay for mine. It's a tough pill to swallow when you shell out $300 bones and the stick doesn't last very long and what's the point of changing how you play to make your stick last longer?

Can you share your experience with Bladder Molding and why it's better than Compression Molding? Is it more consistent?

What are your thoughts on companies that use several different factories to produce the entire product offering?

I would really like to know in your opinion what makes a better stick and why?

[Chadd 916]

I've done a BASE stick fitting and I just want to say that you are not obligated to buy any sticks after a fitting. You get charged for the fitting, but you don't have to buy any sticks.

I found the BASE stick fitting very useful. I got an hour alone with the stick fitting guy in a nearly empty ice rink, and we tried at least four different patterns. Shooting on ice is so much better than shooting in a synthetic ice shooting booth.

A stick fitting like that is a great service, well worth the cost to really dial in your preferences.

[IPv6Freely 2096]

That's a really good idea actually, something the golf world has known about for a long time of course.