Remember ModSquadHockey?

[shoot_the_goalie 281]

Just revive the VH/True Skate thread...that will get some more traffic on here... 😃

[IPv6Freely 2092]

58 minutes ago, shoot_the_goalie said:

Just revive the VH/True Skate thread...that will get some more traffic on here... 😃

Well, that WAS the last time there was new tech that really warranted significant discussion. Probably the Mako before that.

[BenBreeg 493]

5 hours ago, ParabolicActivity said:

I use old threads here for a resource all of the time but I almost never say anything here because the vibe is super negative. Im excited about new gear. I love talking about it. But every thread here turns into inane off topic bickering. It's such a bummer. The old stuff is great though. I wasn't here for it but I see why you would miss how it used to be here.

I don’t see the negative vibe you are talking about at all, any particular examples?

[shoot_the_goalie 281]

6 hours ago, BenBreeg said:

I don’t see the negative vibe you are talking about at all, any particular examples?

The VH/True thread has definitely gone off the rails at times, hence my previous joke.

But for the VAST majority of other topics/threads, MSH is incredibly informative and members are incredibly helpful and respectful.  I personally have learned a great amount over the years because of MSH, and I have really appreciated many members' knowledge and input.

[chippa13 1844]

Keep in mind, a lot of the members here have known each other for a long time. They have gathered many times at MSH events and many have been to each other's weddings and the like. What you may see as negativity many times is actually a couple old friends having some fun or tossing out an old inside joke. Often times, there are good natured debates and disagreements which are just that. Remember, tone doesn't always translate well in the written word.

[adam14 182]

I also think a major factor is how “main stream” access to gear has become. 
 

PSH is a prime example of someone that absolutely pillaged the pro stock gear market, which in the early 2000’s was one of the best parts of this site, finding out when gear sales were asking someone to try to grab you something etc etc 

since everyone has pretty much the same access to gear available online now, it’s really made acquiring it less exciting, at least for me. 
 

still love this community though and have been lucky enough to demo gear in the past and give reviews. It’s still a great place. 

 

[start_today 770]

On 6/3/2020 at 1:35 AM, Neo5370 said:

As a member, what do I get out this positive relationship with manufacturers?  Not trying to be disrepectful.  Ive been a long time member as well and have found myself coming here less and less.

 

The info on this site is almost always correct, and when it’s not I think it’s challenged in a generally polite way. 

Reddit is lousy with bad advice. There are fairly recent posts with things people suggesting you just need to wear skates more to break them in, and baking them will make them break down faster. Stuff that is just straight up false and out dated.

I’ll take the quality of MSH over the quantity of other places. 

[SirJW 207]

3 hours ago, adam14 said:

I also think a major factor is how “main stream” access to gear has become. 
 

PSH is a prime example of someone that absolutely pillaged the pro stock gear market, which in the early 2000’s was one of the best parts of this site, finding out when gear sales were asking someone to try to grab you something etc etc 

since everyone has pretty much the same access to gear available online now, it’s really made acquiring it less exciting, at least for me. 
 

still love this community though and have been lucky enough to demo gear in the past and give reviews. It’s still a great place. 

 

I will agree with this. I only bought gear from the LA Kings sales  in the early 2000's the prices were less than retail and there was always a lot to go around. Now the sales are online auction style w prices for "collectors".  A similar thing happened to the jersey hobby, it has changed dramatically too, when prices were much less than a car payment. 

Edited June 6, 2020 by SirJW

[beerleaguecaptain 999]

23 hours ago, ParabolicActivity said:

I use old threads here for a resource all of the time but I almost never say anything here because the vibe is super negative. Im excited about new gear. I love talking about it. But every thread here turns into inane off topic bickering. It's such a bummer. The old stuff is great though. I wasn't here for it but I see why you would miss how it used to be here.

Chirping is a hockey players default....  c'mon!  A little good natured debate never hurt anyone.

[Jamarquan 201]

I'll give my thoughts as somebody who hasn't been a very active member of this community in a few years, mostly since I've only had one season of hockey in all of high school; and putting aside the pandemic for a second, the amount of information on new products has decreased substantially even since I joined MSH. This site has also lived through a transformation of the internet - or it at least seems that way to me because I'm young enough to have never really experienced the internet before 2010 or so - where sleuthing on internet forums is replaced with brands wanting to get ahead of everything and limiting what makes its way out. Everyone's already stated that the amount of genuinely novel innovation in hockey has decreased substantially, which I agree with, and you can only really debate the merits of what curve to use so much (and I would know). This community is definitely still has a lot of knowledge and is really closely knit, there's just less new stuff to apply that knowledge to without disrespecting manufacturers.

 

Just my take, I still enjoy visiting here and hopefully I'll finally be able to go to a MSH event at some point.

[ParabolicActivity 48]

On 6/5/2020 at 1:29 PM, chippa13 said:

Keep in mind, a lot of the members here have known each other for a long time. They have gathered many times at MSH events and many have been to each other's weddings and the like. What you may see as negativity many times is actually a couple old friends having some fun or tossing out an old inside joke. Often times, there are good natured debates and disagreements which are just that. Remember, tone doesn't always translate well in the written word.

I would say this is a big part of it too. Being new here feels like walking into a room full of old friends and trying to participate in the conversation. Which it essentially is.

Edited June 9, 2020 by ParabolicActivity

[marka 526]

Howdy,

1 hour ago, ParabolicActivity said:

I would say this is a big part of it too. Being new here feels like walking into a room full of old friends and trying to participate in the conversation. Which it essentially is.

Yeah, I agree with this.  I wasn't here back when MSH was one of the main places to get the scoop on things, etc. etc.  There's for sure a vibe of walking into a room of existing friends/relationships/history and being the new guy.

But having said that, I found folks to generally be pretty open / welcoming / willing to make new friends, new relationships, and new history.

When i don't know something about hockey, MSH is pretty much the first place I turn to for answers/feedback.  I don't see that changing for me, and I'm glad its here.

Mark

[Karly14 21]

As a 15 or 16 year old, my very first post on corebeam asked "which NHLer has the best style?"  Although I stick by my selections at the time -- theo fleury (easton 4-roll era)/simon gagne (nike quest shaft era) -- i deserved the heat i took for posting such a vapid topic as my inaugural post.   As I learned then, Modsquadhockey has always been about the honest discussion of equipment performance and innovation.  If I have a tough gear related question, this is still the place I come.  I agree with Cavs and others that the industry or culture (imo hockey is becoming field lacrosse) isn't what it's used to be, but Modsquad is still most dependable resource on the world wide web.   

[steve66 45]

2 hours ago, Karly14 said:

As a 15 or 16 year old, my very first post on corebeam asked "which NHLer has the best style?"  Although I stick by my selections at the time -- theo fleury (easton 4-roll era)/simon gagne (nike quest shaft era) -- i deserved the heat i took for posting such a vapid topic as my inaugural post.   As I learned then, Modsquadhockey has always been about the honest discussion of equipment performance and innovation.  If I have a tough gear related question, this is still the place I come.  I agree with Cavs and others that the industry or culture (imo hockey is becoming field lacrosse) isn't what it's used to be, but Modsquad is still most dependable resource on the world wide web.   

I'm impressed you remembered your first post on CoreBeam!!

[start_today 770]

Since we are waxing philosophical about Modsquad....where did the name come from? I know the late 60s TV show, but how does that relate to a bunch of hockey gear nerds?

[althoma1 574]

I believe the origin is that the people who started the site were all Moderators on the old Corebeam boards. So they were a squad of moderators or Mod Squad and of course the subject of the board is hockey. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding.

[chippa13 1844]

And that was after everyone had defected from the old Easton message board, home of the best holiday toy drive.

[JGraz15 53]

6 hours ago, chippa13 said:

And that was after everyone had defected from the old Easton message board, home of the best holiday toy drive.

Wow! I had forgotten all about the Easton message board (and the holiday toy drive #RIPMetalMatrixZBubble)

Circling back on this, @dkmiller3356 I truly meant no disrespect to the all the people who've worked very hard behind the scenes for years. I appreciate all they've done but was truly curious about the current state of this community and what the future holds.

Reading through some interesting replies and learning from them, my thoughts are:

• Gear market is stagnant; lack of innovation and interesting products in addition to reduced number of companies / offerings 
• Increasing prices without perceived benefit to the masses
• Change in how people consume content; away from message boards and to social media (Instagram, YouTube, Facebook)
• Change in how companies message the release of their own products via their athletes and social media channels

Great conversation all, thank you!

Edited June 10, 2020 by JGraz15

[the_game 452]

3 hours ago, chippa13 said:

And that was after everyone had defected from the old Easton message board, home of the best holiday toy drive.

I'm still waiting for the next email from HKYGURU from the Easton Message board after getting picked to be a product tester for them...anyone remember that?
The toy drive from Easton was an awesome promo as well, ah memories!

[start_today 770]

I kept putting off doing the Easton toy drive. For 3-4 years I was like “I’ll do it next year, I’ll do it next year.” Then eventually it was gone. 

Its like that time I wanted to see Mr. T at the mall...

[shooter27 116]

In response to some of the complaints in this thread regarding lack of innovation and constantly repackaging old gear as “new” models - former NHL Andy Sutton has acquired Verbero and apparently they have some interesting plans for innovating in the equipment space.  He talks a bit about it on this week’s 31 Thoughts podcast and I found it quite interesting.

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9wb2RjYXN0LnNwb3J0c25ldC5jYS9zaG93cy8zMS10aG91Z2h0cy9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Qv/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly9wb2RjYXN0LnNwb3J0c25ldC5jYS8_cD0xNzUzNQ?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwjYhPug8ZDqAhVEHjQIHZXVCtgQieUEegQIBhAE&ep=6

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Verbero has always been pretty hard to take seriously. The association with HockeyTron hasn’t helped. Hopefully that partnership is dead at least.

I’ll believe it when I see it (innovation from Verbero, that is)

[BenBreeg 493]

I do product development as a living so I need to put this out there.  The word innovation is overused.  Doing something different is not innovation.  Innovation is something new that changes behavior.  You can find many definitions out there but ultimately it has to change some fundamental aspect of what exists and what is possible.  Sure, there is the concept of incremental innovation vs. breakthrough innovation, but many things called innovative aren’t.

With such frequent revving of product lines, I think we are in the extreme throes of marginal innovation, and it is out of proportion with pricing.  Shaving a few grams off of something in the retail space has no appreciable impact on performance for 99% of players.  It’s just a spec war to market products.

So a good question is what are the big gaps in the hockey equipment world?  What problem exists that, if solved, would be a benefit to the majority of players?

[DarkStar50 679]

My quick thought on the gaps in the hockey world : There used to be less of a gap across product price points. There was a price point to fit your budget. Now as one company has made an all out effort to reduce product price points and products. the gaps are going to get larger. As a buyer for the shop, the skate market for beginners at a reasonable price point for quality is getting put to bed by this one company. It is too bad as they literally built their name on skates. The skates offered now do not compare with the value/quality of just five years ago for beginners. I don't see how this is a good thing for the long term health to grow the game. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

7 hours ago, BenBreeg said:

I do product development as a living so I need to put this out there.  The word innovation is overused.  Doing something different is not innovation.  Innovation is something new that changes behavior.  You can find many definitions out there but ultimately it has to change some fundamental aspect of what exists and what is possible.  Sure, there is the concept of incremental innovation vs. breakthrough innovation, but many things called innovative aren’t.

With such frequent revving of product lines, I think we are in the extreme throes of marginal innovation, and it is out of proportion with pricing.  Shaving a few grams off of something in the retail space has no appreciable impact on performance for 99% of players.  It’s just a spec war to market products.

So a good question is what are the big gaps in the hockey equipment world?  What problem exists that, if solved, would be a benefit to the majority of players?

Definitely overrused, but also justified here (as far as a lack of it). A good example of actual innovation would be goalie pads moving away from leather straps and towards velcro. A lot of the traditional strapping just doesn’t make sense nowadays. 

As far as your question, I would suggest goalie protective equipment (and I guess protective in general) innovation would be something I’d like to see. Specifically, new materials that protect but aren’t just a case of “throw more padding at it” like they’ve been mostly doing for years. They generally have slimmed goalie gear by giving it less padding or making the physical shape smaller.

I have no idea what the answer is, but that’s still something I’d love to see if anyone came up with new materials.