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flakeloaf posted:Breaking in my new 5Ks as literally the first pair of skates I've owned that fit properly. What have I gotten myself into? Comfortable skates probably?  On a different note, playing in a local charity tournament this weekend, and we played our first bracket game tonight. Really happy I sharpened my skates, and I'm thinking already I probably won't need 1" cut for long, but it helped more than the dull skates I was rocking til this week. Regardless, we won 4-2, I made 32 saves (giving up goals on pretty much the first and last shot), and I think I played probably my best game since coming back to ice. A few of the guys that have been on my league team this past season all agreed that I played better than I had with them all season, and the progression from the first game in January is quite significant. I'm finally starting to get into that ice mindset, and its really helping me move better, and be sharper and quicker. Still a ways to go, but I'm happy with the game tonight. Just hope it carries all weekend!
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| # ? May 18, 2013 02:08 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 05:45 |
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I want to the demo session tonight. I got to try out CCM pads, a CCM blocker, and Brians G-Netik pads. I tried on SR CCM pads, since that's what they had in my size. I wasn't impressed by the build quality, the materials seemed cheap, the leather straps were stiff and almost felt crispy if that made sense, and I didn't like the thigh boards. That being said, they gave you the option to run the velcro knee stap across your knee or down towards your calf, I did the latter and I really liked that setup. Once I was on the ice, the pads were perfectly fine. I'm not sure how they'd hold up over heavy use, but at least in terms of performance I don't think they would hold anyone back. I also tried out the CCM blocker. I had used a demo blocker for a game about 2 months ago and had liked it and I tried it out again tonight and was very happy with it. The best part is that they got a bunch of new sales samples for the demo day, so they have a blocker that matches my trapper and I'm the only person that ever used it, but since it's technically a sales sample, I'll get a $100 discount on it. They couldn't sell it to me tonight, but they're going to hold it for me and I'll pick up tomorrow. I tried on the G-Netik leg pads. I was a bit unsure about them when I had tried them off ice, but I love those pads. The smart strap system is quick and the very easy to use. It took me about 15 shots to start to get comfortable with the pads, but they performed well, rebound control was great, and the concerns I had about stiffness vanished when I tried them out on ice. The sample pads 35" +1 or 2, which was a bit too big for me, so if I ordered them, then I'd want to step down to 34" or perhaps 33". I'll probably hold off on ordering pads for a couple months, but as of right now, the G-Netiks are firmly in the lead. It was a cool experience to be able to try out gear on the ice against some really good shooters. It gives you a really good feel for what the equipment can actually do and it was nice for me to settle the CCM vs G-Netik pad debate that I've had coursing through my mind lately. I've got a goalie clinic tomorrow morning, which should be tough, but good. Then I'll go pick up my blocker and a new stick and I'll have a game that night. Hopefully, I can bounce back from the clinic better than I did last week, because my legs were dead.
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| # ? May 18, 2013 03:20 |
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The goalie clinic went well this morning. A lot of work on skating and a lot of work on butterfly slides. It's really nice to get a chance to work on technique and I think it's helping. I was shocked how easy sliding forward was. I don't know why I never think of doing that as a way to take away space between me and the shooter. Shuffles were still the hardest part for me. I still feel like I'm putting too much weight on my lead foot or possibly catching an edge and messing up my shuffling technique. There's two more goalie clinics in June and I'm looking forward to those. After the clinic, I went goalie day at the hockey shop. I picked up the white CCM blocker that I tried out last night. They had a good deal on sticks, so I picked up an RBK 11K with an Aebischer curve. I also got a sales sample set of Warrior knee pads. They're a 3-piece knee pad, they're fairly bulky, and they have a lot of padding on the inside part of the knee, which is something I've been looking for. I did find that their sizing seems to run small. I wear intermediate Vaughn 7400 knee pads and I had go up to SR sized knee pads for Warrior. I'm debating if I'll use them tonight or wait until Tuesday to use them in a non-game situation first. I also talked to the Brians rep for a while. We talked about the Zero Gs I ordered in the past being too small and the 35" +1 G-Netiks I tried on last night being a bit too big. Brians fitting guide recommends that I wear a 33" +1 with a 17.5 ATK, but we settled on 34" +1 being the right size for me. I also talked about wanting to add more cushioning to the knee stacks and he recommended "maxing out" the knee stacks, which should help reduce the wear and tear on my knees and hips. I'm still going to wait a few months before I make a decision on pads, but I'm about 90% sure that I'll go with G-Netik's when I finally do place an order. I also need to figure out if I want to sell my old gloves now or wait until I get closer to getting new pads and sell everything as a set. Aniki fucked around with this message at May 19, 2013 around 00:37 |
| # ? May 19, 2013 00:35 |
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Aniki posted:I want to the demo session tonight. I got to try out CCM pads, a CCM blocker, and Brians G-Netik pads. I tried on SR CCM pads, since that's what they had in my size. I wasn't impressed by the build quality, the materials seemed cheap, the leather straps were stiff and almost felt crispy if that made sense, and I didn't like the thigh boards. That being said, they gave you the option to run the velcro knee stap across your knee or down towards your calf, I did the latter and I really liked that setup. Once I was on the ice, the pads were perfectly fine. I'm not sure how they'd hold up over heavy use, but at least in terms of performance I don't think they would hold anyone back. That's unfortunate. I was kinda hoping the whole "made in China" thing wouldn't be a huge deal and from what I understood the production was done over there but the materials were domestic. I assume they were the Extreme Flex Pro? I was kinda thinking about getting those at some point but I'll be a little more cautious about it now. Obviously I should try on a variety of pads anyhow when I do go shopping anyhow but I'll keep that in mind.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 03:25 |
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TrixR4kids posted:That's unfortunate. I was kinda hoping the whole "made in China" thing wouldn't be a huge deal and from what I understood the production was done over there but the materials were domestic. I assume they were the Extreme Flex Pro? I've got a set of E-Flexs Pros if you have any questions.  Quality is pretty good. I can spot some small superficial errors but nothing that would affect durability or play.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 04:46 |
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TrixR4kids posted:That's unfortunate. I was kinda hoping the whole "made in China" thing wouldn't be a huge deal and from what I understood the production was done over there but the materials were domestic. I assume they were the Extreme Flex Pro? The pads were Extreme Flex 500s, so the step below pro. I do have an Extreme Flex Pro blocker, I've only used it twice so far, but the build quality on that seems fine and I really like it so far. I'll need to see how it holds up over time. We lost our game 3-2 tonight. The first goal slipped between my arm and body and the last two goals were really weird bounces. In the 3rd they kept shooting high on me, which never seems to happen, but I was able to get my gloves on all od the high shots. I'm really loving the LT90 trapper and Extreme Pro blocker. My rebound control and tracking wasn't great tonight, so I need to work on that. I have a game tomorrow night too, so hopefully I'll bounce back. I didn't use the Warrior knee pads yet, I want to use them in a non game situation first, since they are pretty different from my old ones.
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| # ? May 19, 2013 06:32 |
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parsleyc posted:I've got a set of E-Flexs Pros if you have any questions. Nice man. Kinda trying to save money before I pull the trigger and get those but I'll keep that in mind.
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| # ? May 20, 2013 00:07 |
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We ended up winning 6-4. It should have been 6-3, since they were way off-sides on one of their goals. The first goal was on a power play, a weird play I was guarding the post at a 45 degree angle, they shoot the puck off of me and it bounces right to a shooter crashing the net. The rest of the goals were cases of the other team crashing the net hard. This was my 4th time on the ice this weekend and I ended up facing about 35-40 shots tonight, so I was pretty worn out by the end of the game. I haven't really done a review of my trapper yet, but since I've had it for a few weeks I can comment on it now. I have an LT90 trapper with the only mods being a reinforced perimeter to help prevent finger curl and a pro palm. The glove has broken in well and I find that I'm catching a lot more pucks with this glove. The biggest improvement with this glove is the angled wrist strap. It keeps the glove more firmly on my wrist and in cases where the puck hits the blocking surface or perimeter of my trapper, the glove stays in place and doesn't seem to create weird bounces/skip overs that would sometimes go in with my old glove. I can also get a much better grip on the stick with this trapper, it hasn't turned me into a great puck handler and I can't get much more loft than I could before, but I don't fan on shots as often and I seem to get more consistently good velocity when passing or clearing the puck. I'm starting to get more confidence in playing the puck, but I still need to work on that part of my game more. I'll do a write up on my new blocker in a couple weeks, but I like it a lot so far. Aniki fucked around with this message at May 20, 2013 around 09:03 |
| # ? May 20, 2013 08:57 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 05:45 |
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I tried out my new knee pads and I like them so far. They're bigger than my old ones, but they don't feel bulky. They are a lot softer than my old knee pads, which I appreciate greatly, and they are thicker than my old knee pads, so I gain some extra height in my butterfly. I didn't have any issues with them sliding out of place, but I also strapped them way too tight and after about 90 minutes, it felt like I was cutting off circulation to my left leg. I did loosen the straps after that and was able to continue playing, but I'm going to try loosening them even further on Wednesday night. I suspect that keeping the bottom strap somewhat tight and the top two straps very loose will be the right setup, but it will probably take a couple sessions to get right. I don't think that I took any shots off of my knee pads tonight, so I can't comment on that yet, but they seem like they will be protective. One of the other goalies got a set of LT80 leg pads and they seemed a lot nicer than I expected them to be. I was really surprised with how flexible they are the great closure they got despite having no breaks. They also have two mounting points for the knee strap. You can strap it across the knee block like normal or you can strap it diagonally down to the calf wing like the CCM pads. I really liked the diagonal knee strap option on the CCM pads, so I like that Vaughn included that option in the LT80. I'm going to take a look at them the next time I'm at the hockey shop, because for a SR pad they seemed really nice. I know they are manufactured in China, but as long as their quality control is good, then that's not a huge factor for me. I know they have LT90 pads too, but if I spend that much money pads, then I'm much more likely to go with Brians.
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| # ? May 22, 2013 10:36 |
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