Almost Hip

With laces, all the eyelets evenly distribute the forces and hold up mostly the life of the skate. With these buckles being a retrofit onto laced skates, that single eyelet is seeing all the forces of multiple holes which is where they start breaking down. I love the idea but maybe a redesign could have them attach to two or 3 eyelets on each side.

extra set of floaters from old chestie added to SLR2. Props main floaters up just where I want them and their offset just enough to get a little more width and fill out near rib cage. Did it so head mobility is not effected and the bottom of the floaters can move inwards when catching shots in chest. First mount they were too stiff and hands/arms jammed. Suspenders for pants run closer inwards so not to flatten out shoulders. CCM Gatekeeper XL goal pants. not purposely to take up as much net as possible but that's what was passed to me from my younger brother during his OHL years (18 years ago). I could have updated to a new pair but I like the size, placement of side blocks back when they were still legal so I keep repairing them many times with trusty sewing awl. I'm 6'3 , 198lbs and 42yr so none of the above takes away from mobility but it puts it on the shooter to try and find a hole with less to shoot at and seems to work for the most part. I will say that I have gone to smaller pads over the last 5 years for the reason of better mobility and less fatigue. I would however like to add 1 to 1.5" to the top of my 2X PRO's as I feel the 35+1 a touch short at my height but the XL's 36+1 didn't sit right.

I have similar Brian's knee pads, older thinner and less overall bulky and not much for cushion in them. Once the knee blocks in my 2x pro's wore down a bit and lost some of the cushioning I started to feel some knee pain. I just put a piece of foam in between the knee blocks for the added padding and solved the issue without having to worry about getting used to a new style of knee pad. It's easily reversible if you don't like and you could then go knee pad route

Oh nice, yeah depending on how much it may be time to retire it to shelf art and go for a new one. I have an off the shelf Coveted but they are also GTA and do custom sizing similar to what the PC would have been. Hopefully its cost effective enough for referb. Curious what your thinking for new paint? Same design or time for something new. This is the mine that he did

Erich from Resurrection Custom Painting www.rcpairbrushing.com is out of Oshawa. Not sure how much refurbishment needed but in terms of sanding and repainting should be do able. He's also a big Star Wars fan loves doing themed helmets. You'll likely need to order a new cage though if anything is bent.

How can you not have rituals. They have changed, evolved, some gone, some new. From AAA hockey to beer league, no commitments to work, wife and kids. Sometimes your just have enough time to get to the rink and realize you forgot to stretch etc and everything is out of sync. Sometimes that seems to affect play and sometimes it doesn't. I wish we had proper warm up time as beer leaguers though. 2 min to stretch, put the pegs on and face shots is not enough. Half the time the ice is still so wet don't even want to butterfly yet or end up with soaker. I had a whole post and pad stick tap routine until I got brand new gear as an adult and didn't want to continue slamming the pads to the point the whole rink could hear. I go for a skate when our team scores and touch the red goal line on the boards, then curl back and tap far post with glove before curling back in front of net for a drink of water. That's a newer one I developed in last 10 years and came from sometimes playing weaker teams and getting cold. Now it's a must unless we're up big and game is out of reach. I have a spot in the dressing room and will kick guys out if they forget, gear goes on roughly the same every time.

I have been seriously turned off by the digital adds on the boards. I simply can't enjoy watching the play unfold, following the puck and anticipating what the next pass or shot will be because my eye is constantly distracted by these moving adds or players glitching into them. The producers know how bad it is because the second there is a scrum against the boards they cut to a different camera angle before players disappear. One game the white lid from the Bio Steel bottle was lit up like a light house on the back of the net. For 90% of the hockey that is on we HAVE to pay to see it (not counting illegal streaming). We pay for premium channels specifically Sportsnet above the basic cable package and your also paying per month for the HD cable box and even more for 4K. The only games that are air free are Hockey Night in Canada's Saturday broadcasts on CBC which can be seen if you have the HD converter thing that replaced the rabbit ears. It is also streamed free on CBC website. So paying a premium for a weakened product via the digital adds does not make any sense to me. The only reason I still have cable is for NHL and F1. Kids and Wife live off Disney + and Netflix. If your familiar with F1 then the whole Abudabi 21' debacle and red bull cost cap cheating has left me falling out of love with the sport I supported since 2008, long before Drive to Survive. I hope the digi adds are gone for playoffs....

looking at it a few extra times and in both cases he's trying to catch it with the top of the T. Vaughn goal it hits top of T on Thumb side and twists glove and the Brian's goal hits on the outside of the T. If either of these had been in the sweet spot of pocket or lower on the fingers they would have been saves.

Aeroflex pads I had as a kid were all plastic buckles to connect and therefore done up in fraction of time compared to traditional leather straps. It's no the same but most modern pads can be put on super quick. Once I got into the 1x and then 2x I really appreciated the speed of 4 connections compared to 8 per pad had on Vaughn Vision. I also could not go back to the weight of the Vision after trying the 1x, another feature of the Aeroflex I am looking to add thigh boards back on pads for added knee protection. Beer league so I could probably even wear 12" pads and cheaters on side of gloves if I wanted. lol

Did he switch his glove during the game after this. When watching the recap it did not look like he had the blue backed glove at the end of the game.

@Vanniek71 That seems very thin and flimsy. The protection pieces are maybe 3/16" thick. I took the index finger protection out so I could trim it down by 1/2" to allow more flex and not jam. I took a heat gun to it and was able to curve it and it retained that curve once cooled. By no means as pliable as plastic sheet but seems doable. Thinking I'll use some wood with radiused edges to clamp to edge of blocker to get the shape I'm looking for. Right now the blocker corners are slightly curved down (been that way since new). We'll see how it goes.

That is what I am unsure of and was hoping someone has played around with that material before. I trimmed a piece of it from the side protection before and it seemed a lot more like plastic than the baked and cured CF from the automotive world. Not sure if I kept the piece but I'll look at home later.

Has anyone tried bending a pro carbon blocker? Have a VE8 Pro Carbon and I am not sure if I should heat it first and or if heating it will allow the bend to retain shape. I am looking to curl the bottom right corner up just a bit to better aid paddle down. Right now the index finger padding gets jammed under the paddle with I can modify but even when it's not the thumb and corner don't allow me to get close enough to the ice. I checked it vs my old Vision 9500 and hand position is the same but the finger protection is longer and the Vision is slightly slimmer in the corner that hits the ice and that little bit makes the difference needed. Any input welcomed. Thinking secure upside down over edge of table, apply heat (blow dryer) and gently bend.

Thanks everyone, Makes me wish I had started years ago with custom paint jobs. This was my first and likely be the only one I do. I originally came up with this idea as the ultimate Bauer print but I didn't like the gloves when I tried them so no point getting the custom set. But the back plate would have been the pads, Death Star and X-wing on the blocker and then Star Destroyer and Leia's ship on the Catcher.

Very excited to show this off. Coveted mask painted by Erich - Resurection Custom Painting in Oshawa. I gave him a mock up of what I wanted and he ran with it and killed it. Can’t wait to get back on the ice one of these days. May have to wear old mask during warm ups though

Really there isn't much they can do other than try and recognize and anticipate when an attempt may be made and react to it. It will be used more commonly now but still less than a full wrap around or pass out. I haven't noticed it in my end but I did see a chance at the other end when I thought my player might try it as he had the time and space. I asked him between periods and yes he thought about it but didn't think he could pull it off. Us beer leaguers may not have the practice time to play around and practice those moves as much as the minor hockey kids where all the good players will have that in their bag of tricks just like they all have the between the legs shot now too

Not at all inspired by the graphic. Looks ok on the pads but on the gloves it looks pretty week compared to how good the VE8 graphic looked The thining of the pads and updated strapping look promising but once again. Vaughn needs a greater demo program or if it exists the word needs to be spread. As a beer leaguer I am not about to drop 2K on pads without being able to test them first. I think that is another reason Bauer has gotten stronger sales with 2S and 2X. You can walk into almost any store and take a set home to try. I really wanted to buy a set of SLR2's because I loved the look of them but I had free access (brother's gear) to 1X and 2X Pro to try out. I ended up in the 2X mainly because of getting them for a good deal slightly used. So the product may not need testing but the market for looks should have been and there are a lot of potential sales out there that would be swayed with being able to test it.

I had a good black Friday last week. VE8 Pro Carbon mits and Sportsmask helmet from London Source for Sports. Glove feels so light compared to my Vision 9580 set that I've been in since 2013.

@MTH Was that from the famous Firestone tires? Mine, the running boards fell off while driving (only 80,000km on it), Sync did not work and caused a glitch with turn signals until I changed Stereo head unit, too many other issues to list but enough to not want to buy "Big 3" ever again

Currently own the first 2 cars and they share goalie gear carrying duties. All of my previous vehicles share a common theme. I've never had to worry about snow :) Main Family car 2017 Subaru Outback 3.6R - Pros: power tail gate, heated steering wheel and H6 power 2006 Subaru Legacy Wagon 2.5i - Mainly driven for hockey as my work issued truck is too dirty for hockey gear to go in. Pros: Sedan like handling, excellent hydraulic steering feel compared to new electric steering, only 130,000km The fastest and funnest way to get to the rink used to be my 1993 Subaru Legacy Wagon L with full STi drivetrain swap and a ton of other work. Saw dedicated track car duties for many years. Car lost it's battle with rust and was parted and scrapped few years ago. Pros: Ripping 1-2 gears was enough to take any worries away, best used for Summer hockey with windows down drive home. Previously before the Outback I had this 2008 Exploder, worst purchase of life but I needed a vehicle capable of towing above car to/from track and did not want my gear in a truck bed. We traded in this 1998 Legacy Outback Limited which was really a great car aside from head-gasket issues common with those years.