pkbucks

I've gotten back into playing within the past year and a half after a long layoff of several years- which meant getting all new gear.

Started back by buying a Bauer Mach in October 2022. I suppose off the shelf its reasonably close to a 600 break. Easy to catch, extremely lightweight, pocket presents very deep. Kinda is floppy (opening and closing at this point is buttery now), less protection but still very few stingers. I stink at playing the puck, and the 600 closure I think does not help in that regard. Would have preferred full finger stalls, but this glove's system is adequate. Definitely feel my findgers sliding around in there when trying to play the puck on the backhand in a wet glove.

Was convinced after about a year to get a True 9x3 off the shelf, 590 break. I honestly cannot get used to the glove. Very high quality, extremely protective, but its basically a second blocker. I feel the pocket doesn't present too large and (granted its because I'm just not that good) sooo many pucks hit the palm and bounce away. Plus, I'm way slower and the glove just feels heavier.

My point: I feel the Bauer is so buttery that its going to eventually break down. I might need to search for a new one soon, but am reluctant as I have a slight bias in thinking that Bauer gear tends to break down a little faster. I'm not in an area where I have a shop with large amounts of stock for me to try on. Are there specs on other brands of gloves that are in line with the Bauer Mach from other brands (Brian's, CCM, Warrior)? I'd love for True to match up the same, but it has not been my experience. The light weight of Bauer is good for my weak arms (granted, I know balance of how the weight is distributed is important as well). I suppose it might be nice to transition to a 590 or 580 at some point for puck handling, but is absolutely not a priority.

Feel free to give opinions on blockers too. I seem to like the pop I get off my equally old Bauer Hyperlite, though I also fear some material is wearing down too. The 9.3 blocker seems to not kick rebounds out to the corner as well as I'd like.

good stuff! thanks for the info

Hello all,

I very recently picked up some pretty much new (used 5-10 skates by the previous owner) True 9x3 pads. Love them, they're great, etc. However, I have already started to develop some wear spots on the binding on near the toe on the inside edge of the pad. I have always had some decent wear occur on pads in this spot, probably from a bad stance, but this wear is coming on a bit sooner than I'd like. 

Who has ideas on how to delay this type of wear? I have shoe goo, padskinz, super glue... I'd appreciate input before this gets worse.

Side note- I play at a place that has rusty posts and do a Rask-style RVH. I swear its not a poop stain on the outer roll of the pad haha (they clean up easily).

Which True model did you go with?

Looking at new skates. Went from Graf ProGoaler w/ cowling and recently tried the bottom tier Tacks without cowling. I feel the CCM's are ok, but the foot feel was crummy and my mobility wasn't super great. Granted, that was their bottom tier skate and the boot itself was probably a half size too big.

Anyways, looking at paying up for something better. The old Grafs with cowling were a great fit at an 8.5, but not sure if that translates well over to the new era of skates. My main question about these is that I see that the Graf blade looks like its profiled from the getgo- not a straight piece of metal like the other skates. Does the profile to the blade prevent you from pushing off well while on your knees (butterfly slide, etc?). 

I'm just exploring the options. I love the old Graf boot, but can be swayed to branch out into the other brands too.

Thanks for any input.

Wow! thanks so much everybody! Great things for me to consider

Hey all,

After many years of not playing, I'm back in the game. Had been using a Graf G50 with standard cowling for years, but since I've been gone the game has changed (butterfly slides, etc), so wanted to see what this cowling-less skate is all about. Went and bought an admittedly cheaper pair of CCM 9370 skates to just get a feel of the way the skate fits, the higher steel, angle of attack, etc. without dropping a ton of money off the bat.

A few things I noticed when I did an open skate the other day and noticed a ton of 'chatter' on the skates when stopping, especially when going backwards. Not sure if this is due to skate geometry, weak legs, inappropriate hollow (1/2"), or something else. Previously would sharpen to 3/8" when wearing the Grafs and had no such issues.

When skating straight line (no pads, etc), I definitely also felt like my weight was all on my heels, which was weird. When I finally strapped up with pads last week for open hockey, I didn't really feel the weight distribution difference.

Anyway, just wondering if anybody else experienced any of this when transitioning to the new type of skate, or if I'm just a poor skater with weak legs haha

Thanks all for your help! And not to worry about the mini-hijack. I’m glad you’re getting back into the game rowdymoon!

For those interested, I ended up ordering a used set of velocity v8’s to learn how modern pads work and what specs I like. May eventually purchase a brand new set at some point, but this should be a good start. 

Hey all,

Because of my own life stuff, I'm getting back into the game and looking for new pads. The last pads I bought were the Simmons version of the first generation Velocities in like 2002. Soooo the game has changed quite a bit since then....

I'd still use those pads on occasion (had helped coach a team a few years back)- I was never super thrilled with those because the thigh rise on pads back then was always short (leaky 5 hole). Back in my 'prime', I would have considered myself quite the butterfly style, though now would be considered an old man hybrid type. 

Things I'm concerned about in a new pad- 

-Sizing: Kind of hard for me to get to places where I can try on pads, but may have to rely on online ordering. In my ancient pads, I was a 34" (6ft tall) but never felt they came up high enough (no extra thigh rise for pads off the shelf back then)

-Butterfly slide: Never was able to do this in old pads and it looks like all pads are built around this now. Has anybody else made a similar transition? I feel like I'm gonna feel like I'm sliding out of control out there unable to stop.

-Rebounds: Honestly the concept of giving out really fast/hard rebounds is blasphemous from everything I was ever taught growing up, but that's the way the game is played now. I was reading that the CCM EFlex 5 was maybe the best at deadening rebouds and maybe a good transition for me.

Any recommendations that you all can give would be appreciated. Money is not an object in my situation (always wanted to be in a situation where I didn't need to cheap out on pads and here I am).  Still, would hate to drop $1800 on pads that stink. Also looking for catcher/blocker but I'm less worried about those- recommendations still welcomed.

Thanks!