MTH

It happens. Box is pretty rough. I watch the pro teams practice all the time. The new pro league (PBLA) was having tryouts in the Wings practice facility for the Trenton Terrors. Watching all these lumberjack looking Canadian guys beat the hell out of each other for some type of pro spot was nuts. I was talking to the guys there trying out while watching. Unreal. Sweatpants, flannels and workboots a plenty. Sadly this new league just suspended play (ran out of money). --------- Most games my kid check a kid or two in the first shift. By the end of the 1st period the opposing players stop trying to skate around him and just go to a dump and chase. Unfortunately he has picked up a bad habit from that though. He'll let the opposing player get to the puck first with the intention of slamming them into the wall. I'm constantly telling him to play hockey and go for the puck to start a break out. Letting the other team get the puck isn't the right thing. There are too many times plays in their end happen because they got to the puck first.

Honestly, it was a 3-1 game. My kid's team won only one game all season; they weren't expected to win more than that. Most games they had 10 skaters. Line changes were easy. You kid is playing half the game regardless. As a parent - you take the losses - but know your kid is on the ice half of every game and getting better all year. The weekend road trips were worth it as your kid plays - a lot. My son is 6'3" and around 220. He's a punishing defenseman. His whole team plays really physical. There's been a few games I make sure to walk out of the rink next to my kid as the opposing parents were all really sad he put most of their kids through the boards. Parents are clowns and would say things to him. He doesn't need that. He plays really clean too. Even on the sheet above, his penalty (#17) was at the end of the game for roughing. Was after he ran over a kid legally and another player came up to him running his mouth. My son pushed the teammate away and they gave him roughing for that.

National broadcast games stink for the local markets anyway. What's the point when they are broadcast locally already? Billion years ago there was a channel called 'SportsChannel' that was national that would just broadcast the local feed for games out of market. Seems easy. They also mostly played the Blackhawks (who were good then) so you kinda had a second team that you watched on top of your local team. This was in the 90s. Flyers were rally bad in the early 90s, so we all latched onto the Blackhawks then as they were a killer team and always on tv. The NHL kicked SportsChannel to the curb and went back to ESPN in 1992. SportsChannel wasn't available as much as ESPN was nationwide. The NHL package allows fans to watch the home team broadcast. It's better IMO (even the commercials are cool).

I worked the stick repair a little more and smoothed it out for my son's blade. It's in a tough spot for stress and after he used it last night, some of the repair broke again. He said that it felt good using it. He also didn't tape over the repairs (really kid?). I'll take another stab at it as I have the epoxy. I'll add some carbon dust this time too. His stick was around $250 and he bought it with his birthday money in November. So keeping it alive for him is kinda cool.

I'm a level 4 USA Hockey coach, but I rarely coach as it's hard to coach your kids. This past weekend my son's 16u AAA team was playing a team from California (Tahoe Hockey Academy) in a showcase. The coach couldn't coach and I had to get behind the bench for the game. One game coached this year, one game suspension issued for me due to my team taking 12+ penalties. Hell, my goalie got tossed for punching a player in the head during a mix up in the crease. I tried to plead my case for him saying he was the real victim and that the ref was 'victim shaming' him for defending himself. No dice...

At least the leg prop was approved by Kay Whitmore.

Flyers stink. There are few folks who care about them here. I didn't even know they were blacked out. I haven't heard anyone talk about it. I spend every evening and weekends in hockey rinks too.

I let it cure for a few hours. They only had this in a tan color. I should have used the carbon dust as mentioned earlier. Next time. The repairs aren't sexy looking but are better than before. The bond seems good. The player stick blade is in a stress area. Tryouts are in April for my kid, I'd be surprised if it made it that long. The goal stick isn't in a bad spot. Some of the cardboard bonded in the epoxy. I'll have to see about getting it off. Ill tape over the repair anyway.

Here's what I used and the repairs.

Here's the True stick I picked up from some pissed off PeeWee goalie:

Here's what is happening to my son's stick. It's not broken yet - but won't be long. It's beyond the measly 30 day warranty period.

Did you watch the Probert movie from a few years ago? I think it's on Prime now. I re-watched it a few weeks ago. It's really good and goes through what Probert dealt with like those interviews. They didn't sugar coat his life. They showed how he was garbage at times to his wife and family and did some illegal things often.

No doubt. ha ha It's not everything was better in the day. MLB is better now than when I was kid. The NFL is way better too. But I hear you and you're right. Big difference being 45 vs. 15 and having the time to watch and care for every game. I do try to watch the NHL here and there but get bored of it quickly. I'll watch or listen to every Phillies game (i'm in Philly) every night or day through the baseball season. I'm not saying the NHL was better before. Obviously the worst player in the league today is likely more skilled than Wayne Gretzky. I just think the league needs to evolve a little to get some more passion back into the game. I want to be all in again with the NHL.

I picked up a youth hockey return True goalie stick yesterday. Some kid whacked it on the post after a loss and dented the side of paddle in some. Parents tossed it so I took it as it was a nice stick. Dent is about 1/2" deep. Not bad. I've had sticks get larger chips in them and they worked fine. Stick is black, so repairing/ filling it with some type of epoxy will be easy. Any suggestions for an epoxy to repair or fill damage? I also have my son's newer Agent stick with some chips in the heel of his blade I want to also repair. I figure I'll do both at the same time. I'll get pictures of both sticks later today.

Don't leave your house on a windy day. I mean, Ryan Miller could hide behind his goalie stick when in street clothes. Holy homeless guy, Batman! On the ice he looked like the Brewers mascot: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AfLueqaS4e4/VeSKL1McJWI/AAAAAAAAVL4/IMIcJVnk_Kc/s1600/mb-15-back-to-school_close.png

The whole 'defend your teammate' act has jumped the shark. It does not deter future hard hits. The fights are typically wrestling. The guy defending his teammate usually couldn't punch his way out of wet paper bag. The refs stop the so called fight in 5 seconds. You want to have the players stop taking liberties on other players? Easy... drop the instigation rule. Problem is eliminated as fast as the offending player is. Nobody is looking to nail a guy with a blind side hit with these guys sitting on the bench waiting to be unleashed on you.

Dude ate that slow right. I think he fell more from being piss drunk. He popped right back up. Mullet power. Fighting uphill is terrible way to do it.

Retail models are added by additional padding on the user's body. Basically, we're fat. NHL goalies look like they are dying of AIDS.

Luongo played in the ASG? Nice. Did he have his pad side flaps to help him cheat? lol. Remember that? I puzzled by the upside down hangers used to hang the jerseys. Forget the knee pads.

0.0% chance. I never thought I'd see ads on the NHL uniforms. Whoops. The boards, glass and ice digital ads are bananas.

You need passion and emotions to gain interest in the pro sports /NHL. The networks will promote a game by showing fights and hits from two decades ago. The current teams don't care about battles of years past. Heck, most players weren't on the team 3 seasons ago. Most won't be on the team in 2 years. The Flyers were rivals to many teams. But in the past decade? Nothing... Blah games today are useless. Blowouts and lop sided games decades ago would turn into a competition of different skills (punching faces). NHL has abandoned that. The no fights in the last 5 minute rule has people leaving games early. WTF? I don't know what the NHL will become. I hope that it bottoms out so bad that they have to return it to what grew them in the 90s and 2000s. I see clubs drying up (Buffalo draw anyone anymore?). The league's quest for parody has made it boring to watch. I care more about Nascar now than the NHL.

Read on 'Blade of Steel' today that the NHL was caught lying about attendance at the NHL All Star Game. They were telling everyone that it was a sellout while pictures from people there say otherwise. Not that I blame people for not wanting to be in attendance for that flaming pile of poo. FWIW - they seem to use pictures from the skill competition introductions or warm ups as evidence there were empty seats. No shit.

Not a good report. Although cable and traditional TV is losing customers by the minute (myself included). Most streaming services don't even offer the NHL Network.

Winter Classic 2023 drew around 1.75M viewers. Nice increase from previous year. Expect more Penguins vs major market until Crosby retires.

We watched a few minutes of it while standing in the lobby of the rink. Every parent gave their WTF speech when they came into the lobby. The boards are now a video screen. Was a circus when they scored every 10 seconds. Get off my lawn!