Puckstopper

Science!

If you should be one thing, you should be efficient.

Agree. CCM has better steel and a better holder system at this point. Kind of tough to believe Bauer isn't tired of watching players steel get blown off at least once a week in the show. TBH they probably ARE working on an improved quickchange blade, but I'm in a snarky/bitchy mood so it's just easier to grump about that and the fact that I'll have to spend an extra $150 upgrading the steel on my $1100 rollerblades.

I agree. True customs were revolutionary for my extremely wide feet. I've got TF9's to skate out in, and they're nowhere near as comfortable. I'm going on 6 years on my Trues, and have had no durability issues. I do remove the footbeds and dry them in front of a fan after every skate though, so if you'd rather just leave stuff in your bag, you may not get the same experiance.

LOL, I just figured out that I was using Firefox instead of Brave last night. So used to not having to deal with ads on Brave that seeing them tripped me up.

When did giant ads start taking over the top AND bottom of the screen? It's a little disconcerting.

You're making the assumption that a lower level defenseman won't simply whack it INTO that 4*6 space. Not sure why, guess you must just play upper levels...

Hey Dan, where do you live? I used to work for Perani's in Columbus OH and we'd get demo gear in once in a while. It wasn't something we really advertised, you just had to ask an employee. My point is that if you have a chain store near you, it might be worth reaching out and seeing what they have. We generally sold the demo gear after the hype died down around the line, so if you're looking to try Hyperlite you might be right at the end of the window. I will say that having used several different brands over the years, there is an adjustment with Bauer, but now that I've made the change I'm very happy in my custom Hyperlite (stiffness between stock HL and US) setup. For me the biggest challenge was not having the extra length up top to help w/my narrow butterfly. I like a 34+2.5 CCM pad or a 35+2 Warrior, so a Large Bauer is a little short up top for my preference. However, the fantastic sliding, hot rebounds and consistency of Stabilislide make the Bauer's my go-to set over my Axis or EF5's.

I may or may not make a habit of finishing my water bottle a couple feet in front of my crease prior to shootouts. Not my fault if I'm drinking it quickly and it gets everywhere...

Definitely more of a toe pusher. I'm using their 15/20/28 combo and it is by far the best setup I've tried. More agility than the dual radius but still plenty of power to get across. I'm really interested to try the new Konnekt skates and see if I can get more of the blade on the ice than I do now.

Agreed. Go shallower on your hollow if you'll be playing at a rink with known soft ice. I haven't had to do this in a while, but years ago I'd go from a 3/8" to a 1/2" cut in the summer. If I'd have had access to a sharpener back then I'd have gone all the way to 5/8" for one rink. As far as a wet crease goes, I usually leave the net on the side boards for the shooters to aim at, and wait to set the pegs until right before the game. I hang out near the crease to keep skaters from gouging it up too much and try to push the water behind the goal line instead of out into the slot or the sides of the net. Back in the day, at the warm/soft rink where I'd have gone to a 5/8" cut, I saw the other team's goalie spend the whole warmup scraping the area that would be covered by the net. I skated down to see what he was doing, and he had a visible hollow scraped behind the goal line that he was pushing water from the crease into. It was weird to watch, but his crease was dry/frozen several minutes before mine. . I've never adjusted hollow due to radius, but I did get off the SAM radius and back onto a NoIcing triple radius as quickly as possible after trying SAM on a set of Tyden blades. I had the same issue you did, just couldn't grab an edge confidently.

Great looking setup! Is the glove noticeably stiffer than retail with the addition of Poron? My US glove was and it's still not fully broken in.

I can't unsee Yosemite Sam...

Shot on iPhone. The original iPhone...

I'm rocking Vertexx on custom Trues. The manager of the shop I worked at when I got the True's had to drill a couple extra holes to line things up just right. I would not recommend making the swap unless you have someone you REALLY trust, as I know Brandon put in a lot of time and effort on my skates to get them dead on. We had to redo the rivets on one because it didn't meet his standards. TBH I didn't notice anything wrong when I took them on the ice with the right holder slightly off, but he was concerned I'd have issues with sharpening down the road if we didn't fix it.

Are you looking custom or off the rack? If the former, I'd consider Brians. They can make a pretty soft pad that still lands and slides like a modern pad. If the latter, going with the Sr GT2 is a good call. I had a Pro level pair of GT2s that broke in fairly quickly without breaking down. The SR foams should get softer like you want fairly quickly and at ~$800 you can replace them in a couple years guilt free.

Max thickness lifts you higher off the ice, reducing strain on your joints. Max diameter gives you more landing area and allows for larger knee guards to be worn comfortably.

Hmmm, that does make sense. I guess time will tell once store employees get some training or TGN is allowed to share tech specs with us peons. If true, I'll be fascinated to see what the reaction is to a fixed calf wing. Locking in the knee landing area makes a big difference in performance, but I wonder if locking in the calf as well will result in a pad that feels overly rigid. Time will tell I guess.

This: To me it looks like a cross between what True does and a professor strap. Probably works great for someone with normal legs, but I've got big calves and I bet I'd struggle with it.

The catcher, sure I'd agree with you. But the rebounds off the blocker? Not going to say they're game changing, but it's impressive to watch a hard shot fly into the corner seemingly without losing any velocity!

Pads: Construction: Mach profile with the either Ultrasonic or Mach flex. Which one is similar to the Eflex2 flex? Boot: 100 degree - Soft Knee Block: What’s the difference between Stabilislide, Stabilflex and Traditional w/ Pro Bump? Knee Wing: adjustable (may remove it later, I have in the past), Calf Bracket: Mach or not bracket, what is this? Looks similar to the True calf system True Fit Connect: what’s the difference between the Supreme and Vapor? I've used Vapor and like it. Supposedly it's more secure than Supreme. Catcher: Poron – is it needed? What’s the benefits/negatives? I've got it in the finger area of my Ultrasonic glove. I wouldn't reccomend it, the glove is way stiffer than the stock retail units I saw Blocker: Hyperlite (I like the open cuff over the Mach) Love my HL blocker! Good choice

I would speculate that he and his coaches have experimented with tightening things up for him and he feels as though it has a negative impact elsewhere in his game. At the end of the day, if you're comfortable 95% of the time, that's probably the right setup.

Discouraging, but not really surprising in light of the current economy.

When you said it was coming, you acted like you had some big, high up "source". My point was basically the equivalent of saying "No shit, Sherlock". Finding that catalog took a minimal amount of Googling, and it's been out there for months. Any simpleton should have been able to piece together that we'd be seeing CCM's version of DigiPrint roughly in this timeline. Which, I suppose, is what you and your "source" did.

"Source" You mean like the official catalog that's been available for over a month now and CONFIRMS it?