A new twig

Hockey players tend to the finicky side of things when it comes to their gear. I have been playing with the same curve and stick flex for the past ten years. Nothing else seems to work well for me, free gear included.

I purchased two new sticks two weeks ago. They are top of the line twigs, the same that the pros use. Pure carbon fiber goodness. While they are the newest stick on the market, they are still the same curve and same flex as the ones I have been using for the past decade.

Yet I have struggled with them for the past two weeks. Only tonight was I able to finally figure out how to receive a pass, stick handle and begin shooting. Last week was an utter disaster. I could not do a thing right and I attributed it all to how light the new sticks were. I thought I was not compensating enough given the change in weight. A similar phenomenon occurred when I first upgraded my old skates from high school to the lighter, stiffer skates of the 2000's. I was extending too far in my crossovers because the skate was so light and had to adjust.

So for the past two games I have been trying desperately to adjust. Tonight I began to get a handle on it. I could move with the puck. I could shoot...sort of. I could receive and make perfect tape to tape passes. But the backhand was still eluding me. And as much as I progressed, I could not seem to receive a pass or do anything right with my back hand. The puck would constantly seem to slip past me.

As I left the rink tonight, I discovered why. All of my adjustments to this point have been in how I cup the puck, how I cradle the pass and how I roll my wrists. As I was walking out, I noticed that the lie of the blade was different.

For the non-hockey folk out there, the lie is essentially the angle the blade takes as it points away from the shaft (insert whatever juvenile comment you need to here).

So, I know now that the final adjustment I need to make is how I hold my hands in relation to my body. This will directly impact whether all or very little of the blade is in contact with the ice the next time I receive a pass on my back hand. And I look forward to it!

Time for a change

I'll take you back to fall '08. It was a colder day and I broke out the barn coat for my morning commute to work. Hope took one look at the jacket and announced that it was time for me to retire my venerable coat.

I've had it ever since my mother purchased it for me at Reny's my senior year of high school. That's like fourteen years. Fourteen! I wore it through college, I've worn it to rinks, I've worn it to two jobs in the past 10 years.

But she was right. It was torn, stained, and threadbare in places. Time for a replacement.

So I started searching ("searching" being the masculine term for shopping). I wanted something that would last just as long, look relatively the same but offer a little more protection from the elements. I settled on finding a waxed cotton jacket and began searching LL Bean, Eddie Bauer, Cabella's and other various shops. To no avail.

And then the answer. Hoogie pointed out that he had a jacket from Filson that met all my requirements. A quick trip to the local Filson outlet was proof enough that it was the jacket I wanted. And then some!

With Hope's approval, I soon had my jacket on order. Mind you, this was in November. And I've waited patiently for everything to arrive. The wool liners came in first and the jacket itself arrived today. Appropriately, I wore my old barn coat this morning to keep the chill out, not knowing that my new jacket was about to show up. I'll miss the old one but I'm ready to make the change.