I got a new blade in the mail this week from good ol' eBay... It's a Louisville PTC (Power Transfer Channel) composite blade. It's nice cause it's very light, and I got it real cheap.

These blades retail for about $90 cdn, so a bit over $100 tax in, and I got it for $30cdn total!

I tossed it in my Bauer Vapor XX shaft, and its a work of art, and the Nash blade pattern is awesome... I actually kept some slapshots down... weird.

Another Innovative Invention from RONCO!

I was real tired the other day, and a knife set from RONCO seemed enticing. Ron's cousin was quite funny. I shouldn't watch informercials on 3 hours sleep.

Anyways, I bought another hockey shaft last week. Another, you say? Well, yes. A little while back, I got some tapered hosel blades at a real good deal from ebay, but had just sold my only shaft that would fit them. I kept my eyes open and found an Innovative 1100 tapered shaft, which is perfect, cause I've wanted an inno 1100 for a while. It's an Oleg Saprykin pro shaft, making it my 3rd somewhat affiliated Calgary flames used stick, so I may become a flames fan in my next life. Innovatives are hard to come by in these parts, and cost a pretty penny. The 1-piece version of the 1100 is as light as the Synergy SL, so this shaft should be very light. I'm excited to wait for a funny shaped package in the mail again.

Another stick feature.

This is my Metallics shaft made by Branches. This is a bit of a relic, cause Branches ceased hockey stick manufacturing early last year. I had never heard of them, but a guy on my team had a different Branches stick, so I checked it out. This shaft features the radius grip shape, rounded corners for a more comfortable feel. This is one of my favorite sticks due to the round shape. It's quite comfy in the hands, but alas it is prone to torque in your hands on a quick shot, making the aim a little off. I would use this as a bcakup, but due to it's shape, I can't put a regular end plug in it to make it long enough to use with the blade I want. sigh. A Truly good shaft.

Days gone by...

My old Synergy Grip shaft. I say old, because it was involved in my first ebay auction as a seller. The shaft went for $38 cdn, which is around what I paid for it a few years ago. It was quite light and had the grip coating I liked, but in the end, it was overtaken by lighter cooler looking sticks. I hope this shaft is doing well in Hamilton.

SLap shot Happy

The new Synergy SL... isn't it beautiful. I was at the Kitchener Rangers vs Sarnia Stin(K)g on Friday, and got to admire the Synergy SL (Super Light) in action. It's a very brightly buffed chrome shaft with mapleleaf blue on the bottom. #29 Nicholas Tuzzolino used it, and I've been wanting one of these since I saw it at world Juniors....

Well, now I'm going to have one. I was watching an ebay auction, and came across one for a very reasonable price ($120cdn) so I bid and won. I'll have to sell a few more sticks to justify this purchase, but considering that they are hardly on the market, and totally unavailable locally, and likely to start at $300+ cdn, I think I got a deal. Now to see if I get it before hockey season's over. I hope so. This is my first stick that was at the early stage of existence when I got my hands on it. And it's very pretty.

Pickin up the trash

With 2 games left in the MHL season, we really needed the point on Saturday, so with our goalie on the bench, I scored with 3 seconds left in the third to tie the game. That's only my second goal this season, which is somewhat dissappointing, but what can you do. It's been pretty fun, and we'll be competing for the "B" championship again this year, which is ok to me, but a lot of my teammates consider that the winner of the losers. I'm just happy to play and win some games. Ah well.

A Vapor in the Wind

Last week I got my newest stick in the mail, a Calgary Flames pro stock Toni Lydman Vapor XX shaft. This was a 1-piece stick, but the blade broke, and I bought it as a shaft. It is nice and light and looks quite sharp. I needed to use "goof off" to remove the pine tar on the shaft that was covering up the graphics and ridiculously sticky. The stick already had the "Stickum feel grip coating" but I guess a lot of pros use the tar stuff. I tried some other stuff to get it off, but the "goof off" worked wonders, taking the stuff off easilly and effectively.

I put in my Sherwood Axion Crosby blade and am looking forward to using it this season for ball hockey.

Guy Incognito

today I got a new shaft in the mail, one I got off ebay a few weeks back. It's unique because it is decieving. It is a t-flex aluminum shaft, just like today's Synthesis shaft, made for Jeremy Roenick of the Philadelphia Flyers. The cool part is that it is painted to look like a Z-bubble shaft, much nicer looking and more common in the NHL. The old aluminum t-flex shafts were quite nasty to look at, so no wonder he requested a different look. Anyways, I've got it now, and I'm running out of room on the stick rack. Time to rethink my racking methods.

The New Synergy ST

Here's some new pictures of the new Easton Synergy ST grip, (ST = Super Tough). This is a 2005 model that is not released to the public yet, but is being used by pro's for testing. Judging by the number of sticks I saw break at an OHL game friday, it's about time that someone made a more durable performance stick.

Many companies claim to have more durable sticks with the 1-piece technology, however, none of those sticks can match the performance and light weight of the Synergy. This stick weighs in at 450 grams which is the same weight as the original Synergy, and still a standard to match for light sticks. Other sticks that claim to be the most durable come with extra weight, usually well over 500grams in weight, which is a significant difference in feel. The ST boasts new triple I beam construction in the blade, apparently making it stronger. I would imagine that this would probably cost somewhere around $249-$299cdn.

I'm not too keen on the goober green colour, but would not complain if I was given one of these. It all sounds good to me, and I would expect that when these are on the market, we'll see less crying teenagers due to less breaking sticks.

Broken Hearts Club

I went to the Sarnia Sting vs Kitchener Rangers OHL game last night at the Aud... I, of course, was cheering loudly for Sarnia, because I grew up there, but, more importantly, they weren't the Rangers and it's oh, so fun to cheer against the home crowd...

Sarnia looked good, controlling the first 2 periods of play, but a few penalties killed them in the third. The eventually tied it up, but lost in OT. I took my mockery like a man, and went out for slurpees with Matt. I had noticed that #7 on the Sting was skating like me all night(which is not a complement) and on the play that ended the game, it was he, #7, who could not catch up with his man to stop the 2 on 1. What a chump.

All in all, it was a good game, much more entertaining that last weeks Brampton game. The Sting were almost all using Easton Synergy Grip sticks, bright yellow to match their jerseys. One guy used a stick that appeared to be one of the new Synergy SL or ST's that are still in their product testing phase (Danny Syvret used one at WJHC), but as the game wore on, I think he just spraypainted the bottom part of his synergy black...

On the night, I believe the broken stick count was 7 in total... So, if those sticks were bought for retail price, it would have cost the teams about $1750... Luckilly, they get pro stock sticks (probably made lighter/making them less durable) which come quite cheap to them.

On another note, there were 3 occasions where someone lost his mouthguard on the ice. The ref didn't want to pick it up, so he just kicked it into the net. The goalie appeared to be anal about having anything in his net, so the next whistle, he made the ref get it off the ice.

All in all, it was a good time, and a nice distraction during the NHL lockout. OHL hockey aint that bad.