Hollows of the Penguins

Click to enlarge.

I came across a photo on a hockey discussion board and thought I’d post it here.  It’s a list of the sharpening hollows for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

What’s interesting to me is how most players on the Penguins use a sharpening hollow of 1/2″ or greater.  They also tend to use Bauer skate holders (Light Speed 2 or Tuuk) more than other brands.

I’m obviously not a great skater but, on the insistence of our previous hockey director some time ago, one of the best changes I made was going from a 3/8″ hollow to 1/2″.  My skates had less bite but there was also a lot less friction, which meant my gliding speed was much faster (he also gave me some tips on what stick length I should go with and how I should tape it up – he was just a wealth of information).

I’ve also contemplated swapping out my current skate holders (RBK E-Pro) for a Bauer model, as Bauer holders are said to have a more neutral pitch (i.e. they put the player more on their heels rather than toes) and I think that might suit me better.  For a short time,  I had skated with skates that had t-blades, which also have a neutral pitch.  I felt very comfortable with those and I seem to recall that I skated better.  Incidentally, it was those skates that had the equivalent of a 3/8″ hollow that got me going with that cut in the first place.

So, perhaps a holder change will be something I will mess around with in the near future.

Singh10.

Monday Musings: Old habits break hard

It was one of those moments where the most innocent of actions ends up with unintended – and undesirable – consequences.

Just before the opening face off in our game against the Pirates last Friday, the players of the two teams were settling into our spots on the ice.  I lined up in my customary right wing spot.   All of a sudden, I felt something push into the back of my right knee, and my leg buckled and kicked out from under me.  I was sent up into the air and landed hard and flat on my back (good grief, something like this).  The momentum of my landing whipped the back of my head against the ice.

CRACK!

The back of my head, protected by my Mission Carbster helmet, struck the ice hard.  I was stunned for the next several moments, and looked up dizzily at the people gathered around me: a referee, one of the other team’s players who had lined up in front of me, and two of my own players – one of whom was the one who took me out.  After I recomposed myself, I skated to the bench and decided to get my bearings before I took a shift. After a quick bout of nausea (and embarrassment for the scene I just displayed at center ice before the game even started), by the middle of the first period I was feeling fine.  My head didn’t hurt at all – thanks to my Carbster.

Now, before we played on the same team here on the Hogs, I was used to Phillips15 knocking me down on a regular basis when I played against him.  I would park in front of his net and he would find any way to get me out of the way of his goalie.  I guess he had a little of that left in him!  It was him who had playfully attempted to knock me off balance before our game, though he obviously didn’t realize I would fall the way I did.  He was very apologetic for the rest of the night, and I certainly hold no ill will towards him at all.  Aside from some minor whiplash for next two days, I’ve been fine.

I can’t say the same about my Carbster, however.  When I got home, I took a close look at my helmet and discovered this on the back:

The old bucket had sustained fatal damage – the impact of my head to the ice was so hard that it cracked my helmet like an egg and exposed its inards.  As such, I had to retire this helmet, which has served me so well and certainly saved me from major injury.  After a short ceremony, I sadly sent my beloved Mission Carbster to Helmet Heaven.

It’s not all sad, because as they say, out of tragedy comes triumph.  After removing my face cage (a Jofa FM480) and any salvageable hardware (screws and snaps) from the old Carbster, I put them on a new helmet that has waited patiently for many months to take its rightful place on my melon:

Long live Mission Carbster, the Second!

Singh10.

Orange-and-blackmobile

As Bradt29 would put it, we Puck Hogs bleed orange and black.  Ever since we started this team, we’ve had a curious fascination with anything in our team colors.  From orange and black hockey sticks, gloves, skate laces, t-shirts, flip flops, bandanas, track suits, cell phones, watches, and whatever else we can get our hands on, we find ways to represent  and recognize our team in whichever way we can.

Example 1 – Three Four (as of 1/24) of our guys now have these:

Mission Fuel WS Hockey Gloves aka "General Lee"

Example 2 – The other day, Heikila22 sent me a picture message of something he happened across…

Orange-and-blackmobile

We don’t know who owns this car, but if we were to have a team vehicle, this would be it!

Singh10.

Rules are meant to be learned

As much as you might think otherwise, in rec hockey we need to remind ourselves we aren’t the NHL.  We don’t play hockey as a living, and we certainly aren’t as talented as what we see on TV.  We also have to accept that the standards to which we play are also not what we see on TV.

In our last game (against the Pints) there was an incident where a player seemed to forget that he doesn’t play in the NHL and did something he shouldn’t have.

That player was me.

Once in the second period, and again in the third, I attempted to dig out a puck from underneath the Pints goalie.  I was under the impression that the play was still live as long as the referees hadn’t blown their whistles to stop the play.  In our game, the refs were often very slow to respond, and when the Pints goalie attempted to cover up the puck, I continued to try and dig the puck out until the play was stopped.

A giant wookie on the Pints warned me the first time not to try and dig out the puck once it was covered by his goalie, and when I did it the second time, it led to some pushing and shoving between us (and only then did the refs blow the whistle).  The referee then told me that the play should stop when the goalie had it covered, but for some reason I had my doubts about this.  I continued to think the puck was fair game until the ref blew his whistle.   After all, in the NHL, commentators always state that a player should play until the whistle is blown.  So, that’s what I was doing.   I wasn’t penalized either time for trying to dig the puck out.

When I returned home that night, I looked up the USA Hockey rulebook and discovered the following:

Rule 633 Slashing

(d) A minor penalty shall be imposed on any player who makes
stick contact with an opposing goalkeeper while he is in his
goal crease, who has covered or caught the puck, regardless of
whether or not the Referee has stopped play.

So, evidently I was wrong about my understanding of the rules, and I should even have been penalized on the play for slashing.  As such, I offer my apologies to the Pints goalie, and I’ll remember this rule for the future.  My bad.

TPS HGT2 Bionic Gloves

On another note, I’ve doubled down on the orange and black attack.  These new bad boys (aka TPS HGT2 Bionic Hockey Gloves) made their debut in our game against the Misfits on November 14. 

Unfortunately, since I’ve been wearing these gloves, we’ve been 0-2.  I refuse to believe that these mitts are bad luck but if we keep losing, it might be hard to convince myself otherwise.  I would hate to have to think of them that way – they’re very comfortable with thick padding and soft leather, and they ventilate quite well.  Plus, if you hadn’t noticed, they’re orange and black.

Hopefully we’ll get a win soon and I’ll be able to dispell any such notion regarding these gloves.

Singh10.