Compete Level

I've worn size 9 Bauers since I was 14 or 15 years old and today's models definitely run larger than in the past. I also caved and bought expensive ones at a Boxing Day sale a few years ago. I should have gone down to at least a 8.5

I bought new skates 3.5 years ago (around a week before Neu! 15 was born, so I remember the timing) and I was shocked by how much CCM's sizing had changed since my last pair. I wear a 11.5/12 US shoe, used to wear size 10 CCM skates, but I dropped down to a 8.5 with this pair.

Eventful game last night:
- I made a nice backhand saucer pass through the defenseman to my teammate who was wide open in front for our first goal
- I skated up to take away a shooting lane in our end, he took a reasonably high shot that I thought would hit me in the chest. Instead it hit the shaft of my stick, went over my head, glanced off the top of our goalie's head, and in.
- I made up for it by beating one of their defensemen with an actual on-on-one move and shooting five hole. I score a lot of garbage goals so it was nice to be a part of two nice ones.
- They tie it up again with a weird play in our end, one of their passes deflects towards the slot, goes off of our defenseman's stick, and in. We have scored all four goals and it's 2-2.
- They're doing a hard shot out of their zone when I'm skating just past our bench. The shot goes straight into the side of my knee (where there's only thin padding) and I have to scoot myself over to / flip onto the bench. I walk it off although it is swollen now / hurts a lot.
- We go back up with a nice high-slot redirection.
- This team always starts being assholes in the third if they're trailing and hey guess who starts being assholes in the third? I got punched in the back of the head on two occasions, no call. Then when they've pulled the goalie, I manage to deflect a pass in their end and get it along the low boards, right in front of their defenseman. I make a quick turn move (copyright Gustav Nyquist) to free up space so I can shoot at the empty net / make any kind of play and the guy takes my feet out. No call, but the puck ended up going back to their other defenseman behind the net, and we're able to pressure them into staying in the zone until four seconds left. 3-2 win.

I blocked at least three other shots, including a hard one off my heel on the PK that went straight to our other forward and out of the zone. At some point I'll learn that blocking shots in beer league is dumb as hell but not today!

my SO surprised me by washing all of my gear. i was skeptical at first being a neurotic minor athlete. but i played last night and we won so i guess it's OK.

we have two teams in two divisions and i got demoted to the lower skill level. fair enough, i was in a bad place on a bender that lasted three games (roughly two weeks). sobered up for hockey and am currently undefeated. meanwhile, our other team has yet to win a game since my departure.

right after i got moved down, i ended up subbing for another team that was playing my former team and we won. to be fair, i did let the captain know i'd be on the opposing team

I'm so bad this year. I have just 1 assist in my one league and my other 4G/1A but all those points came in two games agains the same awful team. (technically shitty refs have robbed me of a few other assists but if it's ain't on the website did it really happen?

I got invited to a coaches shinny game yesterday and ended up playing on the same team as Louis Leblanc and Noémie Marin (google her - CWHL all time leading scorer). The other team had a bunch of young guys including a current NCAA player and a former minor pro journeyman. Anyway I managed to keep up and not embarrass myself which I will take as an accomplishment.

Btw I played way worse when I was on the ice with Leblanc than without him. I kept trying to feed him the puck, force passes, etc. instead of just playing the game

I successfully remembered 90% of Leblanc’s developmental arc but thought he went to Carolina, not Anaheim

Was there a different Habs bust that went to Carolina

i think i'm going to be a participant in this thread soon

i finally brought my skates out from alberta and have been doing some skating. i picked up some gloves and am stick shopping to get myself ready for stick and puck. gonna aim to do some drop in hockey next season. does anyone have any gear buying advice for someone who hasn't played in 15 years

buy even a semi expensive 77 flex stick and they take slapshots by themselves. I used my dad's friend's teenage son's backup stick over christmas and couldn't avoid hitting the crossbar with clappers. then when you have to go out into the snowy fields to find your puck you can find other pucks on the journey. thus does the stick pay for itself.

I buy new equipment intermittently, so here goes:

Skates: I wear CCM and I was completely shocked when I bought my last pair of skates four years ago (it was right before Neu! 15 was born, so for once I remember the timetable) that CCM's sizing had changed significantly. I went from wearing a 10 to an 8.5. They've held up OK but in general skates break down a lot faster nowadays.

Socks: I don't have kevlar socks for my feet but I did get general Bauer socks to wear on my feet and they help with fit. As for socks that go over the shinguards, I'm fond of the new, thinner variety.

Shinguards: I block a dumb amount of shots and somehow my shinguards have lasted.

Pants: Aside from the belt never being the right tightness, no major issues.

Shoulder pads: If you wear them, you'll probably learn that most new shoulder pads are super bulky / have large plastic caps. Shop around for one that's not too restrictive.

Elbow pads: Honestly the hardest piece of equipment for me to find. Most elbow pads have the shoulder pad issue of large plastic caps and zero flexibility. I think I eventually found a pair of CCM elbow pads I didn't hate, but it's pretty clear why guys get concussions from even light elbows to the head.

Gloves: The palms last longer, the rest of the glove wears a bit faster. Shrug.

Helmet: I don't think I've any issues here.

Sticks: I've tried a bunch of different stick brands and my priority is getting something that lasts a while, even if the feel isn't pro-level, because honestly who am I kidding. I always go for a Sherwood model in the $100 range and get two at a time (hopefully at the end of the year so they're on sale). Bauer sticks broke the fastest from my anecdotal experience.

If we do end up moving (which seems pretty likely), I'm curious how easy it'll be to find a men's league wherever we end up. I assume the following:

1. Some places will be easier (MI) than others (NC)
2. There may not be as many levels available
3. The leagues likely won't be as insanely competitive as Boston-area hockey

#3 is a positive, to be honest. I'm sick of having recent college players trickle down to my level and casually dominate it, and I'm also tired of weaker players being forced out. My relative strengths adapt reasonably well to better competition (essentially faceoffs / defensive coverage / forechecking), but offensively it's such a dramatic difference when we're playing a team that's clearly above our level (they control the puck, I do fuck-all offensively) vs. someone at our level (pressure leads to turnovers, turnovers lead to me scoring).

I'm probably more concerned about having to meet a whole new group of guys.

I would guess that figuring out sticks will be your only hurdle. I didn't play from around 2004-2011 and missed the whole transition to composite sticks. Took me forever to figure out what I'm comfortable with and I still feel like I can't shoot anything close to like I used to.

Rest of the gear... never buy anything at full price, everything goes on sale especially when they decide to clear out last year's models. You don't need anything fancy for pants or shoulder pads. I'd say invest in a decent pair of shin pads, but even at the lower end, shin pads are so much better constructed now than 15 years ago.

This annoyed the hell out of me for so long. I fixed it recently by buying a $12 pair of suspenders for hockey pants and it's the best, they stay up perfectly. Previously I would be pulling them up every time I went on the ice. I even bought a pair of tight fitting ones thinking it would solve the problem but nope.

Plus it reminds me of being a 10 year old cause they all used to have suspenders. Win-win.

i am most interested in the stick aspect. i grew up with one of those easton two piece graphite sticks that was way too stiff for me. i still use it when i go home. i'm hoping i can go somewhere that has some demo sticks to try shooting with to at least get a sense of what the flexes are like.

appreciate everyone's advice in this thread, lots of useful stuff in here.

one of these bad boys:

There are a few stores around me that have shooting areas where you can try out sticks.

Honestly it took me some trial and error. I've learned that since I almost never take slap shots, I get the most out of a very low (like 77) flex stick. I remember buying a 100+ flex stick at one point because it was really, really cheap and I hated that stick so much. I'm sure I still have it in the garage.

yeah i'm a pure snap/wrist shot guy so i was thinking of going with a high flex option

as long as they still make the sakic curve i should be set

For reference I'm a 6'0" 165 lbs weakling and anything higher than a 75 is too stiff for me. The other thing is the lighter weight and lower flex your stick is, the tougher it seems to be to handle passes.

My kid seems to know everything about sticks and like me he's a total lightweight. He's gone to using a heavier stick and 30 flex (30!!!) and he can rip the puck using the flex properly.

He's all about True sticks right now and I've only heard good things.

i am a 6' 210 lb weakling (it's all in the gut and legs) so it sounds like a 77 will be just fine

30 flex is some Kessel level slingshot instrumentation

I assume a 30 flex looks like a piece of cooked spaghetti.

I'm 5' 11" 175lbs and unless I suddenly get a lot more upper body strength I'm not going higher than like an 85 flex anytime soon.

Man I have no idea what I weigh (somewhere between 190 and 200, i bet?) but I'm 6'0" and 75 flex is just right. My only reasonably useful shot is the snap shot.

I've had to find a substitute goalie a lot this year, which is the fucking worst, and I'm pretty sure one guy who's said he was up for it a couple of times and then had (what seemed to be very reasonable) excuses to bail was just fucking with me the entire time, so that's great.

This is definitely the last time I ever run a men's league team.