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A Little Give And Take
by Paul on 12/01/09 at 07:00 AM ET
Comments (6)
from Justin Bourne at USA TODAY,
Alright, old school coaches. Maybe Gordie Howe was the greatest hockey player to ever live. I’ll make the concession that it’s at least a possibility (though I highly doubt it), but you’ve got to come together with me on a few things:
I’ll admit that Gordie Howe was one of the greatest to play the game if you admit that the new sticks are better than the old ones — because they are.
Today’s sticks don’t break more frequently than wood ones; in fact, they break less often. NHL players used to go through 100 of the wood ones per year. People see that newer sticks are made of a composite material and then somehow think that means they should last for all eternity. They’re made to be better, not indestructible. You do know they’re better, right?
Filed in: NHL Teams, NHL Talk | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
I know all his points are with a silly tone, but is he serious about the stick thing?
Yeah, perhaps a wood stick is more likely to “break” and need replacing in that the blade will start chipping/fraying, but the reason a lot of people are advocating a return to wood is because it’s less likely to go from a “playable” state to an “unplayable” one at a critical moment, like a face-off, a point shot, or a power play opportunity.
Posted by Nathan from the scoresheet! on 12/01/09 at 09:07 AM ET
Agree, the difference between wood and the composites are that you know more often than not when a wood stick is about to fail and the failure is not catastrophic.
Posted by Hockey1919 from Montreal on 12/01/09 at 09:21 AM ET
After reading the article I see why he is now a writer and no longer a professional hockey player. Maybe his next article should be about why his editor should lay off the grammar.
Posted by Hockey1919 from Montreal on 12/01/09 at 11:35 AM ET
I’m betting this guy never used a Northland stick.
I played from the ages of 11 to 14 using a single Northland stick.
Wood sticks in fact , do last longer, and when they are slashed and crack you know it and can replace it while sitting on the bench, not defending a 2 on 1, or having the stick vaporize one timing a shot at the point on a powerplay resulting in a shorthanded goal against your team.
.
Posted by Down River Dan on 12/01/09 at 12:02 PM ET
That’s a lie. NHL’ers went through dozens and dozens of wood sticks each year, two to three times as many as they do now because wood sticks break down and get “soft” much faster than composite sticks, which actually degrade in terms of performance over the course of thousands of shots instead of a hundred.
While composite sticks’ lack of a supporting cellular structure means that they fail when they receive significant structural damage, the vast majority of today’s sticks can last for multiple games and practices, not a period and a half of NHL hockey, at best.
Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 12/01/09 at 12:32 PM ET
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that kid is such a good writer.
Posted by tommy from denver on 12/01/09 at 08:34 AM ET