Step Your Game Up Part 2.

Welcome back! Last time you were here we were discussing how to step your game up in the 3 most important sections of hockey.  We covered skating and puck handling. Now its time for the final 2 sections of the game!

            

    Shooting is one of the most fun parts of hockey. But what happens when you have no ice to practice? How can you perfect your craft without ice? This is a question asked by every hockey player. The answer is the HockeyShot shooting pad. Available in many different sizes, it is a smooth white board that simulates an ice surface. It’s great for office shooting and now you can turn any wall into your target, just watch for windows!  Price is base off of size, the bigger you get the more the price.

                Finally, let’s say you just want so off ice work without dropping the money for the shooting pad. With just $15 you can purchase the green biscuit. This is a green puck that will slide across any surface. Although it is not for shooting, its best for stick handling and passing. Provides a great fun tool in the summer to pass with friends. By far one of the most affordable  and useful item a hockey player can use to take his game to the next level.

Step Your Game Up

            So you’ve taken my advice throughout this blog, you’ve gone out and got the top skates you want, gloves, stick, helmet, shoulder pads and everything else. You are totally “geared up”. Now it’s time to make you game look as good as you do. Let’s break down the game into 3 sections: skating, puck handling/shooting, and off ice training. How can a player improve in all 3 sections? Well the answer comes with hard work and the right tools.

           

 Starting with skating, hockey is all about feet work. In this game a player is always moving and has to be agile on his skates. Most players work many drills to improve this, but if you really want to bring your feet work to a new level, you will do all your drills with the Trion Skate weight. Unlike the normal skate weights that wrap around you skate. The Trion simply clicks right into the holder. Along with adjustable weights, the Trion will help develop more leg strength which means more speed and better feet work. Although it is a $40 purchase, it is well worth it for the player that is willing to let his legs burn!

            Now that you have burned your legs all practice you are ready to pull out the puck. Once again there are many drills that can be done, but to gain that edge of your opponent you will need the Sweet Hands stickhandling trainer. This is an 8 foot long tool that you slide the puck through each section. Also each section can be separated and place in different parts of the ice to change up your drills. The only negative to this device is that it is $99. But it does provide a good model for a person that would be willing to build their own.

            See next blog for the final section!

Here’s One for The Ladies

                  

               

Guys, do you have a woman who loves hockey? Do you know girls that love to go to the rink with you? Ever notice that their hands are always cold? Well here is your solution to this problem, The Rinky Fury hockey gloves. Us as hockey players always want to wear our hockey glove to public skate, but the girls are always left out, not anymore!

            Not only are they hockey gloves but they are cheetah print, fury and soft. So when you are taking your woman out to the rink for a nice date, she will look stylish and keep their hands warm. For only $30 these are easily afford able and also add the protection to her hands for those girls learning to skate. Sorry I didn’t post this before Valentine’s day.

New Look New Style

The hands, NHL players dazzle us with the speed and precision. Every brand has its own look and Easton has just released their newest look. They are the Easton Stealth RS gloves and they are finally available for consumer purchase. These gloves are a new style called the angled cuff roll design. This design is to give a hockey player more movement in their wrists. Doing this will improve a players puck handling and a players wrist shots. One other feature of these gloves is the Dri-lex system inside of it. This helps the gloves dry out faster after use. As much as I would love to tell you more, that is all the info Easton has explained about them. Hopefully we will know more soon.

Nailer’s Speedster

The Wheeling Nailers are an inspiring group of hockey players. Even with the threat of being sold and moved out of Wheeling, they still have managed to fight their way to first place. Not without the key efforts of, the often underestimated, Peter Lenes. Lenes stands out to most people for two reasons when fans go see him play. He is about 5’4 in height and he flies on the ice!

The question to ask is: what kind of skates does a speedster like Lenes wear? Easton Stealth s17 is your answer. Only weighing 1.76 lbs, these skates have sections taken out of the blade to add flex. Flex in a steel blade mean that when a player plants his blade its will flex and spring a player forward. This takes a speedy player like Lenes and makes him like lightning.

Easton Stealth S17 skates are the top of the line skate in the stealth line and only cost about $250 (until the newer version comes out). As expected the Easton Stealth skates provide optimum protection from pucks and sticks, but do so without sacrificing weight. Next time you see the Nailers play watch for that little number 13, and if he stands still long enough you will see his amazing skates.

Defense Wins Championships

You wake up feeling every joint in pain, you roll out of bed covered in bruises, and you ice everything down just to be able to move for practice. Congratulation you just played a NHL game against the monstrous Zdeno Chara from the Boston Bruins. Chara is a defenseman that has redefined the defensive play in the NHL. Standing at amazing 6’9 on the ice Chara delivers insane hits and scary fast slap shots. Performing a 108 mph slap shot you may think this is about the stick he uses, but I wanted to know how he delivers such hard hits while still protecting himself.

The protection comes down to one word, and is fitting for Chara; Warrior. Chara wears the Warrior Franchise Shoulder Pads. These pads are roughly 2.86 lbs which is a little heavy, but when protecting his body Chara doesn’t mind a little heavier pad. They have the Free Range of Motion arm pads that make it easy to move and adjust them however a player wants.

The most unique part of these pads is there slim design. They cover more of a player’s stomach to make it easier to lay out and block pucks when your goalie cant. This tall design is great for players like Chara that are tall and not too wide. They say offense wins games but defense wins championships, well Chara plays defense like no other (wearing his Franchise pads) and he has a championship to prove it.

Goalie Edition

If you have been following my blog you will see I’ve covered top scores, top assists, and top points. But now it’s time to talk about the most under rated position in hockey: the goalie. Often called the net minder, goaltender, or the last line of defense, the goalie can easily be forgotten about when a team is doing so well. Never underestimate the importance of the goalie, they wear 3 times as much gear and often have to be more agile than any other skater on the ice. When a forward defends he worries about the puck and 2 or 3 men, the goalie must know where all 5 opponents are and the puck.

Of all the goalies in the NHL there is one that is showing he is up to the task more then anyone else, Henrik Lundqvist. He is the goalie for the NY Rangers and has posted an incredible 7 shutouts this season, putting his team at the top of the NHL standings. And like the reliability of a goalie, Henrik Lundqvist relies on Bauer to serve him well during games.

Lundqvist uses the Bauer Supreme one100 leg pads. Priced at about $1500, these pads are among the top goalie leg pads on the market. Weighing 6lbs per leg allows Lundqvist to drop to the “butterfly” position and pop back up faster than any goalie. With their pre-curved face, goalies don’t not need to bend the pads to break them in, they are ready to go from the start. All these bonuses to these pads its no wonder why the number one goalie in the NHL uses them.