Top 5 Stocking Stuffers

Maximize your stickhandling and skating skills with these stocking stuffers.

1. Green Biscuit Training Puck—develop better passing and stickhandling skills on any off-ice surface.
2. Smart Hockey Training Ball—work on stickhandling on any off-ice surface with this ball that mimics the feel of a puck.
3. Lit Biscuit Light Up Hockey Puck—the game never ends with this durable, lighted puck.
4. SK8T Fuel Skate Blade Coating—reduce friction and hold your edge better with a permanent liquid layer between the skate blade and ice surface to maximize your play.
5. Rollerguard Rolling Skate Guard—convert ice skates to inline skates for use on any surface, inside or out.

Top 5 Training Essentials

Build power and accuracy with these training essentials.

1. Trion SK8W8 Skate Weights—improve skating speed, endurance and leg strength.
2. Complete Shot Stick Weight—amp up quickness, shot power and stickhandling in only minutes per day.
3. EZ Goal 4 Corner Netting Targets—pick the corners with durable, easy-to-install corner pockets.
4. Demon Hot Shot Puck—measure the distance of a slap shot, snap shot or pass/wrist shot!
5. Sweet Hands—maneuver the puck through obstacles in any configuration you can think of, on- or off-ice.

Top 5 Bang-for-Your-Buck Gifts

Want to wow your kids or spouse this holiday season? Set them up with a tiled training room or a “driveway” kit. All you need is a shooting surface, something to shoot at and something to return pucks. Plus, it never hurts to work on your stride and conditioning!

1. Shooting Tiles or Shooting Pad—start investing in tiles for a training room or pick up a shooting pad or two for driveway use.
2. EZ Goal Folding Goal with Backstop Rebounder—shoot endless pucks at this durable net with no worry about lost pucks or wild shots.
3. Hockey Shooting Tarp—protect your walls, windows and doors while practicing shooting at a “goalie.”
4. Pass Master or One-Timer—work on your passing with a puck returner, on-ice or on your home shooting tiles or pads.
5. PowerSlide Board Package—increase lateral power, strength, agility and endurance with a slide board that’s great for the whole family, hockey players or not!

Finished with your holiday shopping? Keep this list handy for birthdays!

Q:

• It is crucial for the skates to offer good stability and strong ankle support.
• Typically, you want a skate that is 1 to 1½ size smaller than your shoe size.
• Any larger will cause blisters to form and break down the sides of the boot.
• Too large of a skate will affect a player’s mobility and balance.
• A solid exterior is vital to protecting your feet from the puck and other skates.

Plan at least a few skating sessions to break the skates in, or consider heat molding them. For more details on fitting goalie skates, click here.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Kelly Anton for answering all your pressing questions about hockey equipment.

Question:

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Kelly Anton for answering all your pressing questions about hockey equipment.

Question:

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Kelly Anton for answering all your pressing questions about hockey equipment.

Question:

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Kelly Anton for answering all your pressing questions about hockey equipment.

“We are excited to launch the first genuine hockey equipment recycling effort in North America,” says Michael Benoit, president and CEO of Total Hockey.

HockeyGreen provides players with an incentive to recycle their broken and unusable composite hockey sticks instead of just throwing them away. HockeyGreen rewards customers for going green. Every broken composite hockey stick is eligible for a $10 credit towards a qualifying stick purchase at Total Hockey. Beginning June 1, customers are asked to bring broken sticks to their local Total Hockey retail store. In early August, customers will be able to recycle their old sticks online at hockeygreen.com and apply the $10 credit towards online stick purchases.

The goal of the program is to collect broken composite hockey sticks from hockey players around the nation to build a large inventory that can be used in the research and development of discovering a way to capture and extract the carbon fiber and develop a method to reuse these materials in the creation of new products.

“We have wrestled with this concept for the last 18 months because of the evident challenges of reclaiming carbon fiber from stick materials. We finally decided not to wait any longer,” Benoit says. “Instead, we are offering the recycling industry a chance to capture the T Prize, an award aimed at incenting engineers and material processors to uncover the secrets of carbon fiber recapture from composite hockey sticks.”

In an effort to find a way to recycle carbon fiber, Total Hockey is taking on the task of collecting and housing large amounts of carbon fiber materials to provide to organizations focused on the research and development process of recycling these materials. The third-party organizations will focus on either the reuse of carbon fiber materials or the use of carbon fiber materials in experimental research.

The T Prize is a $100,000 award being offered by Total Hockey for the individual or company that can develop an economically viable process for the extraction and reuse of carbon fibers from composite hockey sticks.

“Total Hockey is in the process of recruiting and assembling a small team of experts to help us define the specific requirements for T Prize qualification and we expect to release the specifics before the end of the year,” Benoit states.

HockeyGreen.com will feature updates on the T Prize, including the announcements on the expert panel selection, specific parameters for qualification for eligibility for the T Prize and delivering the award planned for late 2012.

“I am ecstatic about the opportunity to do something about the environment within our sport. It is wonderful to recycle bottles, cans and paper, but to be a pioneer in a major initiative involving the recycling of hockey gear itself is fantastic,” says Benoit.

Total Hockey is committed to demonstrating progress in environmental understanding and practices to help reduce its ecological impact in the world. The hockey retailer is actively pursuing avenues to engage the hockey community in its green efforts to not only raise awareness, but also provide solutions to minimize the organization’s carbon footprint. These endeavors focus on implementing strategies to further reuse, recycle and reduce products and services at Total Hockey.

Editor’s Note: Total Hockey is the title sponsor for Grow the Game: Passionate About Growing the Game of Hockey and the exclusive ice hockey equipment retailer of USA Hockey.

Minneapolis-based Shock Doctor®—the authentic market leader and creators of innovative, unique performance-driven sports protection and the undisputed leader in mouthguard technology—will feature the Shock Doctor Mouthguard Fitting Lab at its Let’s Play Hockey Expo booth this year. Hockey players will have the opportunity to get their new mouthguards fitted properly by trained mouthguard technicians, and Dr. Dan Brett—dentist and co-creator of the Shock Doctor Custom Mouthguard—will be on-hand to answer questions about the Custom Mouthguard. Hockey players at the expo will be the first in the U.S. to see the new Nano 3D Mouthguard and Shockskin Hockey protective apparel and have the opportunity to ask questions of experts at the Shock Doctor booth.

The Shock Doctor Orange Guys, three men painted in Shock Doctor orange paint and wearing the new Shock Doctor Shockskin Hockey protective apparel, will be available for photos with expo attendees.  By loading their photos onto Facebook, expo attendees will have the opportunity to win a variety of Shock Doctor prizes including the new Shock Doctor Nano 3D Mouthguard and Shockskin Hockey protective apparel.

Shockskin Hockey—revolutionary, built-in protective apparel uniquely designed to cover the gaps in hockey players’ protection—moves like a second skin and is the first and only product of its kind.  As an expert in mouthguard science, performance and safety, Shock Doctor designs and produces the most comfortable, ultra protective mouthguards available, keeping the focus on playing a sport, not wearing a mouthguard.  The innovative Shock Doctor Nano 3D Mouthguard is the ultimate self-fit mouthguard and features a lower profile, closer fit and less bulk, providing athletes improved airflow making it easier for them to breathe, communicate and focus.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Shock Doctor for this story.

About five years ago, USA Hockey issued a suggestion that the Blue Puck be used for Squirts and a requirement that it be used for Mites. So just exactly what is a Blue Puck, and why don’t we see more of them?

A regular puck weighs six ounces; the blue one is 25 percent less. For kids that are still a few years away from getting their strength, a Blue Puck is easier to handle, easier to pass, and much easier to shoot. Going “top shelf” becomes possible. The idea behind USA Hockey’s recommendation is that making the game more fun for more players at the beginning levels will result in accelerated skill development and increased retention.

Followers of the NHL know the league isn’t just for North Americans like it was through the 1970s. Rosters today include scores of Scandinavians, Russians, and Czechs. Finns and Swedes play Blue Puck through age 10, and Czechs use it too but it is not required.

Critics cite tradition (“we don’t have any problems with the black puck”) and logistics (“just one more thing to keep track of”), but usually focus mainly on the different playing characteristics of the Blue Puck. Simply put, it bounces. I grew up playing lots of outdoor hockey with no gear. As a result, there were no “lifters.” Sometimes we would mix it up and play with a tennis ball or ultra-light “sponge” puck. These too have far different playing characteristics, but I can assure you it was just as much fun.

USA Hockey terms this a mandate and not just a recommendation. Recently they have made it a point of emphasis to monitor use of the Blue Puck at the Mite level. It is still unclear what penalty will be for noncompliance, but don’t be surprised if you see more of the Blue Puck in the future. Our sport’s national governing body has asked that everyone give it a chance, at least long enough to let the kids decide if they like it.

Editor’s Note: Thank you to John Conley of the Florida Youth Hockey Report: The Fire for this story. Click here to see back issues of The Fire.