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Who here actually plays hockey?

Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

trixR4kids said:
Yeah does anyone have a recommendation for a good durable bag. I'm a goalie but I'm not putting the leg pads in there and a normal sized player bag would prob suffice.
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Generally the "pro" bags are considered solid choices. Particularly Warrior Pro. A lot of good reviews for that bag with premium zippers.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

Brent - I started playing hockey by playing boot hockey.

This was down in Illinois in the early 80s and actual hockey players weren't all that common, so a bunch of us would walk a mile or two to a slough, shovel off a rectangle and play for hours.

I came from a neighborhood where the boys would play sports pretty much year round. We had a field that could easily accommodate a baseball diamond or football field and then that slough for hockey. We'd have anywhere from 6 to 14 kids just about every day. Was a lot of fun.

That doesn't exist these days as far as I can ever see. :(


Back to boot hockey. This went on for a few years. We even built nets out of scrap wood and chicken wire. Of course, one year, the kid who was supposed to grab them didn't and they became structure for fish.

Then around age 14 (for me), a few of us bought skates and that marked the beginning of the end of our neighborhood's boot hockey.

The memories are strong though and fond. Being out on that ice in the cold silence of winter. Hearing and feeling the ice quakes... BOOOOOMM!!! :eek: The fish frozen in the ice a few inches below us.

:)


<a href="http://i.imgur.com/bS4XW8X.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/bS4XW8X.jpg?1" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a>
 
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Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

St. Clown said:
Speaking of sticks, I just broke mine while blocking a shot the other week. Thankfully, I have three more backup sticks all of the same model in my basement. When I find a stick I like, I stock up on it during the annual clearance sales. It's been a while since I've purchased a new stick.

jen, where are you looking for bags? I just did a quick search on my usual sites, and even the standard carrying bags don't have shoulder straps. It must be because of all the kids using their wheeled bags and backpack bags.
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Hockey Giant, Total Hockey, Hockey Monkey... I did find Grafs that have a single shoulder strap... but I've had Graf bags before, and the zippers aren't great.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

The zipper on my bag was used once... when I unzipped it.


I bought an Easton Synergy EQ20 a few years back for probably $50 or so.

Seems to be doing the trick.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

Gurtholfin said:
Back to boot hockey. This went on for a few years. We even built nets out of scrap wood and chicken wire. Of course, one year, the kid who was supposed to grab them didn't and they became structure for fish.
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My neighborhood had a bunch of kids in my age range, and we'd get together for seasonal sports too. The high school baseball coach lived at the top of the cul de sac from most of us kids, and he built a couple street hockey nets for his boys, who were all at least three years older than the majority of the rest of us. We played up there with his kids most everyday after school in the winter, and he ended up giving them to us after his kids were too old to make use of them. This was in addition to many of us being in organized youth hockey leagues. That was a fun time to be a kid; parents would actually let kids go out and play unsupervised, left to our own devices, and we had a lot of fun with it.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

joecct said:
That looks like a nice par 4 awaiting development.
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Speaking of development... a lot (most?) of those ginormous homes weren't there when I was playing on that.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

Gurtholfin said:
The zipper on my bag was used once... when I unzipped it.


I bought an Easton Synergy EQ20 a few years back for probably $50 or so.

Seems to be doing the trick.
Click to expand...

From my experience with Easton bags, it's good thing you don't use the zipper. When we bought Easton bags for my kid the zips wouldn't make it through a season before they came apart, ripped out or jammed. The Easton skates were no better. We quit buying Easton stuff.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

Anyone from the Twin Cities know where I can get some Sher-Wood PMP Coffey curve wood sticks?
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

St. Clown said:
My neighborhood had a bunch of kids in my age range, and we'd get together for seasonal sports too. The high school baseball coach lived at the top of the cul de sac from most of us kids, and he built a couple street hockey nets for his boys, who were all at least three years older than the majority of the rest of us. We played up there with his kids most everyday after school in the winter, and he ended up giving them to us after his kids were too old to make use of them. This was in addition to many of us being in organized youth hockey leagues. That was a fun time to be a kid; parents would actually let kids go out and play unsupervised, left to our own devices, and we had a lot of fun with it.
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That first breath of crisp cold air before the first game of the season was just wonderful. The park cop always gave us crap (in a friendly way) because he knew we'd play no matter what. If it was snowing like it is right now? Play for 20 minutes, grab a shovel and clean off the ice, and back to the game. Many cold/stormy nights we were the only warming house open and he'd HAVE to check up on us (city ordinance or something). :)
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

Brenthoven said:
That first breath of crisp cold air before the first game of the season was just wonderful. The park cop always gave us crap (in a friendly way) because he knew we'd play no matter what. If it was snowing like it is right now? Play for 20 minutes, grab a shovel and clean off the ice, and back to the game. Many cold/stormy nights we were the only warming house open and he'd HAVE to check up on us (city ordinance or something). :)
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We never hit up the parks to play, just did the street hockey. It gave up more playing time, and if there was a big snow storm, we were heading over the farm field behind manyof our houses that had a nice, long hill. We built jumps and someone always brought a bucket of water to really give it form. We would play hockey or go sledding until it was totally dark, sometimes later if there was full moon and no clouds, and then the game ended when people started getting called away to dinner.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

St. Clown said:
We never hit up the parks to play, just did the street hockey. It gave up more playing time, and if there was a big snow storm, we were heading over the farm field behind manyof our houses that had a nice, long hill. We built jumps and someone always brought a bucket of water to really give it form. We would play hockey or go sledding until it was totally dark, sometimes later if there was full moon and no clouds, and then the game ended when people started getting called away to dinner.
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Started off with the street hockey, then one of our group got a job at the local warming house. The last rink we had, only two people ran it for a good decade: the original person, and me (I got the job b/c of his recommendation). Got a few locals to join in, but it was OUR ice on Fri-Sat nights. Unofficially, of course. 7-9 was boot, go home to clean up, then meet at Applebee's around 10ish for some food/beverages. Yeah, we were lame, but it was fun.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

Numerous nights were spent at a buddy's place playing boot hockey. He had a decent sized pond in his side yard that would naturally freeze. Pretty great size for 3x3 or so. Some nights we would have 6-8 players, others upwards of 12 or so, with the benefit of being able to sub in/out. Great times.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

Nick Papagiorgio said:
Generally the "pro" bags are considered solid choices. Particularly Warrior Pro. A lot of good reviews for that bag with premium zippers.
Click to expand...

I have this one and the mesh is basically gone, it'd get caught on something and the hole just kept getting bigger. I guess you can blame that on the user to some extent but I had it only a year and it's pretty much done.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

I also started out playing boot hockey in a back yard. Then my brother-in-law bought a house with room for a back yard rink. Over time, the ball got smaller,ended up using rubber baseballs,which could sting. Started buying more equipment. One day, got invited to play in a pick up hockey game because I had goalie pads and a chest protector. I ended up playing goal with numerous groups and senior men's teams till I was 58 and injuries and bad knees forced me to give it up. Got to know a lot of great people. Loved it.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

My pickup group has its annual charity tournament starting on Friday. The guy who coordinates the pickup group also sets the teams for the tournament, and he might be trying to poke the bear with one of the teams he made. :D I'm expecting soap opera-esque fireworks coming from one team. This is going to be fun!

Also, my team won it all last year, so we got our names engraved in nothing and not even a t-shirt out of it, just some satisfaction about helping our fellow man, blah, blah, blah... Anyway, we will not repeat as our secret weapon (a 14yo kid) has been traded to another team by the guy setting the teams. Competition will be tight, a lot of one-goal games last year. It's to be expected as most of us know each others' games only too well.
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

I think that, in 6 months of playing in this co-ed league, I've been checked HARD more times than in the 10+ years of previous co-ed leagues combined. Seriously considering sticking to pickup and women's hockey, as I'm tired of getting my head knocked around. They say they're cracking down on checking penalties this season, but that really doesn't help injuries get better, does it? 2 minutes in the box is not a deterrent. 12 minutes in the box is not even a deterrent. What makes people think that they should play the body in an effing D-league? If you see someone two feet from the boards with the puck, PULL UP or play the puck, instead of going right at them, full speed. It's getting me down. Literally. And I suck, so why even bother hitting me?
 
Re: Who here actually plays hockey?

jen said:
I think that, in 6 months of playing in this co-ed league, I've been checked HARD more times than in the 10+ years of previous co-ed leagues combined. Seriously considering sticking to pickup and women's hockey, as I'm tired of getting my head knocked around. They say they're cracking down on checking penalties this season, but that really doesn't help injuries get better, does it? 2 minutes in the box is not a deterrent. 12 minutes in the box is not even a deterrent. What makes people think that they should play the body in an effing D-league? If you see someone two feet from the boards with the puck, PULL UP or play the puck, instead of going right at them, full speed. It's getting me down. Literally. And I suck, so why even bother hitting me?
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Do they just have no control themselves? i.e. they can't stop even if they want to? That, or they are ***holes and I agree you should then leave that league. Hell, I probably would leave regardless of the reason if it has happened several times. And I would make it clear to the organizers of the league why you are leaving. I'm sure they struggle to find women to play in a co-ed league and don't want to lose more of you.
 
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