Player Card

Name: Joseph Cadabes

Position: D, C

Height: 5'9"

Weight: 140 lbs.

Career Statistics

Year	League	Team	GP	G	A	P
'12-'13	Brown Intramural Mid Division	Motley Crew	6	0	0	0

Bio: Joseph began skating in the summer of 2012 before deciding to join a friend of a friend's intramural hockey team. Having only a pair of skates to claim as his own, and receiving a very sudden notice on the day of his first game that there was in fact a game that night, he managed to slog his way through 6 games against varying levels of hockey-playing college kids with all his extremities intact despite never learning to play the game and only skating for a few months beforehand.

Perfect Game for the Perfect Human: 10-12-13 vs. Philadelphia

It's been a foregone conclusion for a long time now that Nicklas Lidstrom's number 5 is going to hang from the rafters at Joe Louis Arena (and the new arena, projected to be finished in 2017). After deciding not to do the number retirement ceremony last season because the wounds of the lockout were still so very fresh, the Red Wings will retire it this season but have yet to announce a date. In the spirit of trying to find material to write about during the offseason, I'll go game by game on the Red Wings' schedule (home games, obviously) and weigh the merits and pitfalls of holding the ceremony before that game.

October 12, 2013: 7:00ET vs. the Philadelphia Flyers

Wouldn't it be nice to shove highlights of the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals right in the faces of Flyers fans?

Once more, with feeling.

I should get back on topic. Moreso than the first two opponents in the Sabres and in the Coyotes, Philadelphia would be a grand opponent to host the number retirement. Compared to the lack of history between the Red Wings and Sabres on the ice and despite the recent success Lidstrom and the Red Wings had against the Coyotes, Lidstrom helped end Detroit's 42-year Stanley Cup drought with a series sweep of the Flyers in the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals. Even though it's a small sample size 7-game series, and even though that series was 16 years ago, it's still an important part of the Red Wings' modern history, especially in the context of the current run of 22 straight playoff appearances and as the kickstarter of the dynastic run between '97 and '08 and of the Red Wing Renaissance started by Steve Yzerman.

I said this about the first two games, and it'll very likely still apply through all the home games in October: this game is still early enough in the season that it looks like they're trying to get Lidstrom's number up into the rafters where it belongs, and where it should have been last season except for that pesky lockout. (Side note: I'm really tempted to start #peskylockout on Twitter.) Any game in November and beyond could still be a good candidate, but it won't have the "early season game" reason going for it that would support the assumption that the Red Wings want to get this done as soon as possible. What's that quote? "Be quick, but don't hurry." Lidstom's number retirement should be done right, of course, and the Perfect Human will get a perfect number retirement ceremony (assuming the visiting team cooperates), so it shouldn't be rushed, but there really shouldn't be any reason that doesn't involve "Lidstrom can't make it" to delay the ceremony very long into the season.

Pretty much the only reason I wouldn't want to use this game as the number retirement game is the possibility that the Red Wings would lose to Steve Mason. Any special significance attached to any game has the risk of being at least partially ruined by the home team losing, but I most certainly wouldn't want to taint the Perfect Human's record by having "Red Wings losing to Steve Mason and the Flyers on Lidstrom number retirement night" become a part of his perfect biography. Then again, there's also the narrative of most Red Wings teams over the past decade losing to teams they should beat handily.

Should the Red Wings retire Lidstrom's number before this game? MAYBE.

Skating Journal 7-29-13

I discovered a section of the Valley Ice Center's website dedicated to adult skating sessions. I had a feeling that these would be like skating at the rink at school, except with older adults instead of college students and maybe a couple faculty. And to my utter non-surprise, I turned out right. Same open ice because there aren't that many people, no huge amounts of kids that a regular public session would have, it's on the big and clean ice, and it's at a reasonable time at noon instead of the 9:30am public session on the curling ice which just kills all motivation to skate. However, unlike at school, I wasn't fearing for my life because none of the figure skaters were skating backwards with their legs up in the air and blades sticking out.

So I went to the adult skating session on Friday afternoon. Despite it being pricier than a regular public session, I definitely think it was worth the extra money to get much more open ice on the regular rink instead of the curling rink. I came away from the rink with a much more intense workout under my belt than I normally get when I go to the morning public session on the curling rink. So I think this is definitely money well spent.

I started with sprints. While I don't think my hockey lessons are quite at the level I want to be skill-wise, I definitely think I get winded way too easily. So after I did some crossovers and went around the ice for a couple minutes, I got on the goal line and went blue line and back, red line and back, other blue line and back, other goal line and back. After a minute rest, I got back on the line and went half rink and back, whole rink and back. Heart rate up, I thought about going whole rink one more time before doing more skill drills, but I figured I would have plenty of time to do more conditioning later on. My only skill criticism is that as I got fatigued, my confidence in stopping at high speed dropped exponentially, so that when I went the whole rink and back on the second set, I was stuttering on my stops. Fatigue definitely factored in, but I really need to get over my fear of falling on the ice without equipment on.

I wanted to focus on back skating, especially back crossovers, because I definitely feel that my back skating of late has fallen off a cliff, especially after a little scrimmage game at sticktime on Monday where I wasn't at all smooth trying to keep guys in front of me while I played back. But before I got into the teeth of my workout, I wanted to do some detail work on tight turns. I'm convinced that I won't get my tight turns right until I get another pair of skates because the off-fit of my left boot gets really distracting and even disconcerting performing certain skills at high speeds. But I did try to do some tight turns at medium speed before picking up the pace, and I feel much better after doing that bit of detail work because I developed the habit of moving with my hips and legs and not leading with my head and shoulders. My turns are still wider than I would like them to be, but at least I'm not throwing my body into them and instead am letting my shoulders lead me into them. (Also: watch Pavel Datsyuk own at tight turns.)

For the remaining 60 minutes or so on the ice, I spent at least 50 of them on back skating work. At a certain point, everything became a blur both because of my overall focus on my workout and because of my legs crying out from fatigue from the nonstop movement, so I truthfully don't know where to begin.

The two big things were back crossovers and back quick starts. I stayed in one end of the rink, using the faceoff circles as a guide and trying to do back crossovers at medium speed while staying along the circle. The first sign I was having trouble with this exercise was that I could not maintain my pacing for my exercise. Although I would try to work up to full speed, I kept trying to maintain half speed so that I could hyper-focus on my movement during the skill, but the choppy motion of moving one leg over the other meant that I was picking up more speed than I wanted to and that I couldn't really do much detail work. I eventually got the motion figured out, on both sides, so while I was still having some speed control issues, I felt like I was getting more fluid in my motion, though I was still stronger crossing left over right than right over left. Part of the issue that I'm figuring out now involves my not being incredibly stable skating backwards on one foot. This instability leads to me putting my crossover foot back down sooner than I want to if I want to go at less than full speed.

Oy, back quick starts. I'm not terribly good with them if my left foot is in front, but I'm comfortable doing it from that side. Conversely, I'm not too comfortable with them if my right foot is in front, but when I can execute it, I do it much better on that side.

I have plenty of problems with form. I'm getting better at the initial dig into the ice, but when my left foot is doing the initial dig, I have a tendency to go more sideways than straight back. On both sides, I'm definitely not keeping my head up or my body aligned so that I can see what's in front of me since the point of this exercise is to get me used to skating back quickly while still being able to see the ice and follow where the play is going as everybody moves into my defensive zone. When I lead with my left foot, I end up looking at my skates too much, not so much to the point where my entire upper body is leaning down or hunched over, but my head is definitely down and looking at the toes of my skates as I execute the drill. When I lead with my right foot, my entire body, not just from the waist down, is perpendicular to where I should be looking or where I should be skating backwards. I'm not entirely sure there's something I can do about this problem aside from recognizing it and trying to keep my head up.

I'm the most comfortable I've ever been just back skating in general, but my back crossovers and back quick starts definitely need a lot more work. I don't know if I've actually managed to get my backwards skating speed to be as fast as my forward skating, but I'm definitely at the fastest I've ever been while skating backwards. I don't know when the next time I'll go to a dedicated skating session will be, but I'll see if I can't start working to incorporate some skating drills into my sticktime practices.

I'll definitely need to do something about my skates in the future. I've talked before about how my skates are very likely half a size too big for me to fully utilize their potential, but I've also noticed in recent weeks that my left skate isn't oriented the same way as my right skate. I don't know if this is the product of stopping too much leading with my left foot (since I'm most comfortable stopping left foot first) or if it came to me this way when I bought it and didn't notice it until now, but my left runner and holder look and feel like they're pointed slightly to the right of center underneath my toe. It would certainly explain why I don't seem to have any ability to use my outside edge on my left skate, especially on crossovers (either direction), but I've managed to not be a total train wreck on skates with them so far. I definitely want to correct the sizing issue at some point when I have enough funds, but I'll probably also want to pay attention to the holder and runner too. I know Easton's recent Mako skate intentionally has an asymmetric design for better turns, but I'm not so convinced my Bauer Vapor X3.0's were supposed to be created the same way. Maybe they were and I just wasn't paying attention or a good enough skater yet to know the difference, but it's definitely something new to keep my eye on the next time I buy a pair of skates.

Perfect Game for the Perfect Human: 10-10-13 vs. Phoenix

It's been a foregone conclusion for a long time now that Nicklas Lidstrom's number 5 is going to hang from the rafters at Joe Louis Arena (and the new arena, whenever that's built). After deciding not to do the number retirement ceremony last season because the wounds of the lockout were still so very fresh,* the Red Wings will retire it this season but have yet to announce a date. In the spirit of trying to find material to write about during the offseason, I'll go game by game on the Red Wings' schedule (home games, obviously) and weigh the merits and pitfalls of holding the ceremony before that game.

October 10, 2013: 7:30ET vs. the Phoenix Coyotes

I should clarify that the number retirement is in Detroit, not* in Phoenix.

There's certainly a history of recent postseason success against the Coyotes that could make part of the career highlight montage. And there's the fact that Phoenix has basically become a second home for the Detroit Red Wings, so I guess you could say that one bad thing about the new divisional alignment is that Detroit will have fewer home games since they won't play in Phoenix as often.

This game is Detroit's second home game of the season, but 8 days after their home opener. Since they won't have opening night festivities to deal with like against Buffalo, they could have a night dedicated to Lidstrom AND still have the number retirement happen as soon as possible. Granted, considering Detroit goes on a brief road trip after the home opener, it won't be as soon as we'd like, but we can always complain about other scheduling issues that are bound to come up during a Winter-Olympic-break-including regular season.

The other thing I've been considering but haven't been able to find information for is if Detroit already has a schedule of promotions they plan on holding during the season (aside from the obvious Winter Classic related events and the Winter Classic itself). Might be awkward to hold Lidstrom's number retirement on the same night they do a hypothetical Pavel Datsyuk bobblehead night. (Side note: If someone can make, market, promote, and distribute Datsyuk dangle-puck dolls or make paddle balls except with Datsyuk's stick and a puck, I will love you forever.) On the other hand, it would be fitting if they held the retirement the same night as a hypothetical Swedish Heritage Night.

Should the Red Wings retire Lidstrom's number before this game? MAYBE.

*RIP Ruslan Salei

Addendum: Yzerman's number retirement ceremony was announced on August 31, 2006, and the ceremony was schedule for January 2, 2007. I'm not necessarily arguing that Lidstrom's number retirement announcement and game selection will follow a similar pattern, but it's something to go off of. At this rate, I could possibly get through about 15 games or so before we hear an official announcement for Lidstrom's ceremony date. If I could, I would use one of my Winging It in Motown BOLD Predictions to select which date the ceremony would be, but I don't think the Red Wings are going to wait that long before making an official announcement.

Stick Taping

Notes:

I recorded this video on Wednesday, so “yesterday” was Tuesday.

Tape overlap: Overlapping this way also creates a dual-layer at the bottom without using a second strip of tape just to cover the bottom of the blade. So now the ice needs to wear through two layers of tape instead of one.

Using a stick without tape: I actually used only one stick without tape, and it was for at least two on-ice sessions. Easton SY50, wood. The blade started cracking at the bottom, and over time, the blade’s started coming apart and now I can start to see the layers that make up the blade of that stick. It holds together pretty well when I tape it up, but it’s hard to re-tape it because I have a difficult time getting all the old tape off since it can get stuck in the little cracks in the wood.

Here’s a video on another interesting way to tape the butt-end of the stick. I tried doing this before, but the “grip” actually felt worse to hold than a simple wrap-around job.

Cutting sticks: Only one stick, I got cut: the Sherwood 9950. The corners and edges, even after the people who cut it for me sanded the thing off, felt like they could hurt me any second before I taped them up.

How much tape on the knob? I’ve seen so many people use a lot of tape going from the top to about a quarter or even as much as a third the way down the shaft. Personally, both in the interest of saving tape and for my sanity, I just use enough so that my hand covers it when I hold the stick. There is another way I’ve seen NHL players which involves creating a spiral that covers the whole area where the hands would be. I have absolutely no interest in trying out that particular method of taping the stick, but I’m really curious about what they’re trying to achieve with that tape job.

Perfect Game for the Perfect Human: 10-2-13 vs. Buffalo

It's been a foregone conclusion for a long time now that Nicklas Lidstrom's number 5 is going to hang from the rafters at Joe Louis Arena (and the new arena, whenever that's built). After deciding not to do the number retirement ceremony last season because the wounds of the lockout were still so very fresh,* the Red Wings will retire it this season but have yet to announce a date. In the spirit of trying to find material to write about during the offseason, I'll go game by game on the Red Wings' schedule (home games, obviously) and weigh the merits and pitfalls of holding the ceremony before that game.

October 2, 2013: 8:00ET vs. the Buffalo Sabres

Home opener. Using this game is quite bold and amibitious. You have the opening night ceremonies with the introduction of the entire Detroit Red Wings lineup and then another 30-60 minutes or so for Lidstrom's number retirement ceremony? I would hate to be the person in charge of coordinating everything if this were my assignment.

That Detroit will be playing in the Eastern Conference this season no doubt will interest many fans because we'll all see opponents we hardly ever did under the old divisional alignment. Unfortunately for Lidstrom's number retirement, this fact means that teams like the Sabres won't hold any special significance as "the perfect game" for the ceremonies. Of course, there's also the argument that the opponent really doesn't matter. I loved that Steve Yzerman's number retirement happened against the Anaheim Ducks because I got to watch the ceremony on local TV (since Los Angeles also gets the Anaheim games). But aside from that benefit for me, nothing about the Ducks really stood out in terms of Yzerman's career because most of what spawned the current rivalry with the Ducks happened in the '07 and '09 playoffs after Yzerman retired. If the opponent really mattered, maybe it would have happened against the Colorado Avalanche or Washington Capitals (when Yzerman won the Conn Smythe in the '98 playoffs). In Lidstrom's case, he probably has more teams with significant meaning than Yzerman did--the Pittsburgh Penguins, the same Colorado Avalanche, the Carolina Hurricanes--but it's still difficult to argue for a particular game just based on the opponent.

The best thing going for opening night's bid to retire Lidstrom's number is that it doesn't delay something that should have happened last season but for a wholly stupid and unnecessary lockout. Number 5 takes its rightful place up in the rafters where it should already be. NBC Sports Network broadcasting this game also provides a nice push as it potentially showcases the career and legacy of one of the greatest players ever to a wide audience hungry for hockey after what always feels like a terribly long offseason. But I think the sheer logistics of combining a number retirement ceremony with opening night festivities combined with each ceremony detracting from the other by holding them both in the same night means this game is out of the running.

Should the Red Wings retire Lidstrom's number before this game? NO.

*Considering Lidstrom endured two lockouts during his NHL career, I think holding it during the shortened season would have fit pretty well, despite the twisted symbolism.

H2H3

Background reading.

I participated in this during H2H2, and boy was it a fun time, even though I couldn't make the game with everyone else. I don't remember what the propositions I made were, but it came out to $47, which I then rounded up to a flat $50, which was just enough for poor college student me to be able to donate comfortably without stretching myself thin.

The guys who run it are great to work with, and while it is a little annoying getting letters mailed to me from Children's Hospital of Michigan every other month asking for more (especially when they address me as "Ms. Joseph Cadabes"), the cause is worth it and it's a fun way for many people to give to charity. As is often touted during any fundraising drive, "every little bit counts" and H2H3 is no exception.

In case you decided to skip the background reading I conveniently provided for you (why did you?!), there are 11 games starting in December that will count as "pledge games." During these pledge games, you can make certain bets such as "$2 for every Jimmy Howard save" that will accrue through the listed pledge games. At the end, you'll receive an email with your calculated donation and how you can send it out. Of course, there's always the option to set a minimum standard in case your bets don't come through; for example, if you pledge "$3 for every broken stick" during these games, and no one breaks a single one, you can donate a "minimum $3" if you so choose. And of course, you can bypass the bets all together and just give your donation without the contingencies.

I made my pledges. Have you?

$1 per PIM by every former Red Wing. Minimum $6.

$3 per point by Stephen Weiss against the Florida Panthers. Minimum $6.

$10 bonus if Gustavsson is credited with the win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on 12/21. $5 more if a shutout.

$5 bonus if Lidstrom's number retirement happens at one of the pledge games.

Happy donating!

Hockey Journal 7-25-13

As much as I look forward to any ice time I can get, I'm most likely not going to get my money's worth when it comes to these hockey lessons.

When I first started my ice skating lessons last summer at Pickwick Ice in Burbank, I lucked out quite a bit. I had already been skating before, at least a dozen times over the previous two winters at downtown Providence's Kennedy Plaza, but I decided that since I'd never had any formal instruction whatsoever, I'd likely be better off starting from the very beginning. It worked out marvelously. My mom and uncle and I all took the class for the first half of the summer, and since I already knew how to stand on skates and get around (albeit very slowly at the time) and stay on my feet, my instructor started me off a little further. It was a small class, so while the time was short--it was only a 30 minute lesson--she very capably gave all five of us in the class individual attention.

After the halfway point, the second half of the summer was structured like a second semester for the skating school, so it was a separate registration. I decided to keep going, and exactly no one else in the class continued after the first six weeks. So as I mentioned, I lucked out quite a bit: paid for a class and wound up being the only one in the class, so I essentially got private lessons. Even though I didn't technically start from zero knowledge about ice skating when I first started, I still made great progress by the time I had to fly back to Providence for my junior year.

My general thought process went exactly the same way before I decided to take hockey lessons. I basically went through a baptism by fire in deciding to play a mid-division intramural league after having absolutely no experience playing hockey at all, but like my skating, I had never received any formal instruction before, so I thought taking a class from the same place I learned my skating would work well because the idea worked beautifully last time.

The first lesson proved quite ominous when the instructor asked me, "So what do you want to work on?" as if he didn't already have something planned. Sure, I had played before, but I was still really new to everything, really green. I had no idea what to work on or what to practice out of the myriad skills involved with playing the game. Even my skating needed work, but I didn't shell out the money or get on the ice to not make use of my hockey stick to try to get better at playing the game.

The class itself also isn't terribly conducive to my improvement. Whereas last year, my skating instructor could give people individual attention, to the point of me getting private lessons in the second half of the summer, this year, I'm in a hockey class with 5 other kids who couldn't possibly be older than 10. Given that my instructor is the only other physically mature skater out there, he's the only one on my level that I can practice with to get better, but since he's the instructor, he also has to tend to the kids to make sure they're getting some work in too. It's a tough job since he probably wasn't expecting someone like me to be participating in the class, and while I wish I could do more or learn more, I think he's done a decent job of keeping me engaged while he also has an eye on the kids.

All that said, though, I really could be using my time (and the money spent on the class) better elsewhere. I could go to the "Pickwick power play" they have late on Wednesday nights, but there's the simple problem of it being late at night--10pm to midnight. My instructor also told me about some other group of roller hockey players making the adjustment to ice hockey that meets Friday nights . . . at midnight, until about 2:30am. Granted, it is a Friday night, but I also hate sleeping in, which is very likely what would happen on Saturday mornings.

Where I did find something for me was a weekly clinic at the Valley Ice Center. Sabby's Clinic on Thursdays from noon until 1:30pm. I went a couple weeks ago, and for my level (which, I'll admit, is pretty difficult to determine because I'm not an absolute beginner, and my skating can probably make me look better than I actually am, but it's still a struggle to feel competent at times), it was perfect: we started with warmups where we could just skate and shoot around, then we did a couple drills that were very nicely paced and got us practicing various skills and getting a workout in, and we finished with a scrimmage. (I was terribly overmatched by a few of the highly skilled players, but I'll only get better by playing people better than I am and reaching their level.) If I had started the summer doing that, for the same amount of money I put into my hockey lessons, I could have gone to 8 clinics, learned more, practiced more intensely, and gotten a chance to get into game situations.

Alas, the Pickwick hockey lessons are now a sunk cost, but it's really difficult to pass up the ice time. I'll probably go to Pickwick for another lesson next week, but after that, I think I'll spend August going to Sabby's Clinic. I can't really go to both because my lessons are Wednesday night and Sabby's Clinic is Thursday afternoon; I wouldn't get as much out of Sabby's Clinic on the inevitably low energy that I would have if I decided to go to both. (Side note: I should probably improve my conditioning by about 1000-fold.) I'll see how I feel after next week. Maybe I'll be surprised, but I think I've got my plans set for August hockey, and I have a very strong feeling I'll be spending it in the Valley.

Missing History

So, uh, hi.

Welcome to The Bruised Brother. For those of you who don't immediately follow the allusion, it's an homage to the "Bruise Brothers" nickname given to the duo of Bob Probert and Joey Kocur who terrorized the NHL in the mid-late '80s as members of the Detroit Red Wings. Probert would end up having a much better scoring touch at the NHL level than Kocur, and Kocur would get his name on the Stanley Cup, but they both spent plenty of time pummeling people and sitting in the penalty box.

The blog name inspiration stems from these two things: my reading of Probert's autobiography Tough Guy: My Life on the Edge,* and my progression as a hockey player from know-nothing newbie to know-something plug. I really wish I were alive to have seen Probert play for the Red Wings, but at least I got to see Kocur on the Grind Line with Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby en route to winning Stanley Cups. But the Bruise Brothers theme puts the stamp on this blog as a Red Wings blog.

Learning to play hockey's been a very rewarding and exciting and frustrating experience. I've yet to play full contact hockey, but even without that, I'm still going to bet there will be a few bumps or bruises, both literally and metaphorically, as I try to establish myself as a relevant player. (SPHL, here I come?)

I had another blog previously, and though it hasn't yet been deleted, it will be once I wipe the entire Google account associated with that particular blogspot. It chronicled my first year of skating and playing hockey, and while I looked back, at the encouragement of a friend, on the archives with fond memories, I really didn't find anything particularly worth keeping. So once that Google account is deleted, that whole record will be wiped from the face of the Internet.†

So consider this a continuation of that blog, if you followed it before. If not, welcome to the journey.

*In the wake of other notable NHL enforcer deaths--Wade Belak, Rick Rypien, and Derek Boogaard--the book is a great read for insight into the enforcer mindset. "I protect my teammates, not score." (Though Probert did plenty of scoring early in his career).

†Yes, I know this is the Internet, where nothing every truly dies.

Hockey Journal 7-24-13

Last Wednesday, I went to the rink early to get my skates sharpened before my hockey lesson. It had been a year since I got my skates sharpened, but I never really noticed that drastic a dip in performance, and I skated for some pretty intense workouts frequently over the course of the first year of owning my first pair of skates. Pretty much, the only real problem I sometimes had with them was stopping, since I wouldn't stop very cleanly sometimes, even to the point of traveling another 5 feet in a very choppy motion while I tried to stop. But largely, I had no problems sharpening my skates in August and not doing so since then.

 While the guy behind the counter was sharpening my skates, I was going through the stick rack. Lots of Eastons. Lots, and lots of Eastons. They were shelved blade up, so I got a good look at the blades of the sticks since they were right in front of my face.

Then I found it. A Warrior Mac Daddy stick.* Jovanovski curve. I had a to wait a few days to scrounge up enough money (thanks, Mom!) before I could buy it, but I got it at a marked-down $75, and the shop gave me 10% off too. After having it for a day and about to take it onto the ice tonight for my hockey lesson, I'm so ridiculously happy with it.

I can't find any info on specs for the materials used, and I'm an amateur at best at identifying them, but it's a one-piece composite (not sure if fused or true one-piece), 85 flex, and as mentioned a Jovanovski curve. I've been looking for a stick with a square toe curve for a while because I have a terrible time getting the puck off the boards with rounded toe sticks. The only other square toe I could find these days is on a Getzlaf curve, but I've only ever seen those available in separate blade + shaft combos (and I don't have the money for the two pieces together). A nice bonus with this stick is the long blade, longer than any blade on any of my other hockey sticks, so I should get much better at receiving passes than with my Sherwood 9950 or Easton SY50.

I'll be doing a separate product review of the stick in the future, and I'll also be doing a video of how I tape my sticks using this Warrior Mac Daddy as my guinea pig. I can't wait to take it out on the ice tonight.

*I don't particularly vouch for that review, but it's literally the only video on this stick I can find on Youtube or on a Google search. Also, I don't really care much for the name "Mac Daddy," but that's what it's called.