We won last night, 8-7! The team we played was in the "upper" level of our division. The game was back and forth and at one point we were up by 2 goals, a major milestone for this team. Unfortunately I had a goal go off of my leg from about 8 feet out front. I was backing up to give the tendy a clear view of the shot and it just clipped my right shin pad, and with homie playing so deep in the net, there was no way he would be able to get a piece of it. All in all we played great though, passing was good, great o'zone time and back checking was prevalent. The game wasn't as close as the score, I'd say at least 4 goals were softies. I know I sound like a broken record, but it is going to be hard to be competitive with those types of goals being given up every game. I didn't really activate much, due to being on the new skates and getting a feel for them. Lets talk about that.
After only having one hour or so on the new skates at a public session I was kind of anxious to see how the game would go. I got to the rink plenty early so I could lace up the skates in the locker room and let my feet warm up in them, walk around in them and try to help with the break-in process. I had them laced all the way up, which at the time wasn't too bad, because I was walking around and not skating. Once it was time to hit the ice, I quickly discovered that lacing them all the way up greatly hindered my mobility, I felt like Frankenstein out there. With a minute or so left in warm-ups, I went to the bench, and undid the laces, leaving the top eyelet empty. This made a WORLD of difference, ahhh, my feet had mobility, suddenly I was free! See the image I attached below to see the difference in boot height, and eyelet height. As you can see, the Bauer's top eyelet sits almost one full eyelet length higher than my Grafs. This is what made me feel like I was Frankenstein. So when I undid the top eyelet, it was like being all the way to the top in my Grafs. My boot still felt stable, and I was happy with the new found mobility.
During the game it took me about two periods to feel about 85% comfortable in the skates. The taller profile of the overall skate kept messing with my stops, mainly my inside foot. It kept dragging and almost was chopping when I would do hard stops. That extra height really makes a big difference. Towards the end of the game I was feeling better with my stops, as I was able to drive my front foot into the ice better, elminating the chop/skip effect. Transitions from forwards to backwards came much quicker than I thought, and I actually like being more flat in the Bauer than I did with the forward lean of the Graf when skating backwards. Maybe it is all in my head, but I felt more balanced and was able to drive my backward crossovers and c-cuts much harder and more efficiently in the Bauers. I'm still getting used to the turning sensation on the taller boot, but that was becoming more natural by games end as well. The overall pain factor wasn't nearly as brutal as I anticipated, in fact, I didn't even develop any blisters, which means my foot was locked it quite well, right? I'm looking forward to skating in them again and again, then I'll really be able to notice the difference in performance once I am fully adjusted to them.
Oh yeah, we have a two game winning streak!
