Hockey Stick Expert » Buying Hockey Gear

Blade Tape For Hockey Goalie Sticks

admin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:23:13 +0000

Chris Mason With Blade Tape

David Hutchison with In Goal Magazine just posted a nice audio interview with Nick Dube the Director, Operations & Business Development at BladeTape. The photos of Cujo and Mason are pretty sweet too!

Check out the full article and audio interview at In Goal Magazine.

You can buy Blade Tape directly from the Blade Tape Store.

Hockey Stores – Where To Buy Ice Hockey Gear

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:02:08 +0000

This article covers finding places to buy ice hockey gear:

Online Hockey Stores
Other Places to Find Hockey Gear Online
Local Hockey Stores and Classifieds

Online Hockey Stores

Google’s top Canada search results for Hockey Stores

Pro Hockey Life
Pro Hockey Life online store. … Montreal Canadiens – Toronto Maple Leafs Street hockey – Coaching accessoiries – Ringette – Broomball – Lacrosse …
API Hockey
API Hockey is your shop for discounts on hockey equipment. We’ve got it all from performance undergear, helmets, Pants and skates, toys, games, …
The Hockey Shop
We’ve shopped the world to bring you the widest selection of ice hockey equipment imaginable. With an expert in every department we have all the corners …
Total Hockey
Hockey Equipment Store by Total Hockey – The Official Ice Hockey Equipment Retailer of USA Hockey. Your source for ice hockey, inline hockey gear & goalie …
Hockey Giant
Hockey Equipment from Hockey Giant – Hockey Stick, Hockey Equipment, Ice Hockey … hockey Equipment, Hockey gear. Home | Basket | Order Status | Stores …
SportMart
Browse Department, Footwear, Apparel, Outerwear, Sport Accessories, Hockey, Snowboard, Ski, Fitness … View Current In-Store Flyer. Shop by Department …

Google’s top USA results search results for Hockey Stores

Total Hockey
Hockey Equipment Store by Total Hockey – The Official Ice Hockey Equipment Retailer of USA Hockey. Your source for ice hockey, inline hockey gear & goalie …
Hockey Giant
Hockey Equipment from Hockey Giant – Hockey Stick, Hockey Equipment, Ice Hockey … hockey Equipment, Hockey gear. Home | Basket | Order Status | Stores …
Perani’s Hockey World
Shop Online. Perani’s Hockey World. News & Events.
The Hockey Shop
We’ve shopped the world to bring you the widest selection of ice hockey equipment imaginable. With an expert in every department we have all the corners …
Hockey Monkey
Get hockey equipment and gear online! Go to HockeyMonkey.com for the best hockey sticks, ice hockey helmets, skates, and more.
Great Skate
Large selection of Ice hockey equipment, ice skates, sticks, blades, shields, gloves, shoulder and shin pads, CCM, Bauer, Easton, Itech, Jofa, Louisville, …

Other Places to find Hockey Gear Online

Amazon.com – Amazon has over 7,000 items listed in their Sports & Outdoors > Hockey department including over 600 Hockey Sticks

eBags.com for Hockey Equipment Bags

Don’t forget eBay for additional Hockey Equipment deals.

Local Hockey Stores and Classifieds

You will often see the acronym LHS in Hockey Forums and Hockey Discussion Boards. LHS stands for Local Hockey Store or Local Hockey Shop. Please patronize your local hockey shop whenever you can. It is your local hockey community’s best interest to do so.

First off, Just about every ice rink has a small Hockey Pro Shop. Some are pretty dinky and are just there for skate sharpening and hockey incidentals (tape, pucks, laces, etc). Others are full blown stores with great selection and prices.

The best way to find the local hockey shops is to ask other hockey player in your area. If you are new to an area, or scouting before an out of town tournament, then turn to Google. The best search phrase that I have found is:

City, province/state hockey stores

Hockey stores in city, province/state

Replace “city, province/state” with the town you are interested in. You should see listings for hockey shops that are at rinks and ones that are stand alone businesses. In the search results you will see lots of listing for Yelp, Judy’s Book, Yahoo Local and others that often have reviews of the hockey stores.

Play It Again Sports is also a good option for your local hockey needs.

Not all Play It Again Stores carry Ice Hockey Gear and the Play it Again Sports web sites that are listed for the stores all seem to be just templates with very little additional info specific to the store (like whether or not they carry hockey equipment!). The best thing to do is to call your local store and ask.

Craig’s List is another great resource for local hockey deals

Go to Craigslist.org www.craigslist.org
Choose your city
Go to the “for sale” area in the middle of the page and select “sporting”
In the top search box enter “hockey” in the search for box (or what ever it is that you want to find) and then hit search. If there are a lot of listings (I found 657 items when doing this recently for Vancouver, BC) you can refine your search by price ranges or by adding more specific terms like Hockey Stick (111 hockey sticks in Vancouver, Wow!).

Happy hockey equipment hunting.

Hockey Bags: Choosing The Perfect Ice Hockey Bag

admin — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:32:21 +0000

Hockey players have a ton of gear that is required to play hockey and it is a pain to carry around unless you have the right Hockey Bag.

Key questions to ask yourself when looking at new Hockey Equipment Bags:

Hockey Bags: The Many Types of Hockey Bags

There is quite a variety of Hockey Bags. Here is a list of the different types of Hockey Bags:

Hockey Equipment Bags

Duffel Bags & Wheeled Duffel Bags
Hockey Goalie Bags
Backpacks & Wheeled Backpacks
Specialty Bags – with Dryers

Referee & Coaches Bags
Hockey Stick Bags
Helmet Bags
Skate Bags
Puck Bags

Hockey Equipment Bags

Hockey Equipment Bags are designed to hold all of the players gear except their hockey sticks. These bags can be one single large compartment where all of the gear gets thrown in. 5 or 6 compartments including areas shaped to hold hockey skates.

Hockey Equipment Duffel Bags

Most hockey equipment duffle bags have their size listed mainly by their length. Common lengths run from 31” to 40”. Width by height measurements range from 14″ x 14″ to 18″ x 18″.
Junior bags start around $35 and go up from there
Senior bags start around $40, and run up to about $70

Hockey Goalie Bags

Hockey Goalie Bags are the largest size duffel bags due to the larger size of goalie gear. A key question that affects your choice of the right size bag is whether you plan to stow your goalie pads in a bag or to carry the separately (example: tied together and hung over a shoulder).
Goalie hockey bag sizes range from 40” x 20” x 20” up to 44” x 24” x 24”
Typical price range $50 to $150
Goalie Leg Pad Bags exist for carrying just your goalie pads. They fit up to size 39” pads and cost around $30.

RBK 36″ Wheeled Goalie Bag

Wheeled Hockey bags

Wheeled Hockey Bags work just like rolling luggage and eliminate the burden of carrying your bag. Some wheeled hockey bags come with a telescoping handle to provide a convenient length (especially the junior models). Wheeled hockey bags come in the same sizes and compartment configurations as the non-wheeled hockey bag models.
Price for junior size bags: $40 and up
Price for senior sized bags: $40 – $100+

Hockey Backpacks

The main advantage of Hockey Backpacks is that it is easier to carry your gear on your shoulders than it is to carry in your hand. Hockey backpacks also provide lots of pockets and compartments to get your gear stored in an orderly fashion. Some hockey backpacks also come with wheels for when it is more convenient to drag your gear instead of shouldering it.
Size: These are usually sized as junior or senior sizes.
Costs: $45 to $80

Specialty Hockey Equipment Bags

Special hockey bags of note are the Shock Doctor Power Dry line of bags. These bags are design to allow you to leave your hockey gear in the bag after a game and hook up the dryer to the bag to air our and dry your gear right in the bag. These bags are not cheap (running $95 and up) and the blower/dryers are often sold separately for an additional $70 or so.

Hockey Referee and Coaches Bags

Referee and Coaches Bags are smaller duffel style bags that are made to hold a smaller amount of equipment than full sized hockey bags. They typically have compartments set up for the primary gear (ex: skates, helmet, gloves and misc). These bags come in carry models and wheeled models. Price range is $30-$80.

Hockey Stick Bags

Hockey Stick Bags isolate your hockey sticks and help them from getting beat up when you are moving them from rink to home and back again. The largest team models can hold up to 40 hockey sticks and come with wheels for easy transport. Some hockey stick bags will accommodate goalie sticks but at a reduced number of sticks per bag (ex: a 4 stick back might be able to carry only 2 goalie sticks). A nice feature of some hockey stick bags are extra compartments for tape, extra blades, etc.
Hockey stick bags come in junior and senior sizes.
Capacity: 2-4 sticks for personal models and 24-40 sticks for team models
Price range: $15-$25 for personal models and about $60 for wheeled team models

Hockey Skate Bags

Hockey Skate Bags are pretty no-frills and just hold skates. There aren’t many models to choose from. Often a coaches/referee hockey bag will be a better choice for the same money since they give you more storage.

Hockey Helmet Bags

Hockey Helmet Bags help protect your helmet and visor from getting scratched. Thicker material provides better protection. One size fits all for standard helmets and they run about $20. There are also Goalie Mask Bags and they run about $25.

Puck Bags

Hockey Puck Bags: Simple draw string models hold around 30 pucks and can be found for under $10.
The more rugged puck bags hold 60-75 pucks, come with handles or shoulder straps and cost $15-$25.

Hockey Equipment Deals: How to Find Great Deals On eBay When Buying Ice Hockey Gear

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:02:27 +0000

Written by Greg at HockeyStickExpert.com
Original

Ice Hockey Equipment available at eBay

Here is a quick, non-exhaustive list that gives you an idea of the types of Hockey Equipment available on eBay and the number of items found for each keyword that I searched for in the Ice & Roller Hockey category.

Ice and Roller Hockey

Ice Hockey Skates

Ice Hockey Stick

Hockey Elbow Pad

Shaft

Hockey Shin Guard

Inline Skates

Hockey Chest Protector

Not all hockey equipment for sale on eBay is used. In fact, most of the auctions for ice hockey sticks are for brand new hockey sticks.

How-To Set up an Automatic Watch for Your Perfect Hockey Equipment Item

Once you do a search for an item and filter the results (by location, length of time before auction is over, price range and more), you can scroll down to the bottom of the results page and click on the RSS line and add the results to your favorite RSS reader.

There is even a “customize your search” link so you can add additional search options to filter by (like # of bids, items from a specific seller, etc).

Let’s work through an example so you can see how powerful this can be… Let’s say that you want to find a new Easton S17 Hockey Stick at a good price (under $175).

Step #1: Do a search for “S17 Hockey Stick” in the Ice & Roller Hockey category. There are 14 results that match my search so far. You can certainly stop right here and look through a list of 14 results manually, but you won’t do this often enough and will miss good deals. Note: You also don’t want to get too specific with things like flex/size/blade patterns/right vs left because everybody lists their items for sale a little differently.

Step #2: Now we will further refine the search by selecting a few search options.

Listings ending within 2 days

Items priced from $100 to $175

Number of bids 0 to 1

Now click on the Show Items button in the search options area to see the results of your search.

Step #3: Add the RSS feed of this result to your RSS Reader by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking on the orange RSS button and follow the steps needed to add the RSS feed into your feed reader.

That’s it! Now you will get an eBay auction listing automatically sent to your RSS reader every time there is a great deal (as defined by your search criteria) just waiting for you.

Happy bargain hunting!