Welcome to the Hockey Stick Expert site!
Hockey sticks are a critical piece of your equipment and having the right tool for the job can make all the difference in the world. Hockey Stick Expert is here to help find the best ice hockey sticks or roller hockey sticks for you and take your game to the next level. Topics we hope to cover include terms (like hockey stick flex, hockey stick length, hockey stick lie) and how-tos (Right vs. Left handed Hockey Sticks, taping a hockey stick, cutting a hockey stick to length) and more.
Hockey Stick topics and stick models we cover include:
- Ice Hockey Sticks
- Roller Hockey Sticks
- Street Hockey Sticks
- Wood Hockey Sticks
- Composite Hockey Sticks
- Easton Hockey Sticks
- Sherwood
- CCM and Mission
- TPS
- Goalie Hockey Sticks (would love find somebody to share their expertise here)
- Field Hockey Sticks
If you would like to see new information or have other suggestions (like a new term for our Hockey Stick Dictionary), please send us an email at “tips AT hockeystickexpert.com” or use the form on the Contact page.
Here’s to your continued hockey success!
- the Hockey Stick Expert team
Welcome!
Most likely “World’s Oldest Hockey Stick”
There is a nice article from the Nanaimo Daily News on Mark Presley’s Hockey Stick. The experts seem to be lining up behind this stick as the most authentic (so far) hockey stick to claim the title of the oldest. The hunt for the hockey stick national treasure continues…
Mark Presley with his Vintage Hockey Stick
Here are some interesting snippets from the article…
New Brunswick scientists are preparing to conduct tests on the age of what appears to be the world’s oldest known hockey stick – a hand-hewn, maple-root specimen from Cape Breton that historians of Canada’s favourite sport are endorsing as the most genuine candidate yet to be considered a “national treasure.”
While other contenders have recently been offered for sale on eBay, experts say the object owned by Nova Scotia youth worker Mark Presley has the composition, design and provenance of an authentic, early 19th-century shinny stick – a relic from the era when hockey was evolving from a variety of stick-and-ball skating games throughout Eastern Canada.
…and…
Experts from the Toronto-based Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR)examined Presley’s stick last fall and declared it the best example yet of a mid-1800s hockey stick.
Other old sticks with more questionable qualities and murkier pedigrees have come up for sale recently with huge asking prices.
Earlier this month, Quebec resident Bobby Rouillard grabbed national headlines after offering for sale on eBay – at $1 million US – a vintage stick he claimed could be hundreds of years old.
Experts, including those at the SIHR, are skeptical, suggesting the stick looks to be closer to 100 years old.
…and…
In a recent article about the discovery, Fitsell stated: “The Cape Breton stick helps confirm written evidence of early 19th century stick-ball activities – rickets and hurley – in Nova Scotia and fits the thesis of an east-west spread of Canadian ice games.”
Noting that Presley’s stick is “head and shoulders above other well-hyped entries” in the antique hockey-stick sweepstakes, Fitsell added that: “By revealing the artifact’s detailed provenance and making it available for study, he has set a new standard that defines broad criteria for adjudicating such objects.”
Presley, a 41-year-old history buff from Berwick, N.S., acquired the stick last March after it had been displayed for about 30 years on the wall of a barbershop in North Sydney, N.S.
He carefully traced the stick’s origins to the Moffatt family, which had a homestead on the shores of nearby Pottle’s Lake.
Oral and written records describing shinny contests on the lake in the mid-1800s – with Moffatt family members among the skaters – have strengthened the case for the stick’s authenticity.
You can find the full article here.
Filed Under Hockey Stick News
Hockey the Cause of Most Canadian Baseball Players Batting Left Handed?
Here is a fun story about the majority of Canadian Baseball player batting left handed due to playing hockey left handed as they grew up.
Why do so many Canadian baseball players bat left-handed? Jason Bay has a theory: When first handed a hockey stick, the typical Canadian kid grabs the end with his right hand.
…
“I don’t know the scientific approach to it,” Bay said Wednesday, “but that was the Baseball Canada consensus in the locker room — that it had everything to do with the hockey stick. Everything. I think it boiled down to being right-hand dominant and using that on the top of your stick as your control hand. That’s the best that we could come up with.”
…
According to various Internet entries, about two-thirds of NHL players shoot left-handed. Roughly 90% of the general population is right-handed.
The full story can be found here
Filed Under General Hockey Stick Info
World’s Largest Hockey Stick and Puck In Need of Repair
The World’s Largest Hockey Stick and Puck (as recognized by the Guinness Book of World’s Records) are in dire need of repair.
Snippet from the article…
Built in 1985, the 205-foot hockey stick is built from Douglas fir beams reinforced with steel, and weighs in at a staggering 61,000 pounds (28,118 kgs).
The puck, well, it’s made out of plywood and tar.
Now, nearly 25 years after The Stick was first commissioned by the Government of Canada as part of the Expo ‘86 World’s Fair Exposition in Vancouver, the huge hockey homage is showing its age.
The full story can be found here.
Filed Under Hockey Stick Fun, Hockey Stick News
Fast Company Names NHL.Com As One Of Their Top 10 Most Innovative Sports Companies
NHL.com: The challenger brand of sports leagues is becoming quite the creative digital-media company. Free from other leagues’ restrictions on video, NHL.com shows exclusive off-the-ice footage as well as every goal scored.
The Top 10 In Sport Category page can be found here.
Filed Under General Hockey Stick Info
Green changes his mind and donates his lucky stick to NHL Hall of Fame
Mike Green has changed his mind. The Hockey Hall of Fame can have his record-breaking stick.
The Washington Capitals’ budding star said Wednesday he will donate to the Hall of Fame the stick that served him so well during his eight-game goal-scoring streak, the longest by a defenceman in NHL history. Green had been reluctant to part with the stick, calling the blue and black Easton Stealth the best one he’s ever used.
Here is a the complete story.
Filed Under Hockey Stick News
Mike Green’s Record Setting Hockey Stick Is A Hot Commodity
The International Herald Tribune (the global edition ofthe New York Times) ran a nice story today on the Capital’s Mike Green and the Hockey Hall Of Fame seeking his record setting hockey stick. Mike Green recently set the all time record for the longest goal scoring streak by a defenseman at 8 games.
Quotes from the article…
Green scored every goal during the streak with the same stick. It has lasted about 10 games, a good run considering he usually makes it only five of six games with a stick before it breaks.
“That one felt the best I’ve ever used,” Green said. “It just comes off the blade good. You don’t have to look down. It’s a good feel.”
and…
Green scored 10 times over the eight games, including five goals on power plays. The record-breaker came on a power play at 5:33 of the second period in Saturday night’s 5-1 win over Tampa Bay. The entire team went on the ice to congratulate him, having received special permission from the NHL to empty the bench.
You can read the whole story at Caps’ Green says no to Hall of Fame, keeps stick.
Filed Under General Hockey Stick Info
NHL Hockey Stick Budget
Some nice Ice Hockey Stick $$$ info from a recent article…
Reaching a breaking point on stick budgets?
The odds that the hockey world would ever go back to wood sticks are probably on a par with goalies everywhere going back to pads stuffed with horsehair.
But it sure gets frustrating, night after night, to see NHL ice surfaces littered with shattered pricy carbon shafts, which seem to have a way of vaporizing just as a point man puts the hammer down on a 40-foot slapper. Imagine the pain felt by parents who shell out $100, $200, or more for a stick, only to take home two halves to stake tomato plants in summer gardens.
“It’s a big point of contention among GMs throughout the league, I’ll tell you that,” said Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli. “The stick budget for every team keeps going up.”
According to Chiarelli, the Bruins spend some $400,000 per annum on the lightweight sticks.
“They all want them to be light, and I understand that,” said Chiarelli. “But the trick is to find a balance between what the player wants and a stick that will stay intact.”
The complete article can be found here. Boston Globe Article from February 15, 2009.
Filed Under General Hockey Stick Info, Hockey Stick News