Five Hole For Food – Scoring For Canada’s Food Banks
June 30, 2010 by Tyler
Filed under Hockey Columns
When Richard Loat , @Mozy19 on Twitter, contacted me about hosting a road hockey game in Regina, Saskatchewan to benefit our local food bank, I have to admit I was skeptical at first. Trying to organize one charity event in a single location is a daunting task and here was this 21 year old hockey blogger attempting a cross Canada road trip consisting of stops in 9 different cities with grueling driving schedule in between.
Needless to say, he sold me on the Five Hole For Food idea and I jumped on board. Richard’s enthusiasm for the game and passion for supporting Canada’s food banks was unquestionable. He quickly ramped up the project and got major sponsors on board such as Molson Canadian, Marketwire, and Boston Pizza and the vision started shaping into reality.
Richard’s vision of Five Hole For Food has taken shape and officially kicked off in Montreal, where they raised nearly 200lbs of food on June 29. The Ottawa stop on June 30 was next on the list, followed by a Canada day game in Toronto, a long drive to Winnipeg, and then my stop in Regina on July 4th.
Schedule of Events
The full schedule of events can be seen below. If you’re near a game, please grab a can of food and your hockey stick and join in the fun!
The Regina Event
The Regina stop on the Five Hole For Food tour will benefit the Regina and District Food bank. The event day will consist of a 4:00PM game of hockey at the Grant Road outdoor rink (Link to Map) followed by food and drinks at Boston Pizza – South.
Local Sponsors
Prizes for participants who donate the most food include an S17 Stick from Easton Hockey, Cascade M11 Helmet, a padded Hockey undershirt from Shock Doctor and a 50 Ways To Score More Goals DVD from Hockeyplayer.com.
Not too shabby, so get those cans of food out and help support a great cause. To help Richard and his co-pilot get rested up for the second half of their journey, our good friends at the Hotel Saskatchewan – Radisson Plaza have graciously donated accommodations for their stay in Regina.
Please Join Us!
My initial skepticism over this event soon turned to anticipation and excitement as the days grew nearer. Playing a great game to support a worthy cause and meeting new friends in the process is the perfect way to wind down a long weekend. So, if you’re anywhere near Regina on July4th, I encourage you to join us.
If you have questions or want more details, please feel free to contact me or catch me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/nhldigest or Facebook at www.facebook.com/nhldigest .
See you Sunday!
Photo Credit: North Shore News
Cleaning Hockey Equipment – A Challenging Task.
June 26, 2010 by Tyler
Filed under Hockey Equipment
If you’ve played hockey for any reasonable length of time, you will no doubt be familiar with the ‘unique’ fragrance produced by well used hockey equipment. A quick wiff of a skate, glove, or heaven forbid a shinpad, can often be enough turn the stomach of even the most grizzled veteran.
And while most players and parents make an effort to wash the equipment that can be washed in a regular washing machine, it still leaves a lot to be desired. The odor causing bacteria that resides in equipment that can’t be traditionally washed such as gloves, skates and elbow pads not only stinks, but can be dangerous. In fact Joe Thornton and other NHL players have missed several games due to an elbow infection caused by bacteria from equipment. Some, including, Thornton have even required surgery for Staph infections.
Often we don’t think of the health consequences of having such bacteria lingering in our equipment, but are mostly concerned about the smell. The truth is that the bacteria are the cause of both the stench and the health concerns, so we we must get rid of the bacteria to solve both problems.
Over the past few years, I am sure you have noticed machines popping up at local rinks and pro-shops that promise to get the odor out of your equipment in just a few minutes. Several of these machines use Ozone technology which kills the bacteria and helps to eliminate the odor. Ozone is powerful and effective, used in water treatment for years, and is proven to eliminate 97-99% of bacteria living on your equipment.
Which Equipment Sanitizing Machine To Use?
A good start when looking for a product to use is always is to find out what the professionals are using. In this case, 27 of 30 NHL teams use an equipment cleaning machine from Sani Sport.
When such an overwhelming majority of professional teams use the same technology, it says a lot about the effectiveness and quality of the product. With that in mind, calls were made to local shops looking for a store that used Sani Sport. Finding none in Regina, a quick search of the Sani Sport website revealed that the local Canadian Football League team uses the Sani Sport machine.
With training camp just completed and the regular season about to get underway, it was surprising to be able to get in touch with Roughriders Equipment Manager, Gordon Gilroy. Although Gilroy couldn’t arrange time to allow a test of the machine, he did offer some strong words of praise for Sani Sport.
In addition to routinely sanitizing the Roughriders football gear, Gilroy also mentioned that he used the machine during the World Junior Hockey Championship that was hosted in Regina this past winter.
Joking about how bad hockey equipment smells, Gilroy stated “I did hockey equipment in there during the World Juniors and it was unbelievable… even the gloves that went in there came out smelling just like new, it’s crazy.”
Final Thoughts On Cleaning Hockey Gear
Ultimately, it is important to get your hockey equipment sanitized at least a couple of times per season to avoid the health risks of infection. In addition, it will likely gain some brownie points with other members of your household by keeping the hockey smell out of the house.
*Tip – Use Febreze Antimicrobial
Have you used an equipment sanitization machine? What was your experience?
Bauer TotalOne Skates
June 7, 2010 by Tyler
Filed under Hockey Equipment
With the new Total One skate, Bauer has developed, the envelope has been pushed with respect to lightweight performance at the high end of the skate market.
Using the standard Size 8 weight test, the Total One skate tipped the scales at just 695 grams – one of the lightest skates ever manufactured.
Exterior
The Total One features the same heat moldable Alive composite upper that was used on the Bauer One95 , but has now added a new ALIVE composite insole and a new texalium composite outsole. Both of these contribute to the lighter weight of the skate, along with the innovative Fusion runner.
The reflex tongue is another new feature that the TotalOne is promoting heavily. The tongue actually has a sleeve that holds an ALIVE flexible insert in one of three flexes – medium, stiff, xstiff. The theory is that as you lean forward in your stride, the skate flexes and then springs you back. It’s really hard to notice until you take the insert out completely, and then install the xstiff insert immediately after.
Interior
One of the lightest and best ventilated skates is the Easton S19 skate, but the new TotalOne features venting in the footbed that rivals Easton’s. These vents in the footbed allow moisture to escape from the bottom and increase airflow when drying the skates.
Inside the skate, the hydrophobic grip-light liner replaces the clarino liner from the One95. Alexei Ponikarovsky is on record as saying that he prefers the new liner, but others still prefer the clarino liner. Frankly, I think the new liner will take some getting used to for anyone moving from a clarino lined boot.
Blades
The Tuuk LS Fusion runner is the most significant change in technology on the TotalOne. By merging aluminum with the standard stainless steel, the runner becomes nearly 30% lighter than traditional models. The new Fusion runner is matched with the familiar Tuuk LS2 holder that is common among Bauer skates.
All in all the TotalOne skate deserves recognition at the top end of the skate market. It’s light, responsive and comfortable out of the box. The ALIVE material molds very well when heated and they look good too! I’m not sold on the reflex tongue – seems gimmicky, but I’ll keep trying it and comparing to other skates.
Buy The TotalOne Skates
Right now you can get the best price and Free shipping for the Bauer TotalOne skates from Total Hockey.com
