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[hockeygod]

I dislike composite sticks – except for the couple of NHL players per team who are CAPABLE of using them (according to NHL coaches!) – for everyone else (especially for the parents having to WASTE (pay) the big money to "keep up with the Jonses" – falling into the marketing trap of the manufacturers) and kids learning how to control the puck… composites are a big waste of money in my opinion! Yes, if you have proper technique (and strength), they can increase the velocity of the shot. But kids today CANNOT receive a pass to save their souls; where wood helps (ed?) cushion the puck and provide a better 'feel', the puck bounces off of composites.

I am going to load up on wood…!
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Hockey's composite revolution has caused wood to vanish from NHL arenas

Extinction of the wooden stick

By Ian Walker, Vancouver Sun November 23, 2010

One is as sophisticated and advanced as Charlton Heston's chariot. The other built from space-age materials developed in laboratories by scientists in white coats.

One is as heavy and clunky as a workman's boots. The other as light and dainty as a ballerina's pointe shoes.

One is soaked with tradition. The other oozes style.

One is as outdated as a Polaroid camera. The other has the all the substance of Snooki.

I know, I know, get to the point already.

But first a quick story. It was 2004 and then-Red Deer Rebels owner/general manager/head coach Brent Sutter was so frustrated with his team's production during a four-game road trip — in which his team went 1-3 and were outscored 16-7 — that he made his players resort to using wooden sticks for a pair of weekend games upon their return. The Rebels went undefeated in the two-game set, out-scoring their opposition 5-4. Talk about a blow for technical progress.

Yet it was the last time wooden sticks were used in the Western Hockey League.

At least there's the National Hockey League though, right? The last bastion of hope for a world fixated on progress.

Actually, not so much. There is no longer a single NHL player wielding the true meaning of the word twig. Like zero. Zilch. Zip.

Even more upsetting is there probably will never be again.

"It's the end of an era," said Phoenix Coyotes defenceman Adrian Aucoin, one of the last holdouts, who switched last season. "In my case, Reebok changed factories with their shaft and the wood stick they produce now is a completely different stick. It was just not close to what I was used to. I wasn't so thrilled about it, but times change and you have to move on."

The same thing happened to Ottawa Senators centre Jason Spezza when his brand of choice, Sherwood-Drolet, decided to farm out the mass production of wooden sticks to such far-flung places as Estonia and China in order to concentrate on the production of composite sticks.

Same goes for 24-year-old Paul Stastny, the last of the wooden Luddites. The Colorado Avalanche centre switched from a Sherwood wooden to a Sherwood one-piece at the start of this season.

"Last season I went through a lot of wood sticks — I think what happened was they were being made at different factories so they were never quite the same although they said they were," said Stastny. "It was still the same company, but in my mind they were completely different sticks than the ones I was using before. The average person may not notice, but when you've used the same stick since bantam and you get something a little different you can tell right away. So that also played a factor in me switching over. That and technology is always getting better so it's a case of evolving with the times."

Aucoin's first game with a composite stick was on Dec. 19, 2009 against the Anaheim Ducks.

"I'd been using the new Reebok wooden ones and the shot wasn't right and something wasn't working so I grabbed a Shane Doan pattern, a Robert Lang pattern, a Peter Mueller pattern and one Warrior had made for me when I was in Chicago," said Aucoin, a former Vancouver Canuck. "I used all four sticks in a game and I scored with the Shane Doan pattern and it just felt better so basically my stick is a Shane Doan pattern with my name on it."

Until then, Aucoin had basically used the same pattern of wooden stick since college, when it was known as a Koho PP29. To put that in perspective, if you went to your doctor and he got a jar of leaches out, you'll begin to understand.

"It was true — it was the same stick from the knob to the blade," said Aucoin, who won the 2004 NHL team skills competition with a slap shot of 102.3 m.p.h. using a wooden stick while a member of the Calgary Flames. "Now with the technology there's different kick points, there's different flex points, there's different thicknesses. It really is a science. I still like my shot better with wood, but my passing and quickness is better with the one piece just because it's lighter and [because of] the technology that's there."

As recently as 25 years ago every NHL player used all-wood sticks. Things started to change with aluminum shafts in the 1980s before things evolved to today's one-piece models made of graphite, Kevlar, carbon, titanium and fiberglass.

So there you have it. Comparing all-wooden and composites sticks is like comparing Lyle Odelein and Patrick Kane. Who is better? Hmmm.

But when it comes right down to it, one of them is just too manufactured. Composite sticks are sort of like an iPod that way. Brilliant, clean, easy to use, great sound, but just not quite the same as seeing the band live.

iwalker@vancouversun.comwww.twitter.com/WalkerBigTalker
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Dean, the only thing I want to know is what kind of Stick Dennis Polonich was using against us today. He got at least 5 on us. I just spent about an hour shovelling the snow in our -30 weather to clear my deck for the 0 degrees C that will be here by Friday. Then a few beer outside. Barbequing tonight but it is really steaming in the cold.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."