A Cajun-Asian View

Can't wait for the season to start...

No equipment failure, luckily, but I did notice that the skate holder on the left boot of my Bauer Supreme 5000 ice skates were cracked when I inspected them before I was going to the ice rink with my girlfriend last weekend.

So, what am I going to do? Replace the skates? Heck no! The now discontinued Bauer Supreme 5000 ice skates has a well-earned reputation for taking a while to break in, and I remember those days. But these are my first ice hockey skates. I've ice skated recreationally in them, refereed ice hockey games in them, and punished them playing ice hockey in them for the past 10 years. And after that rocky break in time, these skates are incredibly comfortable for me. And after 10 years, that hasn't changed one bit!

Another angle at the crack on the back part of the skate holder.

Looks like some more cracks are forming on the front part of the skate holder of the left boot.

It's fortunate that I didn't try to skate with this, though I'm curious as to how long it was cracked in the first place...

I got these skates for $400-$500 around ten years ago. I had noticed that the left foot's skate holder had developed a crack last weekend, so I will have to replace it. Might as well replace the other skate, too.

I actually did it. On Thursday, I got all of my equipment together and went out to the local ice rink to play some pickup ice hockey for the first time in a year and a half when I injured my shoulder as a result of playing (Impingement syndrome was the diagnosis from my doctor). I've been itching to play again for nearly a year now, but the combination of wanting to nurse my shoulder to 100% plus life cutting in (job change, girlfriend, etc.) made that rather difficult. Plus I wanted to go out the public skating sessions on a regular basis and get some exercise back instead of starting up hockey cold (like I did three years ago when I sprained my ankle during that pickup).

I guess it's just the signs of aging.

The most important of the hodge-podge of hockey equipment that I wear to play.

Yes, I am now watching NHL hockey action on Joost! Most of the games from the last series of the playoffs are available for viewing on Joost, skipping most the commercials1 and all of intermission breaks. Outside of stoppages of plays during play and the occasional replay, it's pretty much nothing but constant playoff hockey action. Nice stuff! If I need a break, it's just a matter of hitting the spacebar or pressing the pause button on the on-screen display pause the hockey action until I can get back to it. This is much closer to the concept of on-demand TV programming that I have envisioned.

1. 1. Joost will show a 30-second commercial at a few stopping points during the games. I only remember seeing 2-3 such commercials on an entire game, though.

This has to be the most bizarre hockey brawl I've seen:

According to the description on the Youtube page for the video:

December 3, 2006 started out with a game between the Nikko Kobe Ice Bucks and Changchun Fuao as part of Asia League Ice Hockey...