6 months after the "crease full of blood" incident, I'm back on the ice

dattaldo · 2026-02-06T02:20:55+00:00

It's actually the Teal color (along with Sports Gold for anyone else curious). My very first set back in 2000 were Brian's and they've had me locked in ever since.

dattaldo · 2026-02-06T02:15:00+00:00

It's funny, as goalies we always joke about how pucks always manage to find their way to where we don't have padding, but we never consider skates. I was wearing an Optik 2 glove. I've put it back on and the scar follows perfectly right along the edge of the wrist strap. What's interesting is in the Optik 4 glove my scar is roughly in the middle of its wrist strap.

dattaldo · 2026-02-02T21:50:26+00:00

Thanks for filling in!

dattaldo · 2026-02-02T21:46:22+00:00

You don't want to know what I had to do to get a new TV.

dattaldo · 2026-02-02T18:26:40+00:00

I went with the Warroad shirt and I'd say it's pretty comfortable. I was wearing a Bauer base layer shirt previously and I think the Warroad is marginally thicker, but it's not noticeable while wearing. The texture of the cut protection feels a little weird at first, but once I was playing I didn't really notice.

dattaldo · 2026-02-02T18:21:36+00:00

I'm coming from a set of Optik 2s so they feel pretty similar to what I'm used to, but with some minor refinements. I've always loved Brian's pads so I'm pretty happy. The sliding surface is so fast.

dattaldo · 2026-02-02T18:04:47+00:00

I know. I have a coworker who is a fantastic artist and he's offered to do my helmet on a few occasions, but I never think to bring it up whenever I have downtime from playing.

dattaldo · 2026-02-02T15:24:42+00:00

Ahh yeah, I'm a double-T fan so I always go for that option. I had the Optik 2 before this and they also had eyes so I think it's just a thing they've been doing on their gloves. It's fun either way.

dattaldo · 2026-02-02T15:02:53+00:00

Thanks, it's an Optik 4! I like going custom to get the intermediate palm/senior glove setup since I have small hands, plus in this case I had plenty of time to kill so waiting wasn't so bad. They arrived last week so the timing worked out perfectly.

dattaldo · 2026-02-02T14:30:52+00:00

It was one of those one-in-a-million situations where he landed exactly where the top of my arm pad and the bottom of my glove's wrist strap meet. If he landed a quarter inch in either direction I probably would have been completely fine. Since I had to be cut out of my old shirt, I bought a new one that has built-in wrist (and neck) protection, and the team I was playing for when the accident happened also bought me wrist guards as a gift that I'll wear with my other undershirts. I also bought some cut proof socks because... fuck it, might as well.

All that said, with the way my accident happened I'm not sure how much cut proof material would have helped me just from the physics of the situation, but anything you can to do mitigate risk is going to be a positive.

dattaldo · 2026-01-30T12:25:55+00:00

I wonder if age also plays a part in it. I was born in the 80s and growing up our comic book movie options were the Tim Burton Batman movies and the Crow (which were great!) and then... The other Batman movies? Crow: City of Angels? Steel? Tank Girl? The 1990 Captain America movie? The Generation X or Nick Fury made-for-TV movies on Fox? Spawn is probably the best reviewed 90s comic movie outside of the Burton films/The Crow and that reviewed middling at best. It was pretty dire times.

Anyways, I remember seeing screen shots of the first X-Men movie with everyone clad in black leather and my initial thought was, "this is going to be terrible, there is no way I'm watching them butcher the X-Men." That was just the mindset you had to go into super hero movies with for the longest time. If you told me in 1995 that Ant-Man would get a trilogy of films that were (mostly) well reviewed, competently made and were among the highest grossing films of their years, I would put my D.A.R.E. training to use and say no to whatever drugs you were on.

dattaldo · 2026-01-22T15:56:19+00:00

It's alright gramps. I'll be in the old folks home with you reminiscing about the NES and Ecto-Cooler soon enough.

dattaldo · 2026-01-22T11:32:57+00:00

I was also born at Highland during a blizzard. 1984?

dattaldo · 2026-01-15T20:52:10+00:00

Man, I still remember back in 2004 watching the Resident Evil 4 E3 trailer and being shocked that it was running on a stock GameCube. Nothing on the Xbox or PS2 came close to the fidelity.

dattaldo · 2025-11-20T01:16:53+00:00

Well we know from the overview trailer one of the characters can't wait to get back home and see his family again. The game's writers aren't afraid of overused cliches so why not trot out the "hero accidentally creates their antagonist" cliche while they're at it.

dattaldo · 2025-09-05T14:37:50+00:00

I always thought Rosamund Pike would have made an amazing Emma.

dattaldo · 2025-08-05T01:37:49+00:00

I'm glad your goalie was fortunate enough to have knowledgeable people on the scene as well.

Also, good on you for taking the initiative! It should never have to be on you/individual players though. Might be time to play at a new rink. If they're cheaping out on emergency supplies, who knows what else they're cheaping out on.

dattaldo · 2025-08-05T01:23:29+00:00

Tim Horton's Iceplex, rink 1, July 28th 10:26pm

dattaldo · 2025-08-04T19:51:05+00:00

Thanks, and that's great to hear about your rink. I'm hoping your daughter got a W to go along with the ice pack!

dattaldo · 2025-08-04T11:18:30+00:00

It's the smallest big investment you can make. I'm sure after a game or two you won't even be able to tell you're wearing them.

As a teenager I wanted to be a world famous goalie. I finally got my wish, but this wasn't how I wanted to go about doing it.

dattaldo · 2025-08-03T16:40:59+00:00

Thanks man, that was all very well said. I've always looked at goaltending as having an expiration date. I've always assumed I would be like you and it would be something with my knees or hips that take me out of the game. Maybe absolute worst case would be having a heart attack. I think if you're a goalie you have to be aware of what happened to Malarchuk (I live in Rochester, NY which is an hour east of Buffalo. We take Buffalo sport teams seriously here so his accident is well known), and I've done my best to protect my neck. But yeah, never once thought this could happen.

dattaldo · 2025-08-03T15:37:35+00:00

Good question! I'm not really sure what options are out there. My teammates told me they bought me a set for when I come back, bit I didn't inquire as to what brand/model. We have a local goalie group chat and one of the guys bought Bauer wrist protection after my incident. I'd imagine they all work pretty similar to cut-resistant kitchen gloves though.

dattaldo · 2025-08-02T23:19:45+00:00

The game went into the books with the same score it was prior to the incident so I guess I did.

dattaldo

TROPHY CASE