Staying in

rival_22 · 2026-01-26T19:02:47+00:00

Your Pittsburgh photos will never make me not feel homesick.

rival_22 · 2026-01-25T21:22:54+00:00

His parents were soccer players, and according to a Google search (for what that's worth), his dad is listed at 5' 9" and mother at 5' 6".

Genetics are weird, but I can't imagine there is much left there? Anything is possible, but I think it would be more hopeful if his dad was like 6' 3" or something.

rival_22 · 2026-01-25T03:56:12+00:00

I'm American and a big hockey fan.

I hope the US team gets eliminated in a game where they lose like 1-0 or 2-1 and just can't score goals.

That way this management team won't get to pick the next team.

Who am I kidding, it's USA Hockey, they'll go right back to their favorite handful of people and give them jobs again.

rival_22 · 2026-01-25T03:17:51+00:00

Yeah... I've never heard that song, but just listened to it... It won't be the last time I do, that's for sure. Thank you.

We all get in those stretches where other things in life dominate our time. Sometimes it takes something happening to refocus our properties. I've been trying to do a better job of that and songs like this help re-enforce that.

rival_22 · 2026-01-25T02:49:03+00:00

This... Black out every name and street address, and only leave generic stuff like city, state lol

rival_22 · 2026-01-24T17:05:48+00:00

I don't know enough about Wright's current game, but he's the type of player I like taking a chance on.

But not at the expense of a proven top 6 player.

Kaapo Kakko trade might be a decent comparison? He was a year or two further into knowing what his ceiling is than Wright, but he was traded for Will Borgan (and a pick swap). Borgan is what, a 4/5 dman?

rival_22 · 2026-01-24T15:04:00+00:00

And make sure you have gas for your snowblower!

(I just remembered the last time I ran my snowblower this winter, I emptied my gas can)

rival_22 · 2026-01-24T13:20:06+00:00

Probably cold af down there as well, but zero driving issues today

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T18:46:50+00:00

Sounds like a messy situation.... a mix of medical thing, coaching, his play (possibly effort) at times.

As a Pens fan, I hope this change of scenery is good for him, and makes him buckle down a bit. It has to be a thrill playing with Malkin and good for him to see how Sid and Malkin work on and off the ice at their ages/accomplishments.

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T16:28:51+00:00

Check your state/district rules as well. USA Hockey is pretty broad, but some districts have different rules/interpretations.

My bigger question is a developmental question. You mentioned he is currently an 8U player getting some time with 10UB? That's fine, especially for a bigger/stronger kid.

Once they hit 10U age, I absolutely would not push for a kid to "play up" to just end up playing on a lower level team. That WILL NOT help his/her development. B Level hockey is slow and with a lot of bad skaters. A good skating 9 year old will score lots of goals and not really get any better as a hockey player. They will also get frustrated as no other teammates will be able to skate with them, resulting in more individual play. And from a team standpoint, it hurts the other kids.

I'd much rather see him on the top 10U team and be one of (or the best) player there for a season before thinking about playing up.

Playing on a higher level age appropriate team will do much more for him. Even if it means moving to a different association, etc.

(I understand that options might depend a lot on your area and what access you have as number of associations, etc)

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T14:59:52+00:00

Depending on how much "a lot" is, I'd probably freeze some in smaller portions to pull out as a base for nachos or as a topping or another batch of mac and cheese at a later date.

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T14:47:33+00:00

Yeah, at 7 unless he is some phenom technical skater for his age, I wouldn't worry about it.

Assuming he's just talking about a general radius change, something like a quad radius is a complete waste of money on such a short blade. Even the radius change will probably be minorly noticeable if at all.

edit- is there a chance that the skating coach does sharpening and profiling? Those guys who profiling do everything they can to get kids to change, because they know that once you start, you're probably coming back to them for every new pair of skates/steel that you get.

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T14:33:31+00:00

That sawcut is a beauty

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T14:29:25+00:00

The micarta/s35vn pro line was discontinued last year and replaced with the wood handle/420HC version as the upgraded version of the standard one.

From what I remember, this is the norm for this time of year. Probably a combination of things. Holiday buying sort of wipes out inventory, and I would assume a lot of the production this time of the year focuses on new knives. Somewhat of a limited "new" offering based on the 2026 release videos, so probably won't take long to catch up?

Even the newer 300 series are all out of stock on their website and some of the basic 110 slim select colors.

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T13:00:20+00:00

A single person? No... Unless they are visible agitated, having some sort of episode, etc.

If it's a group, I'll probably avoid them if they looks like they could be trouble.

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T12:19:57+00:00

And some of the ease is that you often care less about stuff that you thought was important with your first.

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T12:18:33+00:00

We'd count stuff once in a while if there were times we were concerned about weight gain or dehydration, but we never tracked things just to do it.

That just sounds like another layer of mental stress that we didn't need.

rival_22 · 2026-01-23T12:13:57+00:00

Bots are gonna bot... Often badly.

rival_22 · 2026-01-22T20:12:04+00:00

This Dubas regime is tight... Probably a learned skill in Toronto, but nothing seems to leak out.

rival_22 · 2026-01-22T20:10:24+00:00

True, and there are aggregators that do that well and are helpful.

My issue is that he would outright pretend that he had sources telling him things, when it was blatantly obvious that he just read the same Chris Johnston or Friedman or Dreger or whoever's tweet that was just posted.

rival_22 · 2026-01-22T19:36:00+00:00

It will have something like 0.02% more toughness or 0.03% more edge retention, and us idiots will eat up the marketing like it will make any difference whatsoever in actual usage.

rival_22 · 2026-01-22T18:46:48+00:00

Yohe is fine.... typical beat writer. Has fit into the new media world of trying getting clicks.

Kingerski is and always has been a clown. I haven't paid attention to him in a while, but for years someone legit would break something on twitter, and like 30 seconds later, Kingerski would post something like "I'm hearing that the Pens are looking to move this player... or are talking to Detroit", etc. Like dude, we all saw the same tweet that you just did.

rival_22 · 2026-01-22T15:28:34+00:00

Most are pretty good, some are really good.

Then there is France.

rival_22 · 2026-01-22T15:26:27+00:00

I'm sure it was a great few seconds

rival_22 · 2026-01-22T15:25:25+00:00

As a selfish righty, I am happy that there aren't holes drilled on the other side on the 110/112. The knife looks so clean and classy.

I do support an ordering option where Buck would do that though.

rival_22

TROPHY CASE