A select handful of NHL players are about to begin using heated skate blades produced by a Verdun, Que., company to enhance performance.
Thermablades use a rechargeable battery and a microprocessor within each skate blade to maintain a temperature of 5 C. The warm blade increases the thickness of the water layer between the blade and the ice surface, and the company says its tests have shown this reduces gliding friction and starting resistance for skaters.
They'll be available in Canada for $399.99 a pair. That's just for the blades. I can see hockey parents cringing. I'm not sure I like the idea of going this far with technology with equipment.
Am I the only person thinking "lubrication" is not always the smartest or the safest thing to add to a skate?
sure it will help with speed but lets institute the auto-offsides before we have broken necks.
Necessity is the mother of invention, I wasn't aware that we needed the players to skate faster. Not to mention the ice is already **** in most arenas and I can't see how this won't add to that.
It definitely seems like a little bit too much technology.
.... uh oh here comes the keepers of the games integrity.
Nice, they should heat the pucks too, thus making the entire game faster, further destroying the casual American viewership, thus bringing the teams back to traditional markets.
It was interesting to read Willie Mitchell's comments on the new uniforms.
He was speaking about how he was beaten by Joe Thornton:
Quote:
"A lot of things happened on that Thornton play," Mitchell said. "I was too aggressive, No. 1.
"No. 2, I found out how fast we slide on the ice with these new [Reebok] socks and jerseys. The old sweaters, the cotton actually slowed you down on the ice, but these are like Krazy Karpet.
For those of you old enough to recall the NHL Cooperall's experiment (early 1980's), this sounds like Chapter Two. If this is the case we may see more injuries of players sliding into the boards.
Quote:
For the 1981-82 season, the Philadelphia Flyers introduced the decade's most radical idea -- long pants, as modeled here by Brian Propp. The idea behind the new pants, manufactured by Cooper under the name Cooperall, was to create a faster, lighter uniform, with lighter padding underneath. The pants did make the skaters faster; unfortunately, they were also faster whenever they took a spill and would crash very hard into the boards. The Hartford Whalers joined the Flyers in wearing long pants the following season. At the end of the 1982-83 season, the NHL outlawed the long pants, causing both the Flyers and the Whalers to revert back to the old faithful, time-tested short pants.
Theywere the most butt-ugly unis ever. Here is Darryl Sittler in full regalia after his trade from the Leafs. I bet he would have even preferred staying with Harold Ballard over this:
so let me get this straight, the NHL jumps all over this idea which could cause more injuries, but just doesnt give a damn for those "non-cutting" blades which would make hockey even safer without losing speed?
great all we need is a glowing puck so Americans can see the puck
I hope that was a joke, because that is kind of insulting to the millions of American hockey fans who love hockey.
Anyways, four hundred dollars for a pair of blades?! Wow, hockey is already expensive enough do they actually think people will pay that much just for some fancy blades.
someone called this happening in the last thread about this. Imagine the sort of damage Happy Gilmore could do with one of these babies!
__________________ "the age old question has been answered. The only thing that can beat a Chuck Norris roundhouse is a Chris Pronger elbow." - whskybarJM
Exactly. It's a sport, no form of electricity should be used to power anything directly involved in the sport.
It's different in Nascar and other racing/motorsports, the whole idea of those sports is to use technology and machinery and electricity.
You don't see football players with magnetic gloves, or UFC fighters with machine guns. Why is this needed in Hockey?
Well you are right on one side. on the other side it is not clear cut added power ... unlike puting rockets on each side of the skate.
then at 400 usd it will be so popular ...
on one side you are right ... man value and man power should be the only actor.
but it is so close and easy and cheap ... is it realistic to forbide it ?
