Special Stingers practice Dec 22! Hockey Training Center in Chaska

Coach Rick has a special holiday treat for the Stingers (note original mentioned 12/29, but it's only 12/22):

We have an opportunity to do some off-ice training at the Hockey Training Center in Chaska. I have reserved indoor training time for December 22nd at 10:30am for one hour.

HTC is owned by Chris Erickson, head coach of the Chaska Varsity Girl’s Hockey Team. Chris and a few of his players will be on site for helpful instruction.

This is a great opportunity to have some fun, learn some off-ice training techniques, and work on hockey skills without skates. They have a net to shoot at along with a radar gun to check the speed of your shot (I will take on all challenges).

The location is 888 Arbor Drive, Chaska. It is a few miles away, but I think worth the drive. Check out their website at www.thehockeytrainingcenter.com. Please RSVP to Coach Rick if you can attend ether, or both dates, or if you will not attend.

Coach Rick
rcarlson@veeco.com

Directions are here and a map is here.

Equipment care: helmet screws

Our References and Links page points to a nice equipment guide, but I don't remember it saying anything about helmet care.

The tricky thing with helmets is the darned hardware. It's constantly loosening, probably because of temperature extremes expanding and contracting the hardware.

I repaired a player's helmet today, that inspired me to check ours. Every one had loose screws, and I was missing one. Happily I had a few spares.

I think it's a good habit to tighten all the helmet screws every time the helmet is used, as a part of routine post-skating gear maintenance.

Oh, and skates should probably be sharpened after every 4th time on the ice. A lot of places do a bad job, so ask serious hockey players where they go. We use Boehm's on Selby, we have a sharpening card there.