u/t0rche

You're playing amazingly. You're dialed in. No shot is getting passed you. Save after save after save... You're feeling in full control. You can tell that you're in your opponents' minds... They just can't get one passed you... It's the perfect evening...And then... All of a sudden, in the middle of the second period... The puck is slowly sliding towards you because of a deflection at the other end, the technically sound play is for you to go out and play it... You skate towards the puck, grab you stick... Swing.............. and miss...... Opponent grabs the loose puck and shoots in empty net...

Basically like a ketchup stain on a perfectly pressed and dry cleaned suit...

1. If you're an adult goalie, do you buy 27'' or 30'' socks?

2. Once the sock is in place, do you wrap around the shin or ankle area of the sock with sock tape?

3. As someone who has always played without socks but is now trying them out, I noticed that since all socks are more marketed towards players, the shin/ankle area is quite large for nothing for us goalies (because they are made to accommodate player shin pads). Do you know of any specific sock brand/model that is a bit tighter around the bottom of the leg while still being large enough higher up to fit over the knee guard?

Thank you!

Goalie here who recently jumped from a 22-year ball hockey "career" (played at a high level) to playing goal on ice for the first time ever two months ago... Currently playing in beer leagues and "pick-up" games 2 to 3 times per week.

• Budget for new pads would be around $1200 CAD (willing to go maybe a tiny bit over if I find a really great deal).

• Currently playing with used Vaughn Ventus LT88 pads (2016 model) that I paid $160 on Facebook Marketplace. So far, no major complaints. I seem to be improving with them. They are actually very light for a model this old. My only nitpick would be that the knee block is a bit thin and the interior layer of it (the separate fabric part that touches your knees) kind of folds up sometimes.

• Since I'm doing okay and steadily improving with Vaughns, my first thought was to check out Vaughns again... but I came across 2 reviews from YouTuber goalies reviewing new 2026 models and they actually complained about the hardness and thinness of the knee blocks as well, which kind of surprised me. Is this a thing with Vaughn? Would love to read your thoughts on this.  

• My style: I wear my pads pretty loose. On direct shots and breakaways I play a very modern butterfly style. When the play starts to come in close and there is lots of "buzzing" around, like rebounds and passes, that's where my old school style creeps up and I tend to flop around doing two-pad stacks and diving saves. I am trying to modernize my play everyday but that old school play will always be there. So I would need a pad that can accommodate this.

That's pretty much it... Other than that, I have no idea where to even start... If I had to list any preferences, I would say that I like thicker, more uniform and stable knee blocks.

Not a huge Bauer guy. Their pads are really nice but a bit too stiff and modern for my style I believe...

As for True and CCM... If the fit and features would be perfect, I'd be willing to check them out, but they are not my "top choices" when it comes to purely gut feeling and aesthetics. I was looking at maybe Brian's or Warrior? Still open to Vaughn if anybody has some positive comments. Maybe the knee block thing isn't a real issue?

Any advice/help is appreciated!

Thank you!

I was wondering if there was a subreddit with a concept that is very similar to the TIL subreddit but for more casual and "conversation level" things that don't necessarily require a source?

Simply an exchange of things people recently learned or came across but they are sharing it more for the possible conversation that might follow rather than to get all "fact check-y".

Thank you!

Here is the link: https://vocaroo.com/11DvEbf5HM3k

Thank you for your help!

Here is the link: https://vocaroo.com/11DvEbf5HM3k

Thank you for your help!

Sorry if this has been discussed before but to me personally, one of the most touching moments in the entire series (both animated and live action) isn't even a human related arc/development but it's that one moment Aang realizes Appa is no longer by his side and might be in danger...

Avatar state, instantly... no questions asked, no second thoughts, no compromise, nothing... I find it so touching... the deep bond those two have. It's almost as if Appa is literally a part of his soul.

They casually fly around and have fun together all the time (and I'm no expert on ATLA lore or world building) but there's something about an Air Nomad and his sky bison that transcends just companionship... Almost like they are one, single "whole" or "entity".

Maybe I'm wrong and just blindly theory-crafting... but I feel like maybe, for a wandering people with no worldly, material possessions or desires like the Air Nomads, their attachment to their sky bisons is probably one of the main things that keeps them "human" and in touch with their emotions... As if they are there to balance them out... because without bisons, maybe the nomads might slip into indifference and maybe even apathy.

I've been playing high level ball hockey, twice per week, for 23 years now and I've played goal on ice as a kid from 4 to 11 years old (that basically doesn't count) so I have the goaltending basics down. I have pretty good knowledge of the theory and my reflexes are still sharp.

I have now started playing goal on ice for the first time in my adult life 3 weeks ago in a rec league... This is the first time I ever laced up skates in a hockey setting in 20+ years.

The transition has been much more difficult than I expected lol... My glove and blocker hands are actually still pretty good and they have transitioned with no issue on ice but my footwork is ABYSMAL... I'm having a really hard time with t-pushes and butterfly "shuffles". Covering the bottom portion of the net in butterfly is very difficult for me so I often just resort to making Hasek style saves in the heat of the action... Throw myself on the ice and hope for the best (actually works a good portion of the time lol).

All this to say that if there's ONE thing I hate about the ice hockey goalie position, is that it's probably the position, in all team sports combined, where getting practice time is the most difficult... You need a rink and at least 1-2 players taking shots... I'm willing to practice but there are no opportunities...

I was wondering, even if it's just for rec league, do you think it would be worth it to invest in private goaltending lessons? Because honestly, I don't want to be negative, but I feel like with only 50 minutes per week of just wobbling around on my own and trying to make it work, improvements aren't really going to come... not at this rate, not for YEARS... I'm trying to practice a little bit on my own during warm-ups but since we only have 50 mins of ice time, warm-ups are like 3 minutes lol...

TLDR: Do you think it's possible for a goalie to actually improve his footwork 100% on his own? Just by playing casually?

This scene: My boss and I when he asks me why I didn't check out another condo in the same project downtown while I was already there replacing a motor in another unit. Motor replacement was planned and schedule, the other call was just an "on the fly" favor from the project manager who just so happened to run into me. I simply told him to call the office and left when I finished the motor. I already had a full day of calls ahead of me and I had a personal appointment at 5pm...

Guy in his early 40s here. I work construction so I'm still in a somewhat of a decent shape... I've been a competitive ball hockey goalie for the past 22 years. I still play twice per week... That being said though, my only experience on ice dates back to the mid 90s, as a kid, playing minor hockey with old brown pads that belonged to the community rink. I have not set foot on a sheet of ice (in a hockey context) in my entire adult life. Only 2 or 3 recreational skates with my wife over the years.

So about a month ago, a player in my ball hockey team said that he was going to organize some ice hockey pick-up games this summer, one night per week, from June 'till mid-September... Having ZERO ice experience, I just brushed it off and stayed out of the conversation. Then he asked me if I wanted to play goal... I just burst out laughing... It was basically a joke to me. I have good reflexes but that's about it. I can't handle a game on ice, I would look like a fish out of water when it came to lateral movement and T-pushes... but he kept on insisting... He assured me it was 100% just for fun and that he wouldn't care if I was any good or not. He insisted he'd really like it if I could play and that he wouldn't even charge me for the season...

I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I thought: "You're not getting any younger... If you ever want to try playing goal on ice, this is probably the best chance you're ever going to get... Either take it now, or don't take it, but don't regret it later..." So I thought what the heck, let's do it...

Since I play ball hockey at a decent level, I already had chesty, glove, blocker, pants, mask and jock. My ball hockey pads have sliders on them so I couldn't use those. I found some really nice Vaughn Ventus LT88 pads (model from 2016) on Facebook Marketplace for $160 CAD and some Bauer Supreme knee guards for $40. I cleaned the pads up nice with a magic eraser. Then I went to a local used gear shop and found some Graf G4500 goalie skates, still in great shape for $150 and a neck guard for $15. The only thing I purchased brand new was a padded undershirt.

So after watching MANY YouTube tutorials in my spare time (specially on toe-ties lol) my journey began last Thursday... As soon as I stepped onto the ice and felt how difficult and different the movement was, my immediate thought was: "What the HELL have I gotten myself into?!??!" ... "How on Earth am I going to survive this??" ... The lateral movement is literally 10x more difficult than I expected it to be lol... I now have renewed respect and admiration for ice goalies... The sheer strength and technique it takes to simply move around.

Anyway, I apologize for the wall of text! ... All in all, I managed to push through it! The linked video shows my very first warm-up. This is about 1 minute after I first set foot on the ice lol... (I muted the audio because my wife was filming and she was talking all along haha).

Thanks for reading and if you have any advice feel free to share it!

So like the tag of this post says, this is mostly a rant... so I apologize in advance if that's not what you want to read. This will seem whiny, but the tag exists so I will use it lol...

I don't have anything against learning new things and branching out, but sending me on a single, random refrigeration call once every 12-14 months does nothing for me... It's not enough to get used to it and to memorize what you go through... It's just enough to annoy the crap out of you because it takes you out of your comfort zone just for something that you won't see again for another year. That and the fact that my van isn't properly equipped for bigger refrigeration jobs.

He does this because he want to do "favors" for his existing AC customers who happen to own stores or walk-in coolers but honestly, we often just wind up looking incompetent more than anything. 98% of our jobs are AC. We're an AC company.

Now I'm stumped on this sandwich cooler... I've been here 6 times already for this same cooler now... No matter WHAT I do, the darn thing feeezes up after 3 days of operation. The fans are functioning properly, I've deep cleaned BOTH coils, I replaced the TXV and the filter drier, I replaced ther thermostat/timer module, I emptied the system, did a proper vacuum and put in a fresh factory charge... I even tried every single TXV adjustment possible... Still freezes... NOTHING has changed since the initial service call...

I told my boss that there's probably some hidden restriction somewhere that will be nearly impossible to find... There's literally nothing left to repair or replace on this thing...It always does the same thing, it works properly for 3 days and then ends up freezing... Always the same cycle... Now I just learned he's sending me there again tomorrow...

I told him that even though it's just 10 years old, we should stop throwing money at this thing and tell them it has to be replaced, for your sake and the customer's... I'm paid by the hour... but at some point, even if it doesn't affect my personal bottom line, I just feel silly working on this thing for absolutely nothing...