Our friend Kyle from the Illegal Curve has an excellent article on the wood versus composite stick. I have to say that I agree with what he has to say.
It is a good subject and we have talked about it from time to time with my buddies that I watch the college games with. I was over at Scheels in Grand Forks, ND a few days back and was looking for a hat in the hockey department when picked one of these composite sticks. Yuck! They don’t even feel like the hockey sticks of old. It is a piece of carbon fiber and it feels like some thing that should be on the space shuttles and not in the hands of a hockey player.
I will say that I that miss the aluminum and woods sticks. Not that I am nostalgic or old school because I like trendy things and I am tired of watching all of these composite sticks break all of the time. They are expensive and not cost effective. How many times have you seen your favorite team on the power play and the defenseman takes a shot from the point and his stick explodes causing an odd numbered rush up ice the other way? I have seen it happen a few times during the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring. I also hate sound of the slaps shots from one of these sticks. Heck just think off all the all-pros that used woods sticks; Bourque, Neely, Coffey, Kurri etc. Like Kyle mentions in the comments Bobby Hull was able to play and score goals without one of these things. Can you imagine a Bobby Orr a Bobby Hull slap shot with a Carbon Fiber stick?
If I was a hockey player I wouldn’t be helped by wood composite or Alum because I would be a non-skilled energy player, prone to taking a untimely penalty. I think composite today’s sticks could also be compared to the big headed golf drivers of today; think what Jack or Arnie Palmer could have done with a big headed graphite shaft driver with a nice Kevlar composite driver head. The sweet spot is huge with these things and you can really tee it up same with the composite stick. I think they make mediocre players better as well. I also miss the days of the old Christian Brothers or Easton aluminum hockey sticks where you could just replace the blade when it broke.
