| Ice hockey sticks are possibly the most important | | | | Composites are the most recent development and |
| piece of equipment beside skates needed to play ice | | | | when prices decrease on composites they will soon |
| hockey. There are two primary types of sticks, 1) | | | | completely replace both aluminum and wooden types. |
| regular hockey sticks that are used by forwards and | | | | Composites are designed to perform just like wooden |
| defensemen, and 2) goalie hockey sticks. The goalie | | | | but they are much lighter. Unfortunately they do not |
| version is much wider and does not have a | | | | last as long as wooden and are currently the most |
| significantly curved blade as it is mainly used for | | | | expensive ice hockey sticks. |
| blocking and defense. | | | | Ice hockey sticks have a shaft, blade and the toe. The |
| Hockey sticks are traditionally made of wood with the | | | | toe is the very end of the blade. They can have a |
| first versions being made from hornbeam trees. As | | | | variety of angles between the blade and shaft, called |
| this type of wood became hard to find other | | | | the lie. Very tall hockey players tend to have a very |
| hardwood trees were used and ash became a very | | | | large lie angle so that their blade will still rest on the ice |
| popular wood. Ash wood tended to be heavier then | | | | when they are skating. Players that crouch more |
| other wood but they were very durable. It was | | | | when skating or are shorter like a smaller lie angle. |
| possible for a player to go his entire career without | | | | As with the golf club the flexibility of the shaft is very |
| breaking an ash ice hockey stick. | | | | important to the ice hockey stick. It is possible to find |
| The ice hockey stick has not undergone many | | | | ice hockey sticks that have a range of flexibility and |
| improvements. Perhaps the biggest improvement was | | | | your chosen position does have an influence on the |
| laminated hockey sticks in the 1940s, in which layers of | | | | type of flexibility you want. Defensemen that use slap |
| wood were glued together to create a more flexible | | | | shots and poke checking frequently tend to prefer less |
| version. The lamination techniques soon began to | | | | flexibility and forwards tend to choose more flexibility. |
| incorporate fiberglass and other synthetic materials as | | | | The blade pattern is referring to the curve of the blade. |
| coatings. Then in the 1960s the blade was curved | | | | The curve, face angle and toe are the most important |
| which changed how player could shot the puck on the | | | | parts of the blade pattern. The curve refers to the |
| ice. | | | | amount of curve on the blade as well as were the |
| Aluminum became popular in the 1980s as many other | | | | curve is. A toe curve is referring to a curve that |
| sporting clubs like baseball bats and cricket bats were | | | | occurs near the tow of the blade. The face angle is |
| being produced using aluminum. Though despite the | | | | the angle between the surface of the blade and the |
| popularity of both wooden and aluminum they have | | | | ice and the to shape can be either rounded or square |
| been almost entirely replaced with composite over the | | | | and described the shape of the end of the blade. |
| last decade. | | | | |