As an old man who started playing hockey in the 80's I learned how to play goal using a CCM stick with a "flat"heel and straight blade. By the time the mid 80's rolled around I remember there being more curved blade goal sticks readily available but still found myself preferring to stick with the tried and true. Around 1988 or so me and the other goalie on my highschool team were "taught"(ha ha) to curve our sticks with a torch and door jam. After wrecking some sticks I loved trying to emulate some sort of weird bobby hull curve on a goal stick, I just started to buy Vics with curves and figured I that I had seen the last of a goal stick without a curved blade. Fast forward twenty years and after taking over a decade off I started playing again and started looking for an "old school" stick.
It didn't seem like you could find one without making a custom order. Oh well. I sorta gave up on finding one.
Then I heard about a guy up in Ontario who was looking for the same thing and figured what the he'd start a company to make old school, "flat" heel, straight blade sticks.
Hence the Northville NVH Pro. He also makes a more 60's style model with no logo.
Northville(get it- Northland and Victoriaville)
Anyway this is what you get for $60 CDN. A helluva stick. Here are some pics.
drplywood/northville stick - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
You can see in the pictures the stick in comparison to my Ballistik composite with a 26" inch paddle and a fairly common "mid" curve.
The Northville is really really light. Almost as light as my composite. Lighter than my wooden eagle and my wood and fiberglass tps sticks. The balance is nice and the workmanship is really top notch.
The thing looks great but how does it play?
Well. It plays like an old stick. Which took me a bit of time to get used to. I tend to stand up pretty straight and even "choke up" on my 26" paddle sticks a little bit so it was an adjustment to shorter paddle and how the heel sat on the ice. After about half an hour I got used to it and my crouch got deeper and the stick felt pretty good.
Stick handling was obviously tricky. Even with a curved blade I am no Hextall, so with this thing I was pretty limited. I had better luck with passes made with my blocker hand brought down on the shaft instead of up on the knob.
I also felt an enhanced ability to poke check with the blade fully flat across the ice. What was really cool though was the ease and accuracy of one handed puck distribution,pucks just seemed to go to the corners easier and I felt that my stick coverage was better in tight. Also the thing is bullet proof. Seems much more solid than Christian or Eagle sticks I have owned recently.
Overall it is a really cool stick and is a lot of fun to play with. I don't know if it will be my everyday stick as I definitely struggled with being comfortable with the shorter paddle but it is well worth the money and really made me think about my playing.
Hats off to Bruce Stephenson for going out and making a stick for those of us that wanted something that previously wasn't available. He says he is gonna do a modern stick with classic graphics soon and I can't wait for those. Nice work man.
I think the only way you can buy them is by emailing him directly
bstephenson6@cogeco.ca
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