Clear clear clear...no visual obstruction at the top of the glass.
The biggest vision upgrade is in the corners; without metal stanchions you can see everything perfectly.
Here's a closer shot of the boards over the penalty box. This is the only place there's any metal.
Here is one of the top caps at the penalty box. Because these boards are not being directly impacted, there is not as much give allowed in the bolts; the two parts of the cap and the bolt itself are flush on either side of the board.
This is a shock absorber, located just under the rim of the dasher on the seat side. Apparently when they first designed this type of board, the construction provided VERY little give, so people were actually concussing themselves on them. These shock absorbers were integrated and the top caps were redesigned...
...like this. It's a little hard to see, but if you look closely, the bolts extend significantly beyond the glass, and there is a giant spring between the head of the bolt and the glass. This allows the glass to move when people hit it.These boards are a huge improvement. My only complaint is that they are quite noisy...Rich described them as "pingy" and I think that's a good descriptor. The hits are very loud, but even puck deflections are kind of startlingly noisy. It's all a matter of adjustment, I'm sure.
Speaking of noisy things that I like...
...I am feeling the HELL out of Alex Stalock. He's an All-American goaltender out of Minnesota-Duluth University and was drafted in 2005 by San Jose; he just gave up his last year of eligibility to come to the bigs. I like my goalies with a little smartass on them, and I like 'em noisy. I could hear Stalock yapping all night and he's a blast to watch. He's super fast post-to-post, and he's got some kind of weird hybrid style where he's big as hell on his feet and super fast to the butterfly. The most interesting thing about his play is how athletic he is. You see a lot of goaltenders who are just phenomenal at the skills that comprise goaltending, but I look at Stalock move and just think "damn, what a sick athlete." He wings his limbs around like they're someone else's, but he's clearly in control at all times. I cannot WAIT to see how this kid develops.
Posts
http://hfboards.com/showpost.php?p=21667236&postcount=859
ReplyDelete;)
Once again I will be pointlessly famous on the hockey interwebs!
ReplyDeleteHave you ever played hockey? Seamless glass might be great for the spectators, but it's awful for the players.
ReplyDeleteScience:
The boards can absorb up 70-80 percent of a hit, which is the difference between the player absorbing 800-900 pounds of pressure as opposed to 200-300 apx pounds of pressure. (I'm sure I don't have to explain inertia and kinetic energy).
Seamless glass absorbs significantly less of the impact, leading to blown out shoulders, higher rates of injuries and even concussions.
I've played in arenas with seamless glass. Imagine a guy who weighs over 200 pounds traveling at ~25 MPH hitting you into a cement wall. Sound like fun?
Seamed glass may not be the best for pictures or spectators, but that tiny, one-inch thick piece of material connecting non-seamless glass makes a huge difference for player safety, and that should be the number one priority.
I have, actually. Since I mentioned the injury potential specifically (DESPITE the fact that this is clearly not intended as an in depth analysis of all the pros and cons of seamless glass), I'm not really sure why the irritated/pissy tone is necessary. Seamless glass is one of the many changes in the game that brings with it serious pros and cons, including but clearly not limited to helmet, skate and pad design, those effing Reebok sweaters, the continual move away from wooden sticks to other materials, etc. They need to be considered and one of the ways you start doing that is talking about how they work. Hey...what's the title of this post again?
ReplyDelete...right. Good info, thanks for providing it, but next time try leaving out the suggestion that I don't care or think about player safety when I write, post and talk about it frequently in this blog and other forums.