The Order

Our first step was to head over to the ABHS website and order a stick.  My oldest son is going to be our first guinea pig, since he is very particular when it comes to his stick.  I needed to find one comparable to his current stick, an intermediate Warrior Covert QRL, no grip tack, Zetterberg lie (Kane in Bauer, Thorton in CCM), and a flex of 55.  I pulled open their blade chart (see image) and found that they offer all the curves you find with the other big brands.

I went through the rest of the ordering process, and had the option of selecting junior, intermediate, or senior, grip tack or no, and flex.  The one caveat being that the intermediate sticks only offer a 60 or 70 flex.  This ended up being okay because he needed to upgrade to 60 flex anyway.  If you have a smaller bantam player, that 60 flex might be a little stiff. 

Anyway, the ordering process was as simple as you'd expect and even gave some pretty cool options that you don't see on other sites such as ordering "Woodwax" brand stick wax, Sticky Solutions hockey tape, and some personalization decals for your new stick.

Once we had it in the cart, our total cost was 89.99 with shipping cost of 10.99, which brought my total costs to 94.99.  Just for comparison, the comparable Warrior stick from Perani's was 79.99 for the 2016 QRL 5 and 99.99 for the 2016 QRL 4.  Unfortunately, as always seems to be the issue, they were out of the Zetterberg lie on the QRL 5 and the QRL 4 only came in 70 flex.  However, the shipping would have been free, had I been able to order.

Delivery

We ordered it on Saturday and got it on Tuesday which was outstanding.  I love fast deliveries.  ABHS calls Michigan home, so all Indiana orders should be pretty quick.

It was delivered in clear plastic - no box.  I am sure that saves on shipping but I've seen how our mail-lady handles packages.  I was a little worried but once we got it in and opened it up, it was scratch free.  

We lined it up to his current stick and sure enough, the lie was perfect.  It was a tad shorter than the Warrior but in his case, that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I would much rather use an extender than have to cut the stick, anyway.

Dry Run

Once we got it out of the package, my son set right in to getting it taped and ready for action.  Then we headed out to test it on the driveway shooting pad.

As you can see from the picture, he was getting some decent flex on the stick and after about 30 shots, I didn't notice any particular drop off in shot power or speed.  Afterwards, he said it felt comfortable and just like his Warrior, although he was going to need a little more time adjusting to the new flex.  I was initially concerned that it might feel a little heavier (the Warrior QRL is really light) but he didn't notice any difference.  

So, the All Black stick has passed our initial dry run with a finicky teenager but the real test is yet to come.  Stay tuned for next week's update, and we'll let you know how the All Black Stick fared through practice and scrimmages.