Word: skates
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...line skating is one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S., with some 32 million devotees. And along with its growing popularity has come an array of new designs and high-tech materials, from carbon-injected plastic to glass-reinforced nylon. But I didn't really care about all that techie mumbo-jumbo. I just wanted a skate that felt fast, light and, above all, comfortable...
...Escapes ($399) seemed more promising. A flexible hinge on the bottom was supposed to let me fully extend my leg for a fast, natural stride. But the skates were downright painful. There was too much padding around the lower leg, and part of the skate dug into my inner ankle. I had another pal, Jillian, test them in her size, and her foot got so badly chafed that she had to wear Band-Aids the next day. "You couldn't give these to me for free," Jillian said, somewhat redundantly...
Hasek is also stubborn. In 1989, playing for Czech's army team, he refused to skate during a key game against his hometown's team. In Buffalo he's already legend enough that the Marine Midland Arena, where the Sabres skate, is flanked by two gargoyle goalies splayed apart in a way that only the double-jointed Hasek can manage. Still, he was booed at the beginning of last year because he schemed to dump the team's popular coach. Last May he sat in his Jeep making calls as 1,500 fans--many of them children...
Plimpton's advice, though kindly, didn't seem like quite enough, considering I don't know how to skate. So I scheduled a lesson at a local ice-skating rink with a guy who coached the Israeli Olympic figure-skating team, which seemed impressive until I really thought about it. Still, in half an hour, he taught me to skate backward, scuff up the ice in front of the goal, bang on the goal pipes with my stick and blame my equipment when I got scored...
Mleczko did everything she physically could to make the championship-winning goal possible--skate and use her stick. That was because she had crashed into the boards with 30 seconds left in the second period, partially separating her shoulder and tearing several shoulder muscles...