three out of four walleyes

 Four out of the nine locations of this Minnesota-based restaurant chain are, impressively, right here in the skyway.  So wherever you work, there is probably a D Brian’s nearby, and if you’re not in a tremendous hurry, it’s a nice place to stop for a salad or sandwich.   I was a bit overwhelmed by the interesting sandwich choices — they definitely have a selection that’s a cut above your standard ham & cheese, tuna salad, etc.  While they do have those standards, they’ve got more interesting options like “chicken pesto panini” and “cran-almond turkey wrap” as well.  The salad options also looked quite nice, or you can have one custom made from their fairly extensive salad ingredients.  I went with a rueben, a great deli classic.  The check out system is slightly confusing — a mob of people were just standing around waiting for their sandwiches, and then you have to wait in line yet again to pay for it.  I also had to wait a bit longer than I wanted.  Although they did have to grill my sandwich, which I’m sure takes a little while, I noticed that most people were waiting a bit.  I guess that’s the price you pay for the individual attention give to each sandwich/salad.  The sandwich was great.  Full of meat and well flavored, though a bit skimpy on the sourkraut.  The seating area here is also very nice — there were lots of empty tables, all impeccably clean.

Price: Fair – sandwiches and salads start at around $6 +

Speed: just fine, though I suspect they might get bogged down during a lunch rush

Seating: Around 52, most tables are for 4 people

Large groups? Sure, you could probably push a couple tables together and get in up to 10 people.

Check ‘em out: http://www.dbrians.com/

One Financial Plaza, 120 South 6th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Tel: 612.335.9095

Designed and embroidered by Living Thread, I present to you: the brain cupcake. Now this isn’t the first time we’ve featured a guts/cupcake hybrid, and Godzilla-willing, it won’t be the last.

There’s just something to cute and delectable about grey matter cupcakes. I can’t resist them. And for $15, resistance is futile.

The recent criticism over Alexander Ovechkin’s 50 goal celebration has led me to notice that the NHL is losing its individualism.

I’m not just talking about player celebrations and antics.  We could all do without Sean Avery’s immaturity and selfish behaviour. 

It’s the equipment that players use that has me wondering if the NHL is becoming a private school with standard clothing and accessories.

Wayne Gretzky was known for his 1970’s JOFA helmet and long cuff gloves.  Mark Messier sported the unique Winn Well/Cooper helmet his whole career when everyone else stopped wearing them long ago. 

Guy Lafleur and Craig MacTavish didn’t even wear helmets and this transcended into an era where most players wore head gear.  Conversely, Leonard “Red” Kelly was forced to wear a helmet in a time when they weren’t worn.

Today’s players switch equipment like dirty underwear and leftovers from a generation ago are inconceivable.  The majority of players look identical like they just stepped off a factory assembly line.

I can only think of a few players today, compared to many more just 10 or 15 years ago, that maintain a certain style in equipment throughout their career. 

Teemu Selanne is probably the only player in the NHL that still uses the round JOFA helmet that was introduced in the early 1990’s.  Jason Blake still uses the older long and flat visor along with Tackla hockey pants.  Martin Broduer still uses small pads even if the brand has changed and Chris Odgood continues to use a helmet with cage as a mask.

Their differences may be small but they give these players a personality and they are quickly recognizable.

Similarly, accessories add unique personalities for players like Kelly Hrudey’s headband used to absorb sweat or mustaches grown by players like Lanny McDonald.

I’m glad to note that players like Ian White and George Parros have reintroduced today’s generation of hockey fans to the mustache.  We need more unique appearances and personalities to breakthrough.      

The other part of the problem is equipment manufacturers who have been monopolized like many businesses in our present world.  Gone are the day’s where players had a large variety of brands to choose.  It seems like every manufacturer is owned by Reebok.

JOFA and CCM are properties of Reebok which is it self owned by ADDIDAS which uses it’s subsidiaries to infiltrate the game of hockey rather than using its own brand.

Nike bought Bauer in 1995 but recently decided to fuse both brands into one unified product.  TPS who bought Louisville had recently decided to stop using the Louisville name altogether.

There was a period in the 1980’s and 1990’s when we could see a variety of manufacturers being represented on the ice.  Some of the brands that were used were KOHO, JOFA, Canadian, Christian, Louisville, Titan, Montreal, Brians, Brown, Vaughn, Itech, Sher-wood, Cooper, Bauer, Easton, Nike, Victoriaville, Tackla, DR, Rawlings, Winn Well, Northland, Heaton, Hespeler, and TPS.

These companies were mostly independent and they created different hockey products and some competed with similar items.  One thing that you could count on is that the competition allowed for diverse styles.  Especially with helmet manufacturers like CCM, JOFA, and Cooper who had different and distinct shapes.

Today everything is owned by just a few companies and even if they’re not they create very similar looking products.  Equipment is standardized and that causes a loss of individuality despite players’ lack of loyalty to any specific piece of equipment.

Many brands disappeared for various reasons, including the change to composite from wood sticks, and new companies have emerged to compete with Reebok, Nike, and Easton.

Eagle, Warrior, Mission, Salming are some of those brands but their products also have similar designs and marketing plans.

Goaltending equipment has also received a major redesign in the past couple of years.  Pads, gloves, and blockers have lost a lot of colour and have reverted to mostly white. 

Brands also have similar designs for goalie equipment and it looks like the majority of goaltenders are using the same equipment minus the difference in the small amount of colour.

What’s the reason for all this assimilation and why have goalies gone back to mostly white equipment?  Could it be that they see the black puck better?  I’m not sure but I know that it’s depleting the eccentricity in the NHL.

There’s little doubt that the days of equipment overlapping generations is over so keep your Denis Potvin and Lanny McDonald “bubble” helmets in the attic. 

Monopolized hockey equipment companies that produce similar designs are part of the problem but veteran players have also ditched the old for the new.

They choose to assimilate rather than stand out as the veterans that have played over two decades.

In order for pro goalies to perform at the top of their game for an entire season, being comfortable and unrestricted in their gear is of utmost importance to the player, the team and therefore the entire organization. Especially when it comes to selecting a new set of leg pads, goalies demand nothing less a perfect fit tailored to their specific needs.

Similar to the helmet, leg pads are a vital piece of customizable equipment that displays their personality in style. Visual features like different colors schemes, patterns and graphics play a major role in enticing goalies to the different manufacturers that dominate today’s market. Companies like Reebok, Vaughn and Brian’s pride themselves on advancing their brand behind support of NHL goalies, while enticing amateur players with more custom features.

These features become more valuable to both the consumer and the manufacturer because of two things. One, it allows them to be completely creative and show some individual flair, similar to painted helmets. Secondly, the recent standardization of pad length, width and overall size has created a market where most pads look very similar. They all do the same thing and therefore are made in quite similar fashion. Leg pads are a dime a dozen, but blue and red pads with green trim and flame graphics are quite rare indeed. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Some goalies like the feel of stiff pads worn loosely around the ankle, while others like their pads strapped down tight, but with as much flex as possible so that their rebounds come off softer. Then you have features like the position of the knee cradle, how many straps each pad has, where those straps are placed, the number of flex points on the pad and their exact location and so much more.

For example, I am a way obsessive about the depth of the pad’s leg channel, which is basically the backside of the pad wall. It goes from the bottom of your knee to the bottom of your ankle and just like the word indicates, that channel can be deep or shallow. Pads like the Reebok Premiere series have a very shallow channel, meaning the pad feels looser and can turn and move around much easier. My X-Factors have a deep leg channel so that the pad feels like it’s wrapped around my legs, giving me a much more secure feel. I want to be able to make sharp, defined movements, so I want a tight, secure, streamlined feel. For now and forevermore, deep leg channels are my choice.

All of these things may seem a bit extreme or teetering on the edge of insanity, but talk to any NHL goaltender and you will see that it’s not only important to have that perfect fit, but the manufacturers pride themselves on pushing the limits of pad perfection as well. Otherwise their line holds the same value as rice paper or Styrofoam.

But like all hockey equipment, wear and tear (and more importantly the league-mandated size restrictions) means that new pads have to be broken in on a yearly basis, sometimes more than that. Rookie sensation Steve Mason recently mentioned to reporters how his leg pads (that he started wearing back in September) seemed worthless after a puck skipped in on him and nailed him right in the knee.

“It just kind of completely skipped a pad and went on my knee,” said Mason, who actually had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee back when Training Camp was taking place. “It didn’t feel too good. My pads are pretty crappy right now. I’ll be getting some new ones pretty soon, hopefully.”

New version or old, the key for Mason right now is finding a pad that fits exactly to his liking, exactly to the contours of his legs and his game. Of course they will be kept in check by the NHL’s pad regulation committee, so sombined with the constant change in league restrictions, Mason’s new pads will be more about flexibility and customization and less about weight and construction. Regardless of what pads he chooses, he is stuck dealing with the horrible but necessary thing goalies like to call the break-in process.

From the age of 6 to 60, the experience of getting new pads starts off as a glorious adventure and quickly turns into a living nightmare. Or it’s kind of like that feeling you get from slowly waking up from a bad dream. It’s something you can’t get away from fast enough…but you know it takes a certain length of time to realize it was just a dream. That time is misery, confusion, disorientation, frustration. You want it to be over but the only thing that solves it is time.

That’s why I’m not surprised to see Carey Price struggling right now. In the five games that he’s worn his new pads, he has a 1-4 record and has allowed 19 goals against. Although it’s impossible to know how big of a role the new pads play, there’s at least some type of correlation between his bad play and the fact he wore three different pairs of pads in January, two of which has seen very limited action. That would cause any goalie at any level a big headache.

He last used his old white Vaughn pads in early January until right before the All-Star Game. That’s when he decided to pull out the red and blue pads. Then back on Sunday afternoon he wore a pair of brown leather Vaughn pads with an old-school look. No wonder he is having so much trouble controlling rebounds and finding the puck right now – he’s dealing with way too many different feels from his pads – causing him to over-think different facets of his game.

Ilya Bryzgalov and Chris Osgood are other goalies currently struggling with the new pad break-in process. Bryzgalov ended last season with solid black Vaughn’s before getting brick-red Vaughn’s, which he wore with good success up until the All-Star break. Now he’s in a new pair of white Vaughn’s with red trim and has gone 1-3 with 13 goals against in that span.

Osgood started the season with the same Itech Prodigy pads he wore in the Stanley Cup Finals and then switched to white Brian’s with red trim, the same kind that Ty Conklin wears. Osgood has struggled with consistency all year long and it’s tough to say he’s playing better right now. But the more he wears them, the more comfortable he will feel.

It seems like the trend is showing that white pads are getting the nod over dark pads by NHL goalies because white is more effective in interfering with a shooter’s vision. It’s harder for a player to see white pads on white or blue ice as opposed to a very dark color that contrasts with the ice and therefore stands out more.

Overall it might be trivial to think that something like a new pair of leg pads would cause an NHL goalie to struggle, but at the same time if a goalie doesn’t feel 100% comfortable in the pads he’s in, how can he be expected to perform at the highest level? The truth is simple; there’s at least some kind of hindrance, whether it be mental or physical or a combination of both, that causes goalies to struggle with mobility and timing when it comes to breaking in new pads.

I don’t understand how a goalie could ever bring in a new set of pads halfway through the season, unless they are wearing the pads in practice for weeks or months beforehand. It only makes sense to break in a pair over the summer when there’s nothing on the line and then have them ready to go by the time pre-season arrives. That at least guarantees 100% comfort level by the start of the regular season. Just bringing them off the shelf and into a game is nothing short of a suicide mission.

Goalies are so in tune with their pads that the slightest adjustment is a noticeable one. We can tell when a strap is a bit too tight, even if it’s only one little notch tighter than usual. Therefore getting new pads is not only a necessary step – it’s an annual one – especially when you consider the recent pad restrictions handed down by the NHL. But new pads will always come with an inherent “break-in” process and with that, a struggle to feel comfortable. It’s happening to goalies at all levels all over the world, and it’s even happening right now with some of the NHL’s elite.

Ja hem confirmat que el pròxim dimecres 7 de maig visitarem el campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), a Bellaterra, per parlar amb l’àrea de justícia de la Fundació Autònoma Solidària, una organització vinculada a la universitat i que amb la participació d’estudiants i altres voluntaris, s’ocupa de diverses problemàtiques socials, entre elles, un important tasca de voluntariat a les presons com Brians, amb la que ofereixen suport per a la integració dels presos a la societat.

Tindrem l’oportunitat de parlar amb Cristina Gómez, responsable de l’àrea, a qui des d’aquí agraïm l’atenció, i amb una de les voluntàries que treballa a la fundació.

Ja us explicarem com ha anat la visita.