This past summer, Patrick Kane traveled up to Blainville, Quebec to visit Bauer’s factory for a day.
The plan was for Kane to test equipment and let the company know exactly how he wanted everything to be customized as he prepared for the upcoming season. He tells them what he likes, and they follow his instructions.
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“They’re awesome,” Kane said.
During the visit, Kane also got on the ice and tried out Bauer’s sticks. Kane actually hasn’t changed a whole lot about his sticks since he was younger — he still uses about the same curve he had as a teenager — but he has made some adjustments over the years. This season he went down in flex.
Kane utilized his trip to the factory to toy with an assortment of sticks and different customizations. In the end, he went with what felt right to him.
“I went on the ice for a couple hours and they had a bunch of different shafts and different flexes,” Kane said. “Just kind of go out there and shoot pucks. That’s kind of how I pick my stick, just what I felt most comfortable with.”
Kane recently took the time to explain from top to bottom how and why he customizes his Bauer Vapor 1X Lite stick the way he does.
Flex
“I’ve always had a stiff flex, even when I was a kid. My dad wouldn’t buy me the intermediate or junior stick. He’d buy me the senior sticks, so I was just carrying around a log, you know. It was really good for me because it helped with my stick-handling, it helped with me catching passes. And my shot wasn’t that great when I was a kid, but I always found ways to be a good stick-handler and score goals that way.
“And then as time develops, I always used a stiff stick. I used like 107 when I started, then I went down to 102, now I’m at a 95 flex. I think as you get more comfortable, especially throughout the summers, you try and kind of mess around with different things to see what works and what you feel comfortable with. But, yeah, this is the first year I’ve switched to the 95, and it’s a little bit of a lighter stick as well.”
Curve
“I’ve had the same curve since I’ve been 15, no, maybe 14 years old. The year I went to Honeybaked, so maybe even 13, the year I played in Detroit. I remember getting like this blue M-1 Mission stick and just went with the curve and really liked it. Just kind of been using that one ever since. So developed that one with Bauer.
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“There’s not really much to it. It’s like a longer blade, a little bit taller at the toe, but really not much of a curve. If anything, it has a little bit of a toe curve on it. I’ve always liked having a smaller curve for the same type of purposes, like stick-handling and passing, especially catching passes. And then as time goes on, you just kind of learn how to shoot with it.”
Shaft
“It’s called like a snake-skin grip. It’s pretty slippery, but I take the tape and just kind of put my grip on it, you know. It’s kind of hard to explain. I just call it the grip stick. So if I’m on the bench and I need it, I’ll just say grip or give me the grip stick and I just go up and down to get whatever grip I want. I like it that way because it’s like personal, how it feels for me.” (Chris Kunitz, who was sitting next to Kane, said, “It would be like pine tar for a baseball bat. It’s like stick-em purpose.”)
Knob
“I have a rubber slip-on knob. I don’t tape it up there. It’s a company called Tacki Mac. Just kind of slips on. It’s rubber. I like it because it doesn’t really get wet. It stays pretty dry for me.”
Tape
“I’ve always taped it toe to heel for whatever reason. That’s just kind of how I was taught from my dad. He just really liked it that way for some reason. I know most guys go heel to toe, but I go toe to heel with the white thick tape and then I’ll take a puck to it over the white tape to just kind of give it a little bit of some marks on there. I’ve been doing that for a long time, too.
“Sometimes you mess around, you go out there with like black tape in practice or mess around with different tape jobs after practice, but mostly been the same — toe right to the end of the heel and with the white thick and the puck marks.”
(Top photo: Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)
