Equipment

Equipment

Please be sure your skater has the following equipment before coming onto the ice:

• HECC approved helmet with face mask
• Hockey Socks
• Hockey Gloves
• Hockey Pants
• Elbow Pads
• Shoulder/Chest Pads
• Shin Pads
• Hockey Skates (sharpened)
• Hockey Jock or Jill
• Jersey (provided by FYHP)

As your skater improves and advances from the Blue to Red Color Group, a junior model hockey stick cut to proper length is recommended.  

New equipment can range greatly in price.  Used equipment may be purchased from a local used equipment or hockey store, such as Play It Again Sports, while a full range of new equipment can be purchased at the Natick Outdoor Store, Pure Hockey, or anywhere hockey gear is sold. 

 Each child enrolled in the LTPH program will receive a Framingham Jr. Flyers practice jersey, along with a helmet sticker displaying their name to aid the coaches on the ice.

Skate Fit and Care

It is most important that your child’s skates fit properly.  Generally, the size of the skate needed will be 1 to 2 sizes smaller than the size of their sneakers or shoes.  Room for growth of your child must be allowed, but care must be taken not to fit too large.  The most allowance you should make is about ½” (or a “thumb” width) behind the heel when the foot is pushed as far forward as it will go (but not crammed) into the unlaced skate.  Poorly fitted skates will break down prematurely regardless of the quality, hamper your child’s ability to learn to skate properly, and most importantly, risk injury to your skater.  

The skate’s blades must be kept sharp.  Do not allow your child to walk around in skates without skate guards except on the padded areas around the ice itself and in the locker rooms.  A good rule of thumb is to sharpen the skates after every eight practices, roughly once a month.  If your child does walk on an unprotected area with the blades, the skates should be sharpened before the next practice.  

At the end of a practice, skates should be taken off your child’s feet and sneakers, shoes, or boots put on.  The skates need the snow cleaned off the blade and wiped dry with a towel or rag to keep the blades from rusting.

Hockey Sticks

Your skater’s hockey stick should be a junior model. These are made with a smaller blade and the proper angle between the blade and the shaft required by children.  The blade should be a flat blade, not curved.  There is no need for a curve to the blade until your skater has developed a preference for the right or left side.  Do not push a curved blade too soon as it may hamper learning how to properly handle the puck.

The hockey stick must be the right length for the skater. The proper length is to the chin when standing in skates.  The stick should never be longer than to the upper lip.  A stick that is too long will be difficult to handle.

The blade should be taped with black friction tape.  The main purpose for taping the blade is for protecting the blade itself, keeping water from delaminating the blade, and acting as a cushion to the blade when hit against the ice or puck.  (It is also said that the black tape “hides” the puck from a goalie.)

The top end of the shaft should be taped, usually with white cloth tape.  This is to help keep the stick from slipping in the glove.  The amount of tape used here is a personal preference.  Some players like large “knobs” of tape, others like only one layer.