InGoal Magazine CCM Extreme Flex Pro Special Edition : Page 2
GEAR First Look: CCM Extreme Flex Pro CAREY PRICE may be a laid-back cowboy from small town Western Canada, but few know or understand the incredible history of – and spotlight on – goaltend-ing in Montreal better than the current Ca-nadiens’ star. It’s a narrative that extends well beyond more than a century of defining puck-stopping moments that occurred in the Canadiens’ crease. It’s a story that mirrors the history of goaltend-ing itself, with revolutions in equipment and style that include both the birth of the modern butter-fly through Patrick Roy and Francois Allaire, and matching developments in goalie gear designed to compliment that evolution on the ice. Price is woven into both sides of that illustri-ous history, first by emerging from the shadows of the puck-stopping legends to precede him, evolving on and off the ice into one of the NHL’s best young goaltenders. Now, at age 25, Price is also the face behind the mask of the most antici-pated equipment launches in years: the return of CCM to goaltending. Given Price’s status in Montreal, and his work with legendary designers Michel and Patrick Lefevre and their nearby factory, who could be a better choice to welcome hockey’s oldest manu-facturer back to the crease? And make no mistake: Carey Price is a lot more than just the pretty face and silky smooth butter-fly slides behind the CCM equipment launch. Carey Price is the driving force behind Extreme Flex Pro. From a glove redesigned from scratch, to pads that required four months of experimentation and tinkering to finalize a mix of foams that al-low for more flexibility – both vertical, espe-cially at the boot, and torsional across the face of the pad – the new CCM Extreme Flex Pro line was built almost exclusively on Price’s personal puck-stopping preferences. Those likes emerged during more than a year of back and forth with the Lefevres, and, after spending a day with Price on the ice in the new CCM gear, are sprinkled throughout this review because of the key role they played in the equip-ment’s development. InGoal Magazine also spent time with the Lefevres, and it’s important to note their design principles and philosophies – the same ones that led to the game-changing Ree-bok Premier series – remain intact, with solid core construction similar to the P4. While the new CCM line is a softer-flexing, tighter-fitting, more-reactive pad than its Premier predecessors from sister-company Reebok (both are owned by Adidas), the new Extreme Flex Pro line was not built to be the softest pad on the market. In other words, despite assumptions from many, the new CCM is not intended to be a Vaughn Velocity. 2 / INGOAL MAGAZINE MARCH 2013
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