The revolutionary "hot" new blades being endorsed by Wayne Gretzky have turned out to be duds. Gretzky boasted during a packed press conference at the Hockey Hall of Fame four months ago that $400 heated skate blades developed by a Canadian company would "revolutionize the game of hockey."
Trouble is, the NHL players who have tested Therma Blade Inc.'s heated blades don't agree. Of the five players who were sent the heated blades – Toronto's Mark Bell, Chicago's Martin Lapointe, Detroit's Kris Draper, Edmonton's Marty Reasoner and Calgary's Matthew Lombardi – Reasoner is the only player who professed liking the blades.
This is not good for Calgarian Tory Weber who invented the blades and spent more than $5 million to bring Thermablade to market. The poor reviews from Draper and Lapointe have prompted the NHLPA to balk at signing off on the blades.
Therma Blade has sold 2,500 pairs of blades to Canadian and U.S. stores. The company would try to persuade other NHLers to test the blades.
12 years ago
