2 weeks ago, I was lucky enough to receive my own PK100, straight from Zeal Hockey in Canada to test out.
My personal specs were
Hand: Left
Flex: 87
Curve: Z39 (identical to the P92)
Lie: 6.
Upon receiving the PK100, I first noticed the sleek look the stick has. Zeal Hockey have gone with the lower two thirds of the stick being a cool black colour scheme, showing the checkered pattern from the composite. The look is plain and simple but very loveable. The top third of the shaft is an adventurous Pink, which is certainly eye catching and also adds a bit of flair. No one likes being scored on by someone with a pink stick 😉
Secondly when picking up the stick I noticed the lightweight feel, immediately I was impressed. Zeal being new to the hockey equipment world I wasn’t quite expecting the PK100 to match up to the likes of Bauer and CCM top line sticks but it certainly does. Having used Bauer Supreme MX3 sticks for the past season, it felt like the PK100 was even lighter than what I’d been using already.
I opted for the Grip option, where Zeal had utilised their own BINary GRIP COAT (BIN-GRIP) Technology. The shaft is dipped twice for a finish that gets “grippier” when it gets wet and will last the life of the stick.
I also liked the grip on the blade, which had a textured finish. This means stick tape will adhere to the blade better and last longer.
The shaft profile is square with a slight taper for strength where the shaft and the blade meet. The shaft and blade are made with a single piece molding process. This allows for greater durability, improved shot performance, and excellent balance.
When I finally got down to using the stick, I just started off stickhandling, getting a feel for the stick before I went onto getting a buddy to ping some hard passes at me to see what it’s like receiving hard passes with the PK100.
I was immediately impressed again, there was next to pucks bouncing off the blade, the feel for the puck was unreal on this twig. I was able to ping the puck straight back, first time, hard, fast and clean. For me receiving passes and pinging them back first time felt the best I’ve ever felt whilst using the PK100.
Then onto the fun part, shooting: I set up some pucks and just started out with wrist shots, getting a feel for the kick and trying out Zeal’s “Primo Loading Zone”, Mid Kickpoint. My wristers were snappy and quick and I was able to get my shot off fast and hard, whilst being very accurate at the same time. I then went onto slapshots, this is where I feel the stick really shines. I lined up some pucks, and just took some statutory slapshots, again getting a feel for the kickpoint. Then onto my proper wind up, I was able to really lean into the shot and slap the puck high and fast. I was again impressed as to how responsive the blade was when taking shots. Then onto one timers which again were fast and hard, even when not leaning fully into the shot. When I’m in my favourite scoring position (backdoor one timer down on one knee) I was able to get the shot off fast, first time and shoot it high giving the goalie no chance.
Overall, I was very impressed with this stick. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting from the sleek look, to the weight, to the responsiveness and unreal kickpoint. I feel I shoot and pass better with this stick than I have before. Having not been able to go back to my MX3 since picking the PK100 up, I will be using this thing until it dies on me. Even using it in my regular league games, I didn’t know whether to use it in my games or not, but after getting on so well with it during training, I was excited to see how I played with it, resulting in me getting 10 points in 3 games over the past two weeks. I highly recommend this stick to anyone looking to change their game, in my eyes it offers more than your top of the range sticks from all the usual hockey brands and at 30% less of the normal price for a top line twig, it’s a win win.
If you’d like to pick up your own PK10o Stick, head over to Zeal Hockey and grab yourself a sweet new twig.
