Ovechkin Opens Up About Changing Hockey Sticks, Says CCM Stopped Producing Usual Specs Due To New Technology

The Capitals captain said that the major companies' push for new technology led him to switch to an independent stick provider.

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin found himself in a strange situation this year, as he managed just eight goals through the first 43 games of the season and was struggling to do what he did best: score.

All the while, he was having issues with his hockey sticks, as he said in a new tell-all conversation with the "It's Hockey, Brother" podcast that CCM stopped making his sticks the same way.

"All companies, such as Bauer and CCM, are starting to look for new technologies to improve the sticks, to make them lighter, for example," Ovechkin said, via a DeepL translation of sports.ru. "And to us, the athletes who have been used to playing with one stick for several years, they say, 'Sorry, we stop producing these sticks.'"

Ovechkin, who had signed again with CCM hockey in 2018, is now a free agent, but all of his gear is CCM. His main stick of choice had been the Ribcor Trigger ASY, and at the start of the year, he used a version of that, the Ribcor Trigger 8 and the JetSpeed FT5 Pro.

However, he admitted there were complications when it came to his hockey sticks, and that they did not have the same feel as his old sticks.

"You start to have problems. You have to find a stick that's comfortable for you again, with a comfortable flex and stiffness," Ovechkin, who uses a 100 flex, said.

Ovechkin made the switch to Bauer Hyperlites for a few games, and then starting using a custom stick from an independent company, branded with his iconic "8" logo. 

He also said that it was a frustrating process, especially with him and other players telling the major companies that the old technology works just fine.

"We always tell them (that), but they don't listen to us," Ovechkin said. "It's the same if you look at skates. They produce more and more new models."

As for whether or not the sticks were responsible for his resurgence down the stretch, where he put up 23 goals in the final 36 games of the season for his record-breaking 18th 30-goal season, Ovechkin said a lot played into it.

"Everything worked together there. The All-Star Break was good for me, and the stick. I recovered, rested, hit reset," Ovechkin said.

Ovechkin said before leaving D.C. for the summer that the new sticks were "pretty cool" for him and did help him, and he added that more specifics and news relating to his new sticks will be out soon. Ivan Miroshnichenko also uses Ovechkin's custom twigs.

"They changed my life," he joked. "No, as a player, you need your stick that you feel comfortable, right? You can see all over the league players change sticks and they try to find the right one. I'm reallty happy with what we did and what we found."