Thinking Back to the First Curved Hockey Stick

Until the early 1960s, hockey stick blades were typically not curved. However, in the late 1950s, New York Rangers center Andy Bathgate began experimenting with "breaking" his stick blades to impart a curve, which he found made his slap shots behave in highly erratic ways. Soon after Chicago Blackhawks forwards Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull stumbled onto the "broken blade", and subsequently began asking their stick manufacturers to create sticks with pre-curved blades.

Soon after, much of the NHL, and Hull in particular, became a proponents of the "banana blade", or stick with extreme amounts (often up to 3 inches (76 mm)) of curve in the blade. These curves made slap shots behave very erratically, and in an era in which goalies did not wear masks, this eventually became an unacceptable danger. By 1967, the NHL began to limit the amount of curve a stick blade could legally have. In the NHL today, the legal limit is 19 mm, or ³⁄₄ of an inch.

Much like the shaft's flex, a blade's pattern is a very important characteristic of a stick's performance. There are three primary variables in blade design: curve, face angle, and toe.The curve refers to the basic amount the blade curves from toe to heel, as well as the part of the blade where that curve is located. A "toe curve" means that the curve is concentrated near the toe of the blade, and it is usually preferred by forwards, who seek better puckhandling and more accurate wrist shots. A "heel curve" is generally better for slap shots, and is thus used more by defencemen.

Face angle is the angle between the ice surface and the front surface of the blade (this characteristic is comparable to the difference between the different irons in golf). A more "open" blade means that the face of the blade is turned up more sharply, and thus will cause a higher trajectory than a "closed" face angle.
The toe shape refers to the basic shape of the end of the blade, and it is typically either round or square. Square toes make it easier to pull a puck off the boards or to do "toe drags" (stickhandling moves using the toe of the blade), whereas round toes make it easier to "flip" the puck, and also offer slight advantages in basic puckhandling. Blades also differ in length and thickness, based on player preference.

As a former ice hockey player, it is hard for me to image using a hockey stick that has no curve on it what so ever. I myself have changes the types of curves I have used numerous times through out my career. I have use larger and small curves. Ones with a round toe and others with a squared toe. I have used one-piece sticks, all wood, two piece wood blades, graphite blades etc. It is truly amazing to see how many different types of curves and stick types that there are on the market. It will be interesting to see where they take this in the next 20 years.