CCM, TaylorMade Sign Multiyear Partnership, Collaborate To Create Hockey Sticks

Hockey equipment company CCM and golf equipment company TaylorMade have announced a multiyear partnership that will bring TaylorMade's performance technologies to CCM hockey sticks. The companies' first product is the CCM RBZ hockey stick, which will be officially introduced on June 22 at the NHL Draft in Pittsburgh, with the retail launch to follow later in the year. Avalanche LW Gabriel Landeskog has been using a limited-edition version of the stick since earlier this month, and Oilers C Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will be using the stick for the remainder of the season (CCM). In Edmonton, Bill Mah writes it is "unclear exactly what makes the stick different from others," and Nugent-Hopkins yesterday "did not shed much light on his new stick's technology." He said of CCM sticks, "They make it so you can't tell the difference. They're good at that. I can't feel the difference" (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 3/13).