Well, we snapped the plastic hockey sticks, but the Portland WinterHawks were kind enough to provide us with some carbon fibre sticks that their players had broken... so we bolted those on, upgraded our gripper code, and gave it a test. We still aren't satisfied and will be making some changes before Seattle, perhaps even ditching the sticks for something that comes up a bit higher. Pity, being the Canadian team with the hockey sticks was just such a cool stereotype!