Montreal Canadiens: Where Do They Stand?

All Habs Hockey Magazine was rinkside in Brossard during the Montreal Canadiens training camp to take in the comprehensive player testing and to speak with the experts from Sport Testing, Inc.

By Rick Stephens, Editor-in-Chief, All Habs Hockey Magazine

BROSSARD, QC. — With NHL training camps closed and attention keenly focused on opening day, speculation regarding the upcoming season is rampant. Can the Canadiens match their second-place finish in the Eastern conference?  Are they even a playoff team?

Tomas Plekanec and Mike Blunden were first on the clean sheet of ice. As the testing course was still being set, the two Canadiens stretched, skated a few laps and silently went through a short warm-up. A crew of four quickly worked to set up gates, focus electronic timers and paint markers on the Brossard ice.  (CBA articles limit the amount of time that players can be subjected during the year to fitness testing.)

Questions are also posed about individual Habs players. Who is the fastest skater? Who is the most agile? Who has the most endurance? At this point, you might expect the usual writing cliche like “Time will tell” or “Who knows?” But we can do better than that. You see, when it comes to those types of questions about the Canadiens, it’s likely that Pierre Allard knows. Allard has been the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Habs for the past three years.

With a degree in kinesiology from the University of Montreal, Allard turned to science to allow him to devise and implement conditioning programs for the members of the Canadiens.  A key component of his job is player assessment to individualize programs.  To gather information and build a comprehensive database, Allard turned to Sport Testing Inc., an innovator in the field of testing athletes. Sport Testing uses what they refer to as “the world’s most accurate equipment” to conduct “state-of-the-art athlete assessments.”  The folks from Sport Testing have been fixtures at the Canadiens’ past three training camps gathering data that Allard uses to prepare individualized roadmaps for improvement.

Plekanec and Blunden listened intently as Jamie explained the first test to the two Habs. One by one, they  skated the full length of the ice and back slaloming through the electronic gates of the course in a test designed to measure acceleration and agility.

Jamie Hollins is one of the two founding members of Sport Testing, who like Allard, has a background in kinesiology.  His brother, Jonathon, brings software expertise to the duo.  Their blend of talents combine to provide the basis for a company that  provides a unique service to NHL teams like the Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs.  But testing is not just for the pros, Sport Testing works with the McGill University Redmen hockey team and has been contracted for the QMJHL combine and the CHL Top Prospects event. So what is tested?  Here’s a hint, it’s not a NHL Skills Competition, nor a typical NHL combine.

The Hollins brothers long-ago learned the lesson that is so often missed by some of the advanced stats amateurs: just because it can be measured, it’s not necessarily meaningful.  Hence you don’t find vertical jumps or bench press measurements at the Canadiens camp.  Instead they have worked with their contacts at the CHL to develop tests that specifically measure game-related skills. The effectiveness of the system is evidenced by the fact that junior players who perform best when measured by Sport Testing usually find themselves as one of the top-10 picks in the NHL Entry Draft.

Plekanec and Blunden moved on to the endurance test. Additional pairs, Brian Gionta and George Parros, Rene Bourque and Max Pacioretty, Louis Leblanc and Gabriel Dumont cycled through the response time test.

With respect to the Canadiens, the tests identify strengths and weaknesses providing the team’s training staff and management team with crucial information to establish goal-oriented improvement plans and tracking.  In addition, they provide a baseline of data that can be used to assess the recovery progress in the case of injuries. For players like Max Pacioretty and P.K. Subban, the Canadiens have a database populated with three years of measurements. The focus is on tests that evaluate speed, agility, response-time and endurance. Forwards and defensemen have separate tests that measure their different skill sets.  The first test for forwards is a 30-metre skate sprint and reaction test where players get a visual cue from the sports gates to head in one direction or another. The test measures speed, reaction-time and decision-making. Both groups end with a gruelling Rhiet test (Repeated High Intensity Endurance Test.) The concept is simple.  It is a timed test where players skate the length of the ice and back in pairs. Six times.  Players are given 10-15 seconds to recover between intervals. The last two trips are a challenge for players, both physically and mentally.

Before his agility test, in his usual competitive spirit, P.K. Subban asked about the best time ever on the course. However, on that day Subban set no records nor was he fastest among the defensemen.  Andrei Markov looked particularly strong.

In a numbers game, Douglas Murray was left without a partner for the endurance test.  After the third interval it was clear that Murray was struggling.  Josh Gorges and Francis Bouillon, not yet fully recovered from their own endurance tests stepped in to divide up the remaining laps, providing encouragement by skating along with their new teammate.

Sport Testing is also working at the minor hockey league level using standardized tests to help build an information system that will provide ranges and benchmarks for use by players,  coaches and league administrators.  The testing can help parents answer the question: ‘How can I help my son or daughter improve?’ And hockey isn’t the only sport under the microscope.  The technology used by Sport Testing is adaptable and is being used to test athletes playing football, basketball and rugby. Just prior to their trip to Montreal, the Sport Testing crew was on hand for the National Lacrosse League pro combine. But now, it’s just hours away from puck drop to begin NHL 2013-’14 and all eyes are on hockey. “Know where you stand.” is the mission of Sport Testing.  Assessment that is highly correlated with game success can be extremely valuable to Canadiens management as they put together the pieces of a team to start the new season.  They know what they have (or have a pretty good idea), with the rest of us very anxious to find out. It begins tonight.

Photo Gallery from: Habs Players Put to the Test at Training Camp [PHOTOS]

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Video from: All Habs Rewind – Players Pushed to the Limit at Training Camp [VIDEO]