Leafs @ Avalanche - Jan. 21st, 9:00pm - SN, TSN 1050

[freer]

I don't need to read that nerd's analytics of oxygen, some guy who's probably never taken a breath in his life.  I actually watch and breathe the air.

Oh dear.. I can sense the sarcasm. 

 

[moon111]

Not unusual to see people jogging around here in a gas mask.  To simulate a reduced oxygen environment in order to produce ?normobaric hypoxia??oxygen deprivation similar to that at high altitude, but at normal atmospheric pressure.

 

[ZBBM]

Frankly, 5280 is not THAT high up.  I have spent considerable time in Denver, including hosting meetings that brought people in from all over the world, and I have never seen anyone get altitude sickness in the city.  Not saying that the issue isn't real, and everyone responds differently.  I just think it's overblown, and hyped by Denver teams for an advantage.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

Frankly, 5280 is not THAT high up.  I have spent considerable time in Denver, including hosting meetings that brought people in from all over the world, and I have never seen anyone get altitude sickness in the city.  Not saying that the issue isn't real, and everyone responds differently.  I just think it's overblown, and hyped by Denver teams for an advantage.

Your meetings were spent playing hockey? If so, are you hiring?

 

[bustaheims]

Frankly, 5280 is not THAT high up.  I have spent considerable time in Denver, including hosting meetings that brought people in from all over the world, and I have never seen anyone get altitude sickness in the city.  Not saying that the issue isn't real, and everyone responds differently.  I just think it's overblown, and hyped by Denver teams for an advantage.

The average person doing average every day things won't notice much of a difference, but it is still there. Being involved in high-end athletic activity when you haven't had time to acclimate . . . that's a completely different issue.

 

[Bonsixx]

I remember hearing about Ryan Clark... pretty specific ailment, but the altitude is certainly enough to affect people:

During a 2007 game against the Denver Broncos at Invesco Field at Mile High, Clark developed severe pain in his left side and had to be rushed to the hospital. It turned out that Clark had suffered a splenic infarction due to the sickle cell trait from which he has suffered since he was a child; these are usually a risk at high altitudes. Clark had to have his spleen and gall bladder removed, ending his season. He lost 30 pounds after the removal, but returned to the Steelers in 2008. Although Clark has been medically cleared to play in Denver's thin air without any complications, the Steelers have deactivated him for the four games they have played in Denver since then

 

[ZBBM]

Frankly, 5280 is not THAT high up.  I have spent considerable time in Denver, including hosting meetings that brought people in from all over the world, and I have never seen anyone get altitude sickness in the city.  Not saying that the issue isn't real, and everyone responds differently.  I just think it's overblown, and hyped by Denver teams for an advantage.

Your meetings were spent playing hockey? If so, are you hiring?

Highly oxygenated athletes in tip-top condition can handle it, ya dig?

 

[OldTimeHockey]

Frankly, 5280 is not THAT high up.  I have spent considerable time in Denver, including hosting meetings that brought people in from all over the world, and I have never seen anyone get altitude sickness in the city.  Not saying that the issue isn't real, and everyone responds differently.  I just think it's overblown, and hyped by Denver teams for an advantage.

Your meetings were spent playing hockey? If so, are you hiring?

Highly oxygenated athletes in tip-top condition can handle it, ya dig?

Oh I know they can handle it better than you or I. That doesn't mean it doesn't effect them more than say the team that calls it their home ice.

 

[bustaheims]

Highly oxygenated athletes in tip-top condition can handle it, ya dig?

It still takes time to acclimatize to the situation, and the less than 24 hours they spent in the city before the game is nowhere near the necessary amount of time.

 

[Kin]

Highly oxygenated athletes in tip-top condition can handle it, ya dig?

It still takes time to acclimatize to the situation, and the less than 24 hours they spent in the city before the game is nowhere near the necessary amount of time.

Does anyone know if it's resulted in any sort of noteworthy or unusually pronounced homefield advantage for Denver teams? Because now would be the time to measure it before the legal pot throws it all off.

 

[Scot4bz]

From what I have read, the difference is in the training/conditioning of athletes who regulary play/train at altitude and not a distinct home field advantage. I could be less than fully informed since my training solely consists of a mid altitude couch regimen.

 

[Arn]

The body needs to work harder at altitude to process the oxygen into the blood. It's why endurance athletes like cyclists and rowers do high altitude training almost directly before their big events. The body adapts to increase the number of red blood cells when at altitude meaning when they go back to lower altitude they're more efficient.

But it takes time to adapt so for a team to go into the altitude for 24 hours they'd probably feel it, yes, as they wouldn't adapt in the time frame.

 

[Chev-boyar-sky]

Highly oxygenated athletes in tip-top condition can handle it, ya dig?

It still takes time to acclimatize to the situation, and the less than 24 hours they spent in the city before the game is nowhere near the necessary amount of time.

As a singer this is very noticeable in Santa Fe (Summer Opera festival).

Takes 2 weeks to acclimatize fully.

Boils down to: more breaths to achieve the same amount of oxygen intake during an aria. Get light headed.

I can only imagine how much worse it'd be as a hockey player.....

 

[Kin]

The body needs to work harder at altitude to process the oxygen into the blood. It's why endurance athletes like cyclists and rowers do high altitude training almost directly before their big events. The body adapts to increase the number of red blood cells when at altitude meaning when they go back to lower altitude they're more efficient.

But it takes time to adapt so for a team to go into the altitude for 24 hours they'd probably feel it, yes, as they wouldn't adapt in the time frame.

That would still show up in a home winning percentage vs. expected home winning percentage, wouldn't it?

 

[OldTimeHockey]

The body needs to work harder at altitude to process the oxygen into the blood. It's why endurance athletes like cyclists and rowers do high altitude training almost directly before their big events. The body adapts to increase the number of red blood cells when at altitude meaning when they go back to lower altitude they're more efficient.

But it takes time to adapt so for a team to go into the altitude for 24 hours they'd probably feel it, yes, as they wouldn't adapt in the time frame.

That would still show up in a home winning percentage vs. expected home winning percentage, wouldn't it?

Wouldn't 'expected home winning percentage' be hard to determine?

 

[Arn]

The body needs to work harder at altitude to process the oxygen into the blood. It's why endurance athletes like cyclists and rowers do high altitude training almost directly before their big events. The body adapts to increase the number of red blood cells when at altitude meaning when they go back to lower altitude they're more efficient.

But it takes time to adapt so for a team to go into the altitude for 24 hours they'd probably feel it, yes, as they wouldn't adapt in the time frame.

That would still show up in a home winning percentage vs. expected home winning percentage, wouldn't it?

I dunno how you'd quantify it though to be honest. Better than league average? But then there could be other reasons for a teams home record to be better than league average.

Where I think it might have an impact would be on the players overall fitness. Their aerobic capacity may be better than players who train and play more at "normal" altitude. It's a fitness thing here though so I'm not sure how that would reflect. Maybe more late goals than average?

 

[Rebel_1812]

The body needs to work harder at altitude to process the oxygen into the blood. It's why endurance athletes like cyclists and rowers do high altitude training almost directly before their big events. The body adapts to increase the number of red blood cells when at altitude meaning when they go back to lower altitude they're more efficient.

Sounds like we need to start putting asterisks beside the achievements of these athletes.

 

[Kin]

Wouldn't 'expected home winning percentage' be hard to determine?

Depends on how in depth you wanted to get with it, I suppose. If you know what percentage of games home teams win throughout NHL history(say, as a hypothetical, that it's 55%) and you know how a team performs on the road then you should be able to figure out what they should do at home.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Yeah, but he still interviews like a potato.

He interviews like a typical athlete - giving canned answers to predictable questions. On the very rare occasion he gets caught off guard by an actually interesting question, he generally answers them with some personality.

The start and end of his post-game interview against Colorado was amazing:

http://video.mapleleafs.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=544197&catid=802

Some context, it was his first media scrum in about 3 weeks.

 

[ZBBM]

Highly oxygenated athletes in tip-top condition can handle it, ya dig?

It still takes time to acclimatize to the situation, and the less than 24 hours they spent in the city before the game is nowhere near the necessary amount of time.

As a singer this is very noticeable in Santa Fe (Summer Opera festival).

Takes 2 weeks to acclimatize fully.

Boils down to: more breaths to achieve the same amount of oxygen intake during an aria. Get light headed.

I can only imagine how much worse it'd be as a hockey player.....

You sing at the Santa Fe opera?  I'm impressed. What kind of repertoire?

But I would also point out that Santa Fe is over seven grand in altitude. That's getting into serious height.