After each and every Maple Leafs practice, a figure, mostly unknown to the public, stalks around the team?s dressing room and scoops up palm-size devices that look like beepers and blink both green and red.
He?s Jeremy Bettle, the club?s director of sports science and performance, and he?s picking up the individual GPS units players wear at practice ? there?s also a vest ? that provide all kinds of data on health and fitness.
With Bettle on board, the Leafs are taking a different approach to managing the health and fitness of their players, most prominently in the recent alliance with Catapult Sports, responsible for those funky new devices.
There appears to be a better effort to keep players fresh throughout the season.
On Thursday, for example, after games on Monday and Wednesday and with a back-to-back coming up this weekend, the team was held off the ice. Practice had been originally scheduled for noon, but was cancelled.
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?We chose today to get better through our video process, through individual meetings, through our strength training and we stayed off the ice,? Babcock said of his decision for Thursday. ?We hope to have good energy.?
He added his aim to have the sports science division ?as involved as you possibly can.?
?Energy?s real important and rest is a weapon,? Babcock said, ?But so is keeping the motor running and skating and getting better.?
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There?s apparent change, too, in the eating habits of the team. Historically in Buffalo, for example, boxes of pizza and greasy chicken wings would sit in the centre of the visiting dressing room post-game. Earlier this month, the spread, in striking contrast, included various berries and other fruit, but no wings or pizza.
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Already catching the eye of players is the team?s approach to injury prevention. According to forward Brad Boyes, the idea is to be pro-active rather than reactive.
?This is the first team I?ve seen that?s really taken a step into doing preventative treatment versus treating injuries and it makes so much more sense,? said the 33-year-old.
Boyes, for example, has had groin and back troubles over his 11-year career and though they?ve not acted up this fall, he?s still getting treatment there to make sure nothing pops up.
?It?s like getting your oil changed all the time versus getting it [done] only when it breaks down,? he said.
