Jake DeBrusk was at a loss for words when he stepped into the Bruins training facility at Warrior Ice Arena on Thursday.
The first day of Bruins training camp usually keeps all of the players off the ice, with most of the schedule centered around the baseline conditioning tests that everyone on the roster must undergo before a new season gets underway.
Looking back on his days of junior hockey up in Saskatchewan, DeBrusk recalled many “conditioning days” spent trying to best his teammates in the usual gamut of competitions.
“We did pull-ups, beep tests, three different sprint tests,” DeBrusk said of the workout regimen. “Some lateral things like that. Some bench, push-ups and sit-ups. It was actually pretty intense in junior. But you’re competing on your scores that you got last year.”
This year, DeBrusk wasn't looking to pace the pack in the pull-up competition, given some of the other individuals in the room. But, after practicing all summer, he was ready to make a statement on the first official day of the 2019-20 campaign.
“I was aiming for around 20, maybe 15 (chin-ups),” DeBrusk said. “It’s a respectable number. Thirty is like Zee (Zdeno Chara) level. Maybe one day.”
But much to his dismay, when the time came to head over to the chin-up bars, DeBrusk got the bad news.
The competition was wiped from the Bruins’ regular testing this year.
“I was actually a little choked up we didn’t do chin-ups,” he said. “I didn’t even know until yesterday we weren’t doing them … I was coming in hot this year. But it wasn’t meant to be.”
But that doesn’t mean that Boston’s strength and conditioning staff has let the roster off the hook. Rather, it’s a sign that the club is staying ahead of the curve when it comes to finding the best practices to both maximize “power output” while cutting down on overexertion and injury risks during off-ice work.
Whereas steady reps on the bench or on the chin-up bar were once the established barometers when it came to evaluating a player's current conditioning state and prescribing their off-ice regimen throughout the course of a season, new technology has given the Bruins the opportunity to still put in the work in the gym, while also cutting down on some of the wear and tear that comes with the more commonplace routines.
For a player like Kevan Miller, who suffered two fractures in his kneecap over the span of less than two months, limiting the risk away from the ice is paramount, given the beating that hockey players are already penciled in for over the course of a long season. Miller's 2018-19 season was ended for good when the veteran's kneecap popped again while rehabbing off the ice during the Eastern Conference Final.
"They changed things up and I think a lot of it is injury prevention," Miller said. "So we’re just trying to keep guys from training the wrong way during the season. It’s come a long way. … It's power output and it’s all measured on a screen that measures your wattage, your power outage. ... You pull, instead of going overhead, so it’s injury prevention. They’ve come down to a science on it. You get the same results from it. Because you can tell the output and they measure it. At (rep) number three, you’re at 89%. You’re at 92%. It's crazy."
Giving the training staff a detailed report on a player's strength and conditioning without risking overexertion is a welcome sight for Anders Bjork, who enters training camp after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery for the second year in a row. While the winger has had the green light to train and practice regularly for the last couple of months, this new way of thinking does add another layer of security for players already facing a bit of an uphill climb in order to get back into the lineup.
“I think the trainers and staff are really smart now and are sort of looking as to why guys are getting injuries and how we can prevent them," Bjork said. "The cool part about it is that you’re still building strength in those exercises. You’re just doing it in different ways and avoiding things that can lead to overcompensation or potential injuries.
"We did some pulls and stuff like this that put your shoulder in a better position. Just the positioning of it is the main part, because you don’t want to get it into an awkward position with a pull-up or some heavy lifting or stuff like that.”
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Now let’s see how the Marner contract impacts other negotiations. It’s believed Tampa’s last offer to Brayden Point was around three years and $5.7 M AAV... both sides far apart.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) September 14, 2019
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