2021-09-08 07:00:00
When Pierre Allard arrived in the Canadiens organization in 2010 as a physical preparation consultant, the team only did group training. We asked the same things of all the players, the same recipe applied wall to wall, and by the grace of God.
Eleven years later, when Allard had just left the team, not only had the CH learned under his leadership to individualize training and tailor it to each individual’s needs, but the team now worked with a wealth of data that technology in recent years has brought to it, such as the distance covered during matches or the number of sprints that a player performs in a single match.
The science and performance niche continues to develop in the NHL, but Allard has decided to redirect his involvement in hockey by leaving the Habs this summer for a position as assistant coach with the Red Bull Munich.
“My contract with the Canadian had come to an end and there was interest from both sides in me staying, and I am leaving on very good terms,” Allard said the day following Red Bull’s first match in the Champions League.
“I have always been treated very well by the Canadiens organization and I have also been able to grow through the team with my courses at university and the master’s degree that I have been able to obtain. For me, it was a win-win because the Canadian now has its sports science department. I feel like I’m leaving a great legacy. »
On August 9, the Canadian announced the appointment of Adam Douglas to head the department established by Allard. The two men know each other well as Douglas worked for the Catapult company, which supplies the team with its data-sensing bibs. Dominique Ducharme also knows Douglas since the latter was a physical trainer at Hockey Canada at the time when Ducharme managed the junior national team.
“The organization is in good hands,” said Allard, who identifies the sports science department as his greatest achievement during his years with the Canadian.
It should be noted that the CH was one of the first NHL teams to implement such a structure, and that it managed to really distinguish itself from other teams by its level of effectiveness in preventing injuries and managing returns to play.
“It’s to Marc Bergevin’s credit because I had a meeting with him, I told him how important it was that we move forward with this, and he told me given carte blanche to set up the department from scratch, specifies Allard. So it was the confidence that the organization showed me and having the opportunity to build a team that made it possible to bring players back into the game faster and take care of the athletes. It was really the group work we did together and the chemistry we had with (athletic therapist) Graham Rynbend and his team. I really liked that atmosphere. »
The decision to leave was Allard’s. The last year has been difficult for everyone and has made them question themselves. Hence this growing desire to dive back into coaching, a field he had dabbled in for five years in Midget AAA before destiny brought him into the field of physical training.
As luck would have it, Red Bull head coach Don Jackson – a man he had met before he even joined the Canadian – was looking for another assistant, and Allard had established links with the The German organization since the day Red Bull came to visit the Canadian’s facilities in Brossard.
“As an assistant coach, I mainly look following the young people in the organization,” explains Allard. In the DEL, we are required to dress three German players under the age of 23. To have three who are always available, we have five or six – and sometimes seven – with the organization. My job is to ensure their development. Before and following practices, I stay on the ice with them to do extra. I also help with pre-scouting at 5-on-5 and following the matches, I break down the attendance of our young people in the organization to review their attendance with them and ensure that they are progressing. It’s a role that is truly multiple. »
It’s also a role that Red Bull allows him to learn at a pace that suits him. The professional requirements in North America would not have allowed him, for example, to get into coaching by becoming an assistant coach with the Laval Rocket. The pace is too frantic.
Allard, however, is leaving at a time when the NHL is entering a whole new era, which has finally put in place a tracking system allowing it to collect new data for the benefit of the teams. Until then, through the portable Catapult technologies he uses in training, the Canadian had set up his own data bank to manage workloads and training volumes. The data now provided by the NHL opens up entirely new horizons, and Allard got his first glimpse of it last season.
Each unit carried by a player transmits ten data per second throughout the match. This results in huge Excel files and raw information that must then be filtered.
“During the first part of the year, when we started receiving the data, it was regarding cleaning it and removing the noise,” explains Allard. The data might say that a player accelerated to 90 km/h, but in reality he was hit or fell. After cleaning that up, we were able to have data where we saw the distances covered by the players, the speeds they had reached. We were able to create our speed banks; we knew the number of sprints a player had done. It helped us a lot in managing the players’ workload because we were able to have data that was similar to that we had during training. »
The teams are just beginning to scratch the surface of the information that can be extracted from it. In the NFL, data collected in a similar way allows players’ patterns to be clearly seen on the field and, over time, this can reveal trends. It’s only a matter of time before NHL teams acquire this kind of knowledge.
Allard really had to want to move on so as not to plunge into this new world. However, following having accumulated theoretical knowledge for years, Allard was at the point where he wanted to put it into practice himself. However, even in different functions, he keeps in mind this idea of gradually developing the physical abilities of the young people he trains in order to maximize their potential.
“I felt our job was good, we do a lot of data, but we work in an office and print reports. “That’s not what I was tempted to do,” he admitted. I wanted to directly apply what I learned on the field with the players. And there, working with young people, I know that in two or three years, they will be our main players in the Red Bull organization. »
It will therefore be up to Adam Douglas to push the Canadian for innovation linked to the raw data provided by the NHL. In an era where no competitive advantage should be left to chance, science and technology are creating a sort of small space conquest, or arms race.
In this regard, we will have to see if the new director of sports science and performance at the Canadiens will oversee what concerns statistical analysis as it is normally understood in the league. Allard’s main concern was the players’ physical performance and recovery data. He was less involved in statistical analysis.
“We have taken steps forward,” he nevertheless said on this subject. It is certain that there are teams which clearly display on their website the members of their department ofanalytics with six, seven or eight people involved. We didn’t have anyone full-time with the organization, but there were several people, whether from the University of Montreal or consultants. But without me disclosing certain elements, there were a lot more people involved than it might seem. »
Allard’s replacement with Douglas is not the one that has made the most noise this summer, probably because the impact of their work is hidden from the public eye. But following a decade of entrusting the physical conditioning of his players to the same person, this change for the Canadian is not trivial.
Let’s just hope that it will have positive repercussions.
(Photo: EHC Red Bull Munchen / City-Press)
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