Staying strong: Stars’ strength and conditioning staff a critical key to on-ice success

The Stars aspire to be one of the best “High Performance Teams” in the NHL, and that can be a big deal at times like this.

Dallas struggled coming out of the Christmas Break, going 2-6-3 while looking frustrated on the ice. With the team shutting down for almost three weeks because of the Olympic Break, head coach Glen Gulutzan wanted to be very intentional about avoiding a repeat.

“We saw what happened there, and so we want to do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Gulutzan said. “So we set up a little training camp here, and we talked with those guys, and we feel good about what we’re doing.”

“Those guys” are Dr. Troy Van Biezen, Director of Sports Performance and Sports Science, Mike Donoghue, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach, and the rest of their crew. Both were hired in 2023 as part of a big push by GM Jim Nill to expand that part of the organization and have been working for the past three seasons to get to a place where handling a challenge like this can go pretty smoothly. In fact, the work that takes place all year makes these situations more opportunity than challenge.

“It’s a daily process,” said Van Biezen. “I’ve always wanted a player-driven culture, where the players push each other, and I think we have that now.”

Van Biezen has been Stars adjacent for years. The native of Calgary worked with local PGA players for years and then was called in as a specialist to help with past Stars teams because of his hockey background. When the Stars decided they wanted to expand the strength and conditioning department, they asked Van Biezen to head the effort.

“You want to do everything you can to make sure you have the best team, and he really has put together a good team,” said Nill. “It’s so much more than we used to have.”

Like most NHL teams, Dallas had a strength coach and some additional staff to fill in the gaps. What Van Biezen did was really dig in and bring all of the support crew and cutting edge technology on a daily basis.

Donoghue is the main man in the trenches each day with assistant Terrance McLellan. But Lindsey Salwasser works as a nutritionist, Dr. Anthony Lyssy contributes in medicine and Arjun Parmar (PhD) works as a Sports Scientist.

The team looks into all aspects of performance and does everything it can to help the players optimize their bodies. They help the players train better and recover better with nutrition, game-day hydration/energy strategies and monitoring player workloads.

“As I get older, I think I understand the preparation more, and I do think it helps a lot – not only to be strong and ready to go, but injury prevention,” said Jason Robertson, who has had some of the most measurable improvement. “You look at players like (Joe Pavelski) and (Jamie Benn) and you see how important it is as you get older. You can really extend your career and keep playing your best.”

It’s a mercurial industry, so Van Biezen wants his staff to be creative and comprehensive.

“I think the biggest part of my job was asking the players what they needed and trying to get them that,” Van Biezen said. “And then, along with that, it was raising the bar, raising the standards. The players really bought in, and I think that has been notable. Now, it’s just trying to see what we can do to get even better. It’s finding the right ‘number’ and testing systems and then using that data to help the players train better.”

Donoghue’s enthusiasm is a key component in implementing the information and the data. A product of the Boston area, Donoghue has worked his way up through the hockey trenches and gained a great deal of experience along the way. He was in the AHL with Springfield and Coachella Valley as well as in the NHL with Florida, and that has helped build who he is today.

“I was able to work with so many good people and get so many good ideas, and I think that helps,” Donoghue said. “And then you’re learning every day here, and that’s huge.”

Donoghue said he has been able to stay present in each job, and that’s been key. Instead of seeking the next step, he just wanted to be the best he can be each and every day.

“He’s got such great energy and the players feel that,” Van Biezen said. “You’re in here before a game, and it’s great energy. He finds a way to make all of this fun.”

The staff worked up a routine called “power camp,” and it basically is a series of activities that prepare the body for competition. All of the activities can be customized for the individual, but some things like “pogo jumps” and “ballistic work” can help get muscles firing.

“Team warmups aren’t popular, so then we adjusted and offered some different options,” Donoghue said. “We had a couple of guys who started, and then more wanted to get on board.

“You need to get your body warm, you need to create some excitement in the muscles, you need to work on range of motion,” he added. “Every time it’s a little different, and they really have bought into it.”

In fact, the mental end of the process might be just as important. It happened that way in a similar manner with the post-flight stretching sessions. Van Biezer and Donoghue felt that there was something the team could do better to mitigate the effects of traveling, so they started a stretching session as soon as they got to the hotel after a flight.

It was a small group at first, but when captain Benn and the leadership group started pushing it, it became much bigger.

“I get it, everyone has stuff they want to do when they get to a new city, but once you get them in there and they see it helps, it really does become a fun thing,” Donoghue said. “It’s not something you have to do, it’s become a fun bonding experience.”

Dallas has the second-best road record in the league at 18-7-6 this season. And while there are several reasons for that, the post-flight stretch certainly doesn’t hurt.

“They put us in a good position to feel good on the ice,” Benn said. “There are young guys in here who can learn a lot on how to take care of their bodies. For me, it’s much of the same. The older you get, the more you have to do. Those guys do a great job.”

Matt Duchene said he likes the routines he has forged over a 17-year NHL career, but that he is open to tweaking what he does and he loves to use the High Performance Team as a sounding board. He said the younger players are forming their habits in a new way.

“I have my own stuff, but I think they are doing great stuff with the young guys,” Duchene said. “You can see just how they are building every year they are here, and that’s fun to watch. Troy and Mike are unbelievable. We’re blessed to have them.”

There are plenty of numbers that can help support the work. Players are tracked on skating speed, and if they see improvement in that area, it can be a huge boost to both on-ice performance and to wanting to lean in even harder to workout. They get feedback on all manner of metrics garnered through testing of blood and oxygen.

Again, the landscape is changing every day. There is new information and the staff is learning how to use the information.

Gulutzan worked with a strong team in Edmonton and said he has been impressed with what he is seeing in Dallas.

“It all boils down to building the athlete up and doing it the right way. It’s a way to monitor guys to get the best performance,” Gulutzan said. “It’s important for 82 games to keep the energy level up, and when you can do that, that’s big for everyone.”

And Van Biezen said the challenge goes beyond 82 games.

“I’m always looking at the playoffs,” he said.

While other sports might look at rest as a way to be stronger in the playoffs, Van Biezen said he believes work can be a way to be stronger.

“We talk all the time about building up that resilience, building up that capacity, building up that chronic workload,” Van Biezen said. “Because we want to do this for April when the intensity is so high that they are physically and emotionally ready for it. We are all aligned on that.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.