Barker: Superior fitness is a hallmark of great hockey players

There’s nothing like playoff hockey to showcase the athleticism of Canada’s favourite game. And with three Canadian teams making it into the first round of the NHL playoffs, families from coast to coast are glued to their television sets watching some of the best players in the world vie for the coveted Stanley Cup.  

We’re not the only ones obsessed with a game where the puck travels close to 160 km/h and players reach speeds in excess of 17 km/h. Exercise physiologists have been studying hockey for decades to better understand what it takes to play at the elite level. The findings offer unique insight into what makes the game so exciting to watch.

Hockey is a high-intensity team sport that demands repeated short, 30- to 80-second shifts of fast-paced play followed by two to five minutes of inactive recovery. Players accumulate 15 to 25 minutes of on-ice play during an average game, depending on their position, and cover a total distance of four to six kilometres, which is two to three times less than the distance covered in most other team sports. 

But it’s not the number of times players go end to end that makes the game special. it’s the speed of the game that’s so impressive. 

Fifty per cent of the distance covered over the course of a hockey game is at high speed, featuring numerous changes in direction, quick decelerations and accelerations and plenty of physical contact. Using a series of specialized cameras to capture the play, a research team revealed that NHL players performed 113 bursts of high-intensity, high-speed skating per game with each burst lasting about three to five seconds and covering about 15 to 26 metres of ice — far exceeding the speed required by other team sports. 

The study also revealed that forwards performed 54 per cent more high-intensity efforts than defensive players, which is why their shifts are often shorter. The defence is typically on the ice 47 per cent longer and covers 29 per cent more distance than forwards. 

Superior fitness is the hallmark of great players, with heart rates averaging 85 per cent of maximum capacity over the course of a game and often reaching max or near max levels during most high-intensity shifts. Fitness also plays a part in the ability to recover quickly in anticipation of the next shift. Hockey players generally have a VO2 max of 55-60 ml of oxygen per minute, which is similar to other athletes who play stop-and-go sports, but not close to that of endurance athletes like runners, cross-country skiers and cyclists whose VO2 max hovers near 70 or higher. 

Fitness is key in delaying the fatigue that sets in as the game progresses. Not surprisingly, sprint speed is five to eight per cent higher in periods one and two compared with final period and any overtime. Interestingly, the amount of high-intensity skating actually increases in the third period, but fatigue is probably the reason for a reduction in leg speed.

Research into how to keep skaters’ legs fresher over the course of a 60-minute hockey game discovered that two minutes of recovery on the bench resulted in more performance deficits than three minutes of recovery, suggesting that off-ice shifts need to be closely monitored to ensure players have the energy needed to play at their peak. 

Admittedly, hockey shifts are anything but typical over the course of a game. The number of bursts of speed, changes in direction, stoppages in play and bodily contact vary considerably shift to shift, which means some periods and some games are going to be more physically taxing than others. But research suggests hockey demands about seven bouts of high-intensity activity per minute — more than any other team sport. 

The other unique feature of hockey is the high number of games held per season (82, increasing to 84 in 2026-27), including the number played back to back — often followed by late-night travel to another city. But the hallmarks of post-game fatigue (inflammation, immune and stress hormonal response) are lower in hockey players than in soccer players, largely because of the higher number of recovery shifts and lower overall distance recorded in hockey players versus soccer players who typically play a whole game without substitution. Hence, the ability of hockey players to recover quicker and play more back-to-back games. 

Research remains sparse when it comes to the kind of fatigue that reigns during a playoff run that demands teams make it through four gruelling best-of-seven rounds to win the Stanley Cup. But we do know that injuries can make the difference to a team in the hunt, with lower-body injuries, the knee in particular, the most commonly affected joint. Body checking and collisions with other players are the primary cause of injury, but contact with the puck, a stick or a skate blade can also send a player to the dressing room. 

Here’s hoping injuries don’t play too big a role in this year’s playoff series and that our Canadian teams continue to win. Armed with a new lens to watch the game, we can look on from our armchairs with even greater respect for the players on the ice and what it takes to bring home the Stanley Cup.

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