DENVER (AP) \u2014 Gabriel Landeskog wears the small sensors in the insoles of his skates for practices and games. He wears them in his sneakers when he\u2019s training and, maybe most handy of all, while taking his dog for a walk.<\/p>\n
Those spins around the block and ice record all of his biomechanical measurements. The numbers provided a blueprint in helping the Colorado Avalanche captain<\/a> resume his career after a three-year gap<\/a> caused by a complicated knee injury. Now, they keep him at his gritty, goal-scoring best.<\/p>\n The collected data ranges from movement patterns to his asymmetry and whether he\u2019s favoring his surgically repaired right knee. It calculates in-game\/in-practice workloads, stride characteristics and the mechanics of how his feet interact with various surfaces \u2014 ground or ice. <\/p>\n Basically, the details paint a picture to inform Landeskog<\/a> when he\u2019s reaching maximum capacity and needs a break. That way, it prevents him from reaching overexertion levels in training that might set him back for days, possibly even weeks. <\/p>\n \u201cThis detects any red flags before I even feel them,\u201d said Landeskog, whose team trails Vegas 3-0 in a Western Conference Final in which he has two of the Avalanche\u2019s six goals. \u201cIt\u2019s been super important for me, and a huge help.\u201d<\/p>\n The assist goes to Plantiga, an AI-driven movement platform that helps athletes stay on top of their game and prevent injuries. The company\u2019s cutting-edge technology is being utilized by players and teams in the NBA, NFL, WNBA and MLB, along with colleges, elite sprinters, weekend warriors and, of course, NHL players such as Landeskog.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to detect is the smoke before the fire,\u201d explained Matthew Jordan, a scientific adviser to Plantiga as well as an associate professor, faculty of kinesiology\/sport medicine center, at the University of Calgary. \u201cImagine you\u2019re at the point where your knee is just at the cusp of, \u2018My knee\u2019s killing me. I can hardly walk.\u2019 We can see this in the data before you reach that tipping point.\u201d<\/p>\n Landeskog\u2019s return from knee injury<\/p>\n Landeskog\u2019s knee issues began after a skate blade cut his right knee during the 2020 playoffs in the Edmonton bubble. He worked his way through it and helped the Avalanche to a Stanley Cup title in 2022<\/a> by beating Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n That Cup clincher, though, was his last game for a while. After missing a full season, Landeskog underwent cartilage replacement surgery on May 10, 2023. <\/p>\n Introduction to Plantiga<\/p>\n In the spring of 2024, Landeskog was introduced to Plantiga, the Vancouver-based human analytics company founded by Quin Sandler and his late father, Norman McKay. They wanted to create a way to monitor the movement of athletes with wearable in-shoe technology.<\/p>\n Landeskog reached out to the Plantiga team through strength and conditioning coach Marcin Goszczynski. The 33-year-old Landeskog met with Jordan at a game when the Avalanche were playing in Calgary.<\/p>\n \u201cWe discussed his injury and his frustration with the process,\u201d Jordan recounted. \u201cYou have to remember at this point the tunnel was dark and long \u2014 there was no light … we were miles from the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n Jordan connected Landeskog with a Canadian ski racer who went through a similar injury.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a relief for Gabe to know that another athlete out there had been able to conquer this injury,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cHas among the best mindsets, and he is 100% resilient and gritty to the core.\u201d<\/p>\n By utilizing \u201cNorman,\u201d the movement intelligence layer named after Sandler\u2019s father, potential changes in Landeskog\u2019s biomechanics were flagged before they could escalate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to put really good data (together) that him and his trainer will use,\u201d Sandler said. \u201cThere\u2019s this fine Goldilocks zone that we help him stay in, and honestly he\u2019s been killing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Staying on top of the data<\/p>\n Landeskog returned last season for Game 3 of the playoffs against Dallas, which was his first NHL contest in some 1,032 days<\/a>. His comeback continued this season, when he had 14 goals and 21 assists over 60 regular-season games. <\/p>\n Throughout the season, Jordan tunes in to watch Landeskog\u2019s strides on the ice. He sometimes notes instances he wants to examine further simply because the numbers may be outside the Swedish forward\u2019s normal range. <\/p>\n \u201cEssentially, put out the \u2018smoke\u2019 before it turns into a \u2018fire,\u2019\u201d Jordan explained. \u201cIn an athlete\u2019s world, a fire can mean a new injury, a reinjury to the tissue, a loss of performance or a setback in rehab.\u201d<\/p>\n This application is similar to the Oura Ring, which constantly collects health and wellness metrics. Plantiga, though, tracks human movement through a laboratory-grade inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor that captures 400 data points per second.<\/p>\n Translation: An athlete\u2019s movement can be captured with 20-to-30 times more granularity than a smart phone or watch.<\/p>\n \u201cA supercharged human movement measuring device,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n One way to get a baseline for Landeskog\u2019s gait and biomechanics was through walking. For that, an assist goes to his dogs, the late Zoey and now Mila, who were eager participants on those data-collecting excursions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can see subtle things in your walk patterns well before it manifests as something very clinical or significant,\u201d Jordan said.<\/p>\n Taking out the guesswork<\/p>\n What the data did for Landeskog was take the guesswork out of his training program.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019d get on the ice and be like, \u2018Oh, I feel good today.\u2019 Jordan said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018I think I\u2019m just going to go hard. I feel like my knee feels really good. Oh (no), I went too far. My knee\u2019s flared up. I\u2019ve got to take a week off.\u2019 With all these setbacks he couldn\u2019t catch any progression.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, when the numbers indicate he should rest, he pays attention. He\u2019s a finalist for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the NHL player who exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m humbled and honored by it, but I think for me, the ultimate prize I\u2019ve already won,\u201d Landeskog said. \u201cThat\u2019s to continue working and getting to play hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Whyno reported from New York.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 Gabriel Landeskog wears the small sensors in the insoles of his skates for practices and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[20509,36933,3829,3832,6659,12640,97,16234,1614,1058,385,13145,291520,1060,79,99,291519,74,31230],"class_list":["post-667434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-athlete-injuries","tag-calgary","tag-co-state-wire","tag-colorado","tag-fires","tag-gabriel-landeskog","tag-health","tag-matthew-jordan","tag-national-hockey-league","tag-nevada","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-hockey","tag-norman-mckay","tag-nv-state-wire","tag-science","tag-sports","tag-stanley-cup-finals","tag-technology","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}