Mike Cammalleri’s personal trainer, Matt Nichol (left), chats with The Varsity’s Elisabeth Laratta (right) during BioSteel Sports Pro Hockey Week. Gamachephoto
Montreal Canadiens left-winger and playoff superstar, Mike Cammalleri, has confidence in Canadiens goaltender, Carey Price, and believes that his team — who made it to last year’s Eastern Conference Finals — will be even better this season than they were last.
Cammalleri, who previously played with the Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames, signed a five-year contract with Montreal last summer, and has been busy in the off-season preparing for the soon-approaching 2010-2011 regular NHL season.
I got the chance to sit down with Cammy in the middle of one of his off-ice workouts during the BioSteel Sports Pro Hockey Week that took place at St. Michael’s College School during the week of August 16. In addition to Cammalleri, NHL stars and up-and-comers such as Montreal’s P.K. Subban and Boston’s Tyler Seguin were also in attendance.
Noticeably fun and easy-going, Cammalleri joked that I should join him on the field for drills and sprints. Regardless of whether or not I was up to the task, I hadn’t brought my runners and was forced to stick to the sidelines.
Cammalleri, a native of Richmond Hill, Ontario, looked right at home in Montreal during last season’s playoffs. He led all post-season scorers with 13 goals, including those players who made it to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Undoubtedly, much of the Canadiens’ post-season success can be attributed to goalie Jaroslav Halak, who started and played in 18 games. Halak impressively stopped 92.3 per cent of the shots he faced — a higher save percentage than any other goalie in the league.
Halak led the Canadiens’ to unlikely victories over the top-ranked Washington Capitals and reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins, before falling to the Philadelphia Flyers.
To the surprise of many fans, after the playoffs the Canadiens’ opted to trade Halak to the St. Louis Blues for forwards Ian Schultz and Lars Eller, and to stick with goaltender Carey Price.
Approximately 5,000 fans showed up on September 4 in Montreal to bid farewell to and receive autographs from Halak before he headed out of town.
Halak was clearly a fan favourite, and Price will need to improve this season to win crowds over.
Price struggled last regular season with 13 wins, 20 losses, and five ties to his record and a 2.77 goals-against average — which ranked him 31st in the league.
Despite the disparities between the two goaltenders’ statistics, Cammalleri not only believes the Canadiens will move forward after losing their post-season superstar, but thinks that he and his teammates will fare better.
“We’re a similar group coming back. We have a couple changes. We’ve got a lot of confidence in Carey Price. I think Jaroslav will do great in St. Louis, but I expect for us to be a better team this year than we were last,” said Cammalleri.
Cammalleri believes that he and his teammates will be able to translate last year’s success into the new season.
“We learned a lot about each other and we’re getting better. It’s all about improving and moving on forward,” he said.
Before Cammalleri or any of his teammates can worry whether or not the right decision was made to chuck Halak and hold on to Price — who recently signed a two-year contract for a reported $5.5 million U.S. — they must focus on being ready for the pre-season, which begins for them on September 22 against the Boston Bruins at home in the Bell Center.
Cammalleri, who was plagued by a late-season knee injury, knows the importance of coming into the season in great shape.
“The more I prepare myself off the ice, the better I am on the ice. The off-ice training has become more and more important to hockey players,” said Cammalleri.
Training during the BioSteel camp was different for Cammalleri as he was surrounded by other non-teammate NHL players, but the drills and their high levels of intensity didn’t differ from his regular off–season regimen.
Cammalleri, who really enjoys his off-ice training, said the drills he performs help the players to be explosive, flexible, strong and stable so that when they get on the ice they can just go.
From the sidelines, I took in the sheer athleticism and honest dedication that Cammalleri puts into his training. This guy takes himself just as seriously off the ice at a high school track field as he does on an NHL stage.
Between drills I grabbed Matt Nichol, Cammalleri’s personal trainer and the man behind the BioSteel sports supplement name.
Judging from his build, Nichol truly does practice what he preaches.
Nichol trains various types of professional and Olympic athletes in football, bobsleigh, basketball, and tennis, but he believes that hockey players need the widest range of skills.
“Hockey is a really cool sport to train guys for because they need everything. They need to be fast, they need to be strong,” said Nichol.
Nichol, who had the players doing a mish-mash of intensive drills, said, “It’s a contact sport, so they need to be ready to absorb all the collision. They have to move in multiple directions. They need tons and tons of hip mobility.”
Training at the NHL level isn’t easy, but Cammalleri and his team decided to let two contest winners join them off and on the ice for a day.
Michel Gamache and Ramanan Jegatheeswaran were brought to the camp so that they could experience a day in the life of an NHL player in the off-season.
Cammalleri said the new recruits were doing great, “keeping up, and having a great time.”.
After the off-ice training, I headed to the arena to sneak a peek at their on-ice practice.
The drills performed were similar to those performed at lower skill level practices, although often combining two or more drills to form one giant, complex one. They were performed, however, with accurate precision at top speeds.
Besides the track and training work that is part of Cammalleri’s off-ice regime, he incorporates his other favourite sport, golf, into his training.
“I like to golf, but I actually find that it has a negative effect on my body so I only golf early in the summer. I don’t really golf in August at all when we ramp up the training, but I do enjoy it,” said Cammalleri.
With the season creeping up quickly, Cammalleri won’t be playing golf anytime soon and is “excited to get going” this regular season, which begins for Montreal here in Toronto on October 7 at the Air Canada Centre.
