The best hopes of Quebec hockey will fly away in the coming days for Prince Edward Island. For what ? To participate in the most prestigious minor hockey tournament in the country. That of the Canada Games.
This tournament, presented every four years, pits the best under-16 players from each province against each other. The caliber is raised. Fifty-five players drafted into the National League were included in 2019. Among them: Mason McTavish, Shane Wright, Cole Sillinger and Joshua Roy. The Quebecers caused a surprise by winning the gold medal – their first title in 32 years. The Quebec women came back with the silver medal.
The director of the Quebec delegation, Marcel Patenaude, of Hockey Quebec, was obviously delighted with the results. “Except that I didn’t like our player evaluation process in the months leading up to the tournament,” he confides, four years later.
Surprising words, given Quebec’s success in Red Deer.
“It was too arbitrary. We brought players into the program. We were coming out. Then we brought back young people who had already been cut, because they had just experienced good performances. For the 2023 Games, I wanted to find a different process. Was it possible to predetermine certain things? To make correlations between certain elements? To reduce the arbitrary aspect? »
Oui.
Comment ?
With the help of scientists.
Jean Lemoyne is a professor in the department of physical activity sciences at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR). He also directs the Hockey Research Laboratory. He is one of the best sports heads in the province. When Hockey Quebec received a government grant to develop a support project for its elite athletes, the federation turned to him. The National Institute of Sport also joined the consortium.
Professor Lemoyne and his team of researchers – master’s and doctoral students – began their work in 2021.
The idea was to develop a new evaluation estimate. We took over what already existed in the Équipe Québec program, then we gave it added value, drawing inspiration from science.
Jean Lemoyne, professor in the department of physical activity sciences at UQTR and director of the Hockey Research Laboratory
The research group first read dozens and dozens of studies, to choose the tests they would conduct. “We then introduced new tests. Forward skating, speed and agility events, for example. »
During the first training camp, in the summer of 2021, there were 160 athletes: 80 boys and 80 girls. “Several tests allowed us to distinguish the girls, but not the boys.
– For what ?
– Because the pool of elite players among girls is smaller. The best stood out more easily. In the ice sprint test, it was striking. Whereas with the guys, there wasn’t that much of a difference. To find discriminating values in our tests, it would perhaps have been necessary to invite 300 boys. »
Jean Lemoyne and his acolytes therefore returned to their premises to refine their protocol. They came back a year later with new tests.
Lots of new tests.
Anaerobic tests. Power tests. Tests that approached the action of a match. Psychological tests, too. For the leaders of Hockey Quebec, it was important to understand how the players could react in certain circumstances.
Players were interviewed and completed questionnaires. We were able to check their capacity for resilience and their level of anxiety.
Jean Lemoyne, professor in the department of physical activity sciences at UQTR and director of the Hockey Research Laboratory
The data was used by the National Institute of Sport, responsible for the mental preparation of athletes. “We also asked the players to identify potential team leaders and judge the level of collaboration of their teammates. It allowed us to make a sociogram of the group,” continues Jean Lemoyne.
From summer 2021 to December 2022, there were six rounds of testing. In parallel, the researchers also analyzed the advanced statistics of the players, with their local club. They acquired enough knowledge about each athlete for Marcel Patenaude to ask Jean Lemoyne to make him a list.
His final selection for Team Quebec.
“I knew all their stats and our test results, but I had never seen them play a game in person! “says Jean Lemoyne.
Marcel Patenaude then compared this list with that of Hockey Quebec.
Result: the lists were 90% similar.
“The best were easy to identify,” says Jean Lemoyne. We probably didn’t need all that data to find them. But for the 10e11e12e forwards, there were some differences. The coaches were curious. They asked us why we preferred certain players over others. As everything was set up, we could justify our choices. »
Marcel Patenaude appreciated the approach.
The final selections are ours. But sometimes we paid more particular attention to a player who was recommended to us. It gave us more material to prepare for the Games.
Marcel Patenaude, director of the Quebec delegation
A student from UQTR will accompany the Quebec delegation to Prince Edward Island to collect new data. In particular, on the level of fatigue of the athletes during the competition.
And after ?
“The research could take different turns,” says Jean Lemoyne. We will study the performance of the two teams, check who had a good or bad tournament, and try to see what parameters could have predicted their performance. »
It is gratifying to see that Hockey Québec is teaming up with researchers in a large-scale project such as this. Let’s hope there will be a follow-up, and that this work will one day help Quebec regain its place in the world hockey elite.
