How saves in virtual reality have turned into on-ice success for NHL goalies

A look at how technology is being used, particularly by Seattle Kraken goalie Joey Daccord.

Cartoon by Sportstoons.

On a typical game day Seattle Kraken goalie Joey Daccord will arrive to the rink around 4:15 pm.

He’ll change out of his suit and then study the pre-scout¹ information Kraken coaches have posted in the locker room, he’ll focus on offensive tendencies for the opponent: where they attack on the power play, how they enter the zone, things an NHL goalie might want to keep in mind before attempting to thwart them that evening.

After that Daccord will head to the trainer’s room, typically routine treatment before a game, and then he’ll strap on a headset and enter virtual reality through a program called NHL Sense Arena to get his head right for that evening.

Daccord’s pre-game routine starts with cognitive drills, different colored pucks will be shot at him, virtually, and he’ll “catch” the pucks with either his glove or blocker hand depending on the color or object.

After that he’ll move into a drill known as “goalie cannon” where robotic shooters will fire pucks, typically a mix of glove and blocker side, where Daccord will focus on which part of the glove and blocker making the virtual save.

Daccord will then finish his virtual warmup with shot from real shooters, which NHL Sense Arena, a Czech-based company, has filmed and then captured and then converted into virtual shots. According to Daccord it’s the most realistic part of the prep because he can track the shot off the blade of a shooter’s stick, like he would in an actual game.

To the outside world, it looks something like this.

Inside the headset, it looks something like this, courtesy of this video from current Norfolk Admirals goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo², who also uses the technology in his pre-game prep in the ECHL.

At the NHL level, Daccord has become the poster child for NHL Sense Arena, he’s featured in the opening credits and you can download his pre-game training program.

For Daccord, who is in his second full season as the Kraken starter³, the virtual reality training was introduced to him by his dad, Brian Daccord, who is currently the goalie coach at Boston University, and worked with NHL Sense Arena in helping them build out a realistic platform.

“I didn’t really expect it to take off like it did and become such a valuable part of my training,” Daccord said. “I think it’s probably because at that time it was setup like a video game, and that’s what it really was, so part of it becoming valuable was it becoming more realistic, more accurate.”

As the technology improved Daccord started using the headset as a training aide, just on off days or instead of taking the ice for an optional morning skate. Eventually he tried it as a pre-game routine before a night he was backing up, which is when his habits started to change.

“I was just backing up that night, so you try something new, and I used it and it was like, ‘wow, I feel really good,’ in warmups,” Daccord said. “And that’s kind of how it came to be something I do every game, it’s something where you feel like you’ve warmed up before you’ve warmed up.”

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One of the reasons I wanted to talk Daccord and write this story is because I, at a much lesser level, have tried do something similar.

Back in August I was in New York City and attended Fanatics Fest. NHL Sense Arena had an activation setup and over the three-day weekend, I had the second-best score of anyone⁴ in the goalie drill and as a prize won access to the platform for a year.

I have since used the platform, when possible, to warmup before making the drive to the rink for my Wednesday night beer league games. So on a night like last night, where we played at 11 pm⁵⁶, I spent 20 minutes stopping virtual pucks in my living.

I have no way of proving how it impacts my performance, they don’t really have advance data⁷ available, but I do feel like I tend to start games stronger, especially when you consider the three-minute “warmup” in beer league isn’t much of a warmup.

They do have data for what Daccord has done in his career, and whether it’s coincidence or causation, his usage of virtual of reality has become a foundational piece in one of the NHL’s best stories, especially in an era where NHL save percentage is getting lower and lower.

Now Daccord isn’t the only NHL goalie to use virtual reality, Buffalo Sabres goalie Devon Levi uses it regularly as well, but he’s the most ardent user.

For example, in a game last season against the Arizona Coyotes he wasn’t feeling right in the first period, his glove hand felt off, and he was beaten on this shot from distance by Matias Maccelli.

During the first intermission he put on the virtual reality headset and made glove saves for close to five minutes, fixing his positioning. The Kraken still lost that game in a shootout, but Daccord credits the virtual saves with him being able to rally and fix his game in the moment.

We often talk about goaltending’s evolution on the ice — the technique, the equipment, etc…. — but we rarely discuss how much goalies started using technology to fire up their brains before one of the most mentally-taxing tasks in sports.

Knowing Daccord’s pre-game routine, popping on a virtual headset, I went and chatted with Detroit Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot.

Talbot is a case study in adaptation, he is one of the NHL’s ultimate journeyman having carved out a dozen years in the league for eight different franchises. This season, now 37, Talbot has a .907 save percentage⁸ and has been one of the reasons Detroit even weathered some of the team’s horrific play during stretches earlier in the season.

Talbot must be doing something right to still be succeeding at the NHL into his late 30s, so I asked how much he uses technology in his pre-game routine.

Talbot doesn’t use a virtual reality headset, but he does use cognitive brain training as part of his game day preparation through a program called Vizual Edge. The sessions take roughly 20 minutes and Talbot will either do them on his iPad with a pair of 3D glasses at home or in the hotel when the team is on the road⁹.

“It’s a lot of recognition and activating quick thinking,” Talbot said. “Like they’ll be four arrows on the screen facing in different directions, and then you get to see it for half a second and then have to type in the proper order they went. There’s also a tracking one, where the arrow will point to different part of the screen and you have to answer where it is, and it tracks how quickly and accurately you answer the question.”

Talbot has been doing the exercises for four seasons now, dating back to his time with the Minnesota Wild. It’s a very new-school approach for an older goalie, who no longer throws a ball against the wall to warmup.

“Yeah I used to do that with the reaction ball, whip it against the ball to get going, get ready and catch it,” Talbot said. “But I got away from all that stuff, it was partially moving to stuff like that (with the iPad) and partially realizing I have to do more to get my body ready for a game.”

For both Daccord and Talbot, and other NHL goalies I’ve spoken to, so much of the position now is about finding ways to maximize mental performance while also limiting physical damage to the body.

Because of how the position is played now, post play in particular, there is more wear and tear on goalies than ever before. It’s one of the primary reasons goalie don’t play 70-plus games anymore¹⁰. With that in mind, more goalies are likely going to find ways to train their brain and work on puck tracking in creative, technology-driven ways

“I think it’s something that you’ll see more of, you get more of the form and function, the puck tracking, and it doesn’t put strain on the body,” Daccord said. “For me, it really is the best of both worlds and it helps me feel better in the real game.”

1. Pre-scout is an oxymoron. All scouting is pre-scouting, but it’s an NHL term, so I guess we’ll use it.

2. Kaskisuo started one NHL game for the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2019-20 season, he was also the third-string “taxi squad” goalie for the Nashville Predators during the 2020-21 season. During that season the Predators had three Finnish goalies with Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros splitting the net before Rinne’s eventual retirement.

3. We actually spoke on the phone Wednesday soon after the Kraken has waived Philipp Grubauer. It was never a surprise that Daccord became the starter this season, but it has been eye-popping how much Seattle has performed with him in net compared to Grubauer.

4. I stopped all 10 virtual shots I faced and had a reaction time or 0.161 seconds. The guy who had the best score had a reaction time 0.104 seconds.

5. And won 4-1 by the way. The Anchormen are on a seven-game win streak and improved to 12-7-1 after starting the season 5-7-1. Friend of the program Max Bultman sparked us last night, roofing a sharp-angle shot over the goalie’s right shoulder in the first period for a 1-0 lead. I’ve compared Max to a beer-league version of Zenon Konopka or a rich man’s Christian Fischer, but after last night we might need to find a better comp for his game.

6. Sorry for the double footnote, but with an 11 pm beer league game, I would be remiss if I didn’t plug The Late Game, the beer league hockey movie I’m in where I play the goalie. You can stream it on various platforms here, and it recently won an award for Best Fiction Film at the 44th annual Paladino d’oro Sport Film Festival.

7. Our league doesn’t even count shots, but by my rough math the Anchormen team goals against average dropped to 3.05 for the season last night.

8. This is fifth-best amongst Canadian goalies in the NHL that qualify, but somehow none of the top-five performing Canadian goalies are on Team Canada for the 4 Nation’s Face-Off.

9. Talbot said this is probably the more practical thing to travel with as an individual because he can just put his iPad and glasses in his bag and it doesn’t take much space. For Daccord, traveling with the VR headset is something the Kraken equipment staff have taken on for him and they make sure it’s charged and ready on game days.

10. That and the fact the backup goalie has never been better. In the 1990s, for example, there was a huge drop-off in play typically between a starter and backup. That gap has shrunk immensely.