On Lian Bichsel taking and giving hits and properly recovering from all of the collisions

When you throw a hit you also feel the impact, so how does the Stars hit leader recover after each game?

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Whether he plays in the Dallas Stars regular season finale tonight or not, Lian Bichsel is going to finish as the team leader in hits.

And it’s not close.

Bichsel has been credited with 155 hits this season, 42 more than Jamie Benn and then nearly double anyone else on the roster.

It’s even more jarring when you consider Bichsel only has played 38 games, less than half the season, and his 16.43 hits per 60 ranks 25th in the NHL amongst players with at least 25 NHL games this season.

On a team that ranks 31st in the league in hits this season, only the Edmonton Oilers have less, Bichsel is an outlier.

Before we get into the crux of this story, I think it’s important to discuss what a “hit” means in the NHL, and why the Stars tend to have fewer than the rest of the league.

A hit by NHL statisticians is defined as “when a player makes forceful, legal, and intentional body-to-body contact with an opponent who has the puck or has just given it up, causing the opponent to lose possession.”

That definition is certainly open to some interpretation by various stat keepers, so we are already dealing with a flawed stat when it comes to standard. What is a hit in Dallas, for example, might not be considered a hit to the stat crew in Columbus, for example.

Hits are also often reflective of puck possession.

Here are the teams with least amount of hits this season.

Here are the teams with the highest percentage of shot attempts for, you’ll notice some crossover with the Carolina Hurricanes, Edmonton Oilers, and Utah Hockey Club.

If you have the puck more, you have less need to deliver hits.

Now there are some teams, the Florida Panthers, for example that find a way to be the chaotic best of both worlds. The Panthers are second in shot attempts and also lead the league in hits, by a wide margin.

So this isn’t a debate of whether hits are good or bad, rather it’s a discussion I wanted to have about the physical impact on the hitter, not necessarily the person receiving the blow.

This will get us back to Bichsel, if you are still following me.

In addition to his NHL hits, Bichsel had 62 credited hits in 27 AHL games this season with the Texas Stars, according to InStat. That’s at 217 collisions this season involving Bichsel, where he’s been the aggressor in a collision. He’s also been on the receiving end of 104 hits this season according to InStat.

That’s at least 321 collisions for Bichsel in games since October and doesn’t account for a myriad of other things that could have happened in practice, in-game board battles, and other things that are counted as “hits” by stat keepers.

On all of those incidents, whether he’s the aggressor or the one taking the hit, Bichsel is still involved in that collision. And while he’s typically taken the better end of it with his 6-foot-7, 231-pound frame, it’s a lot on the body — and it’s not going to get any easier in the NHL playoffs.

“I think sometimes I probably feel the hit even more than the other guy who I’m hitting,” Bichsel said. “Especially along the boards or something, I might take something from them and the boards, for example. But it has to be part of my game, that’s my sacrifice to my team. If you are gonna hit someone, no matter how big they are you are gonna feel it at least a little every time.”

Which is why recovery and understanding that early in his career is so vital for the 20-year-old.

“It was always important over seasons (playing in Sweden last season), but there is more of it here (in the NHL and AHL),” Bichsel said. “You also play more on weekends in Europe, you get more time, here there is less time to be off your feet, properly heal between games.”

That’s why Bichsel has adopted a pretty strict post-game routine.

After each game, no matter the result, Bichsel will typically do a post-game lift, typically including squats.

This is pretty common in today’s NHL, because the post-game workout can help reduce lactic acid buildup and improve blood flow, ideally helping muscles recover faster.

After his post-game lift Bichsel said he’ll typically drink a protein shake while doing a hot and cold tub treatment.

“It kind of puts me in the best position to sleep to,” Bichsel said. “And sleep is the most important part for me, getting the full sleep and setting myself up for that is how I feel the best the next day.”

Organizationally the Stars have also taken this approach. It’s one of the reasons the team has altered their travel schedule in recent years, electing at times to spend an additional night after the game in a hotel rather than flying right away so players can maintain better sleep schedules.

The morning after a game Bichsel said he’ll take a walk early in the morning, something light to get his legs moving. Most days he’ll get a massage in the morning and then works in additional stretching before practice.

The day-after routine, Bichsel said, is more dependent on how he’s feeling. But he said sleep always comes into play for his recovery and he has one of the longest pre-game nap routines of any player I’ve spoken to, sometimes closing in on three hours of sleep after eating lunch on game day.

“You kind of have to listen to your body, if you are going to be sacrificing and putting it through so much, you need to give it time to naturally recover,” Bichsel said.

Bichsel also said that it’s going to be even more important during the playoff grind, where team play every other day and physicality ramps up because of familiarity between opponents.

The hits, they say, will keep coming. So Bichsel will do everything he can to be ready for them.