Northeastern's Devon Levi — who just made his NHL debut — and Boston University's Drew Commesso, who will play in the Frozen Four this week, said Sense Arena has given them an advantage when they hit the real ice.
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Brian Daccord acknowledges he was skeptical. When the goaltending guru was first approached by a company to work with a new cognitive virtual reality training product for hockey, he politely declined.
But then Sense Arena CEO and founder Bob Tetiva made his pitch and asked Daccord to try a demonstration. The longtime goalie coach donned a Meta Quest 2 headset and equipment and went through some of the drills. He became so immersed in the experience, shifting side to side, using his blocker, catching pucks in his glove, that he was sold.
“If a puck’s coming at your head, you jump out of the way. It’s so well done. Your mind can’t say, ‘That’s a virtual puck.’ That’s why it’s valuable,” said Daccord.
You could say that the experience was a little too realistic. From his playing days, at the end of a drill, Daccord would spin around and take off his glove and blocker and store them on the top of the net. But in this case, the net was virtual, so when he removed his equipment and went to place it on the net, it crashed to the floor.
At that point, Tetiva asked him what he thought. Daccord replied that he could help the company design the goalie drills, and Sense Arena was on its way. With the goalie position accounted for, the company added former Boston College star and NHL veteran Andrew Alberts to come up with drills for skaters.
There are five NHL teams using it, as well as 14 NCAA Division 1 programs. Two of the top goalies in the men’s college game in 2022-23, Boston University’s Drew Commesso and
Northeastern’s Devon Levi, were avid users.
“It’s great,” said
Levi. “It gives me an opportunity to not put on my gear and still get work in, and preserve some energy, preserve the body.”
Levi, 21, has been using the product since he was 17, and has seen his stock rise. Overlooked by some who considered him undersized, the Quebec native fell to the seventh round of the 2020 NHL Draft and was not invited to Hockey Canada’s summer camp ahead of the 2021 World Junior Championships. But the offer did come the following December, and Levi would go on to make the team and start every game in the tournament, leading Canada to the silver medal.
Commesso is a junior with the Terriers and was selected in the second round of the 2020 NHL Draft by the Blackhawks, The Norwell native said Sense Arena has become part of his everyday routine, not just for the goaltending drills, but also for cognitive drills that are not hockey specific and that focus on reaction time and multitasking.
“I think that goaltending is such a mental position that sometimes the mental part of it gets overlooked and for me, if I can train my mental game an extra 20 or 30 minutes a day, it’s an advantage that I have,” said Commesso.
Now in his second season as the goaltending coach for Boston University, Brian Daccord believes the technology can also help players as they return from injury.
“If a goalie’s hurt, they can’t get on the ice right away, and when they do, the pucks are flying at them,” said Daccord. “Now they can transition. They can start facing pucks in shorts and sneakers, so that when they do return to the ice, they’re closer to being ready.”
Some of the different aspects the drills focus on include reaction time, puck tracking, and box control. Scenarios can include trying to work around a screen, or playing shorthanded. There are also different environments in which to play, with crowd noise pumped in. For one demonstration, a glance up with the headset on reveals the ceiling at Madison Square Garden.
Tetiva said the majority of users are ages 12-16, with 12,000 registered participants in 44 countries. The workouts can be done in a 10-foot by 10-foot space, allowing for younger players to get their work in at home.
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