Hockey is a game of split-second decisions – on the ice and off.

That’s something Aaron Leu knows all too well. Denver’s associate director of sports medicine as well as the hockey team’s athletic trainer, Leu faces them constantly.

The Pioneers’ ultimate safety net, Leu stays tuned in to the players’ physical needs all year long. Enjoyable to be around, players don’t necessarily want to make visiting him a habit. And they hope to avoid visits from him.

This installment of Inside the Pioneers, takes a peek at the life of college hockey trainer.

When is it go time?

For all of the good work Leu and his staff do, his highest points of visibility tend to come when players go down during a game.

“It’s always interesting going out on the ice because you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get, but you’ve got to make some quick decisions,” Leu says. “If they can get off the ice, you can do further evaluation either on the bench, down in the tunnel or back in the locker room.”

How does the veteran trainer determine when to leave his perch on the bench?

“I usually try to give them 10 to 15 seconds to gather their thoughts and do their own self-check,” Leu says. “It’s not long. If there is enough force you know right away you’re probably going out there immediately.

“Coach (Jim) Montgomery‘s, Coach (George) Gwozdecky‘s, and what I assume will be Coach (David) Carle‘s, approach is ‘You gotta get out there!’ I want to make a mental check about how they’re moving around. If you see somebody face down, you go right away.”

Leu’s mental analysis goes into overdrive as he approaches an ailing player.

“You’re trying to do a visual check – seeing if their legs are moving, if their arms are moving,” he says. “Do they have a significant injury where we might have to call out EMS with a spine board? If you can see that they’re moving around most likely that’s not going to have to happen.”

Leu’s information gathering continues when he reaches the player.

“I have four or five questions in my hip pocket I’ll ask them,” he says. “If their answer is wrong, your question bank becomes 10 questions and then ‘Do we pull him out of here?”

That’s easier said than done. For as much as the Pioneers swear by Leu and his work, that loyalty can have a tendency to take a temporary vacation in the heat of battle.

“If they’re down, some of those guys don’t want to see you out there,” Leu says. “They’re going to clam up and not give you a lot of information, so you’ve got to pry it out of them.

“Somebody like (former DU goaltender) Tanner (Jaillet), knowing how tough he is, you just ask him if he can describe what happened, are you having difficulty right now? You can judge from their voice inflection, look at their face and see if they’re confidant about how they feel. Are they trying to con you so they can stay in the game, give you that bit of a sales job?”

Therein lies one challenge in dealing with a variety of personalities – and in the case of Leu’s department it’s all 300-plus athletes at DU – everyone responds differently.

“Tanner is a good example,” Leu continues. “He’s a tough kid and he takes a lot of pride in playing. When he has an issue, he’ll come right out and tell you. … He hates coming out of the game, so for him to say something’s up, you know something significant has happened.

“Some guys are more of an open book, and you don’t have to go and really search for those answers.”

MORE INSIDE STORIES

Keeping the Pioneers well equipped

Building a better Pioneer

Easing into the season

When is a hockey player healthiest?

Probably when he hasn’t been playing hockey very often. Leu’s main goal as players return to school in September and begin captains practices and team lifts is to  assess the state of the Pioneers.

“The big thing leading into the season is trying to figure out what they’ve been doing if they haven’t been training here with Coach (Matt) Shaw,” Leu says. “For the most part the past few years, kids have come in pretty clean and haven’t had a lot of concern as far as injuries go. Usually it’s something like I sprained my ankle water skiing in August, just a nick.

“It doesn’t take much to get them over that, maybe a bit of strength testing or soft tissue work to loosen them up.”

Spring is a different story

That stands in contrast to the spring, when every player likely has some sort of ailment they’re dealing with. And as was the case this past spring, a handful are moving on to the pros after signing contracts.

“The guys that move on, it brings its own set of problems because they’re trying to collect stuff and get out the door because their team wants them there asap,” Leu says. “Some of those teams want specific information on what a kid was doing either this year or through is career. And they want his medical file, and that takes a release of information form those kids will have to fill out.”

The turnaround time can – and usually is – quite quick. Recall that Denver’s season ended in an NCAA Regional final in Allentown, Pa. In short order, forwards Henrik Borgström, Dylan Gambrell and Troy Terry signed NHL contracts and Blake Hillman followed a few days later.

“(We were) within a day of being back when Dylan Gambrell signed, and San Jose’s medical staff asked to forward his medical file,” Leu recalls. “So there is that side of it. The time frame is pretty quick.”

Those four players soon were joined by senior defensemen Tariq Hammond and Adam Plant departing for stints in the American Hockey League. Both of them had overcome major injuries this past season, so there was another layer to their transitions.

When the season is over, Leu’s job isn’t. He, Shaw and the Pioneers’ coaching staff typically ask players to stay off the ice and out of the weight room for two or three weeks.

“You’ve got to have that decompression time,” Leu says. “For me, guys that need rehab, it doesn’t stop. You’ve got to come in, you’ve got to get your stuff done. If it’s something minor, you give them those two weeks off then have them come in.

“Guys that have something significant that need to strengthening or keep working on their motion, I can’t lose that 2-3 weeks. I don’t let them stray too far. … Significant stuff, you can’t let that go. The players are good, they understand that.”

Falling back into a routine

As is the case with the rest of the hockey support staff, be it strength and conditioning or equipment, the season brings its own set of high points as well as challenges.

Leu’s days typically begin between 7-8 a.m. and he uses the early time to work on paperwork, including an injury report for the coaching staff and Shaw that details which players might be limited for the mid-day off-ice and on-ice workouts. The report’s length tends to grow as the season matures.

If a player is battling a minor injury, he might visit Leu for a pre-lift treatment session.

“If guys need post-practice treatment, cold whirlpools, any sort of stretching, soft tissue work, we’re there until 4 p.m. (after a 1:30 p.m. practice),” Leu says.

If the Pioneers are home that weekend, Thursday becomes a longer day because Leu wants to ensure the visiting team and its training staff has everything it needs, a collaborative arrangement that exists with all of the NCHC schools.

“If something goes wrong, if they need direction, a guy needs x-rays or to see a doctor, we help facilitate that,” he says. “That’s great with our conference because everyone takes the same approach.”

Game days are long days, sometimes spanning 16 hours. Treatment and soft-tissue work is done before and after a late morning skate. While the players head home for pregame naps after lunch, Leu is in top gear, preparing the benches and penalty boxes and again ensuring the guests’ needs are met.

“The games are fun to stand and watch, it’s not like you’re sitting in an office,” Leu says.

The ideal game is one in which DU wins and Leu doesn’t have to leave the bench to tend to an injured player.

The rewards are many

The long hours and the pressure of dealing with athletes’ health, and potentially their futures, carries some weight, but Leu wouldn’t have it any other way. The benefits far outweigh the stresses.

“The daily reward is just getting to interact with a great group of kids that we have here,” Leu says. “They’re motivated, not just to be an elite collegiate team, they’ve got individual goals either to make that jump to the next level or within the academic institution, which is pretty rigorous. They have academic standards for themselves and want to go out and be successful in what I would say is normal life, the career side of things.

“You get a good mix of everything. We have a lot of kids who are motivated both athletically and academically. It’s a lot of fun to be around.”

NEXT: DU’s support team facilitates a near miraculous comeback

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