Canes' GM wants less injury time

RALEIGH -- Saying the Carolina Hurricanes' string of injuries the past few years is more than just happenstance or bad luck, general manager Jim Rutherford is ordering up sweeping changes in the team's strength and conditioning program.

Professional athletes tend to over-train, Rutherford said Wednesday. They put too much stress on their bodies in offseason conditioning, especially hockey players, and it can lead to injuries.

And, Rutherford said, that's the case with the Canes' players and their injuries.

"I've given my opinion cautiously the last few years, because it's a long way from my expertise," he said. "But with the amount of injuries we've had, we have to do something different. There's some reason we've had so many.

"It's not coincidence."

Rutherford has instructed Pete Friesen, the team's long-time athletic therapist and strength and conditioning coach, to develop a new training regimen that will individualize programs for each player based on age and position.

"We have the same training program for all players, whether they're 40 or 18, goalie, defenseman or forward," Rutherford said. "We need to do something different."

Friesen is in his 11th season with the team and his workouts and training programs have a reputation for being demanding. Rutherford said he wants Friesen to research different training approaches and have a new offseason program in place after this season.

Rutherford said he wants to limit off-ice stress testing, such as running steps, and wants Friesen to develop offseason training programs specifically designed for each player.

"We'll take a more individualized approach," Friesen said. "There are some guys like defensemen who need more strength and power training. Then there are guys like [5-foot-8 forward] Sergei Samsonov. We'll look at their style of play and set up a program to make them more effective."

The Canes overcame 267 man-games lost to injuries in 2005-06 to win the Stanley Cup. The team had 249 man-games lost the next season but 337 last season.

There are injuries not related to training. Rod Brind'Amour and Justin Williams injured knees last season, and center Matt Cullen had vision problems related to concussions. Forward Scott Walker had surgery this week for a ligament injury to his left hand suffered in an on-ice fight with Philadelphia's Nate Guenin.

Williams, 27, has been lost for four to six months after an Achilles tendon tear last month. The winger was training at an off-site training facility and the injury was said to be a "fluke."

Friesen said he has studied all the factors that could have resulted in Williams' injury but found no evidence that it was an overuse injury caused by too much stressful exercise.

"You see athletes in a number of sports -- football, baseball, tennis -- about 32 to 34 [in age] more predisposed to those [Achilles] injuries," he said. "Justin is younger than that.

"He didn't have signs of tendinitis. He didn't have any predisposed signs of overtraining. Why it happened I'm not sure."

Rutherford said he would not bar the players from using off-site facilities, nor would he ask the players not to participate in the Friesen 5K Fun Run, a charity event held before training camp begins. Brind'Amour reinjured his left knee during this year's event and missed much of camp following surgery.

"It could have been a fluke," Rutherford said of Williams' injury. "But it seems to me all hockey players don't have to be triathletes. To say you're in great shape doesn't do any good if you're in great shape and sitting in the press box injured during games."

Several players, including Williams and Brind'Amour, work out at the Athletic Performance Center in North Raleigh in the offseason. Friesen said he would consult with Jaime Holt, a APC physical therapist, and others in devising new programs.

"They have plenty of instructors to keep an eye on you and tailor [programs] to our physicality," forward Chad LaRose said. "Some guys need to work on quickness and some guys need to work on strength.

"I think [Rutherford] hit the nail on the head. Different guys need different things."

Brind'Amour is a workout fanatic. After his serious knee injury last year, he was at the APC six days a week for rehabilitation.

As team captain, Brind'Amour sets the tone.

"When I made the comment that athletes over-train, I'm not talking about all athletes," Rutherford said. "I'm not saying that Rod Brind'Amour over-trains. But we all can't be Rod Brind'Amours.

"I just want to try something different with our team. If we do it and have as many injuries, we'll readjust. But these injuries have been too much for our team and have hurt our organization."