Joey Daccord felt like a statue.
The Seattle Kraken goalie watched his teammates suffocate the Carolina Hurricanes for 40 minutes in a game last season, outshooting them 14-2 in the second period after giving up only five shots on goal in the first. “I was like, ‘I feel like I’ve been standing still for 2½ hours already. I need to see some pucks,'” he recalled. Daccord wasn’t seeing many shots in reality. So he opted for virtual reality instead.
Before the third period, Daccord strapped on a Meta Quest headset and fired up NHL Sense Arena, a VR hockey program that he has used for several years to keep his mind and skills sharp away from the ice.
The Kraken locker room was now a 360-degree virtual rink, chosen from options that included a baseball stadium and the outdoor rink from the NHL’s Lake Tahoe game. His hands were transformed into a blocker and a catch glove, as he stood in front of a 3D goal cage. He faced dozens of pucks fired from virtual shooters at different angles, getting locked back into focus. When Daccord saw real rubber again in the third period, he stopped 11 of 12 Carolina shots to preserve a win for Seattle.
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Daccord is part of a growing number of hockey players using VR for cognitive training. Devin Cooley (Calgary Flames), Devon Levi (Buffalo Sabres) and Eric Comrie (Winnipeg Jets) are among the goalies who have used the technology. So has PWHL star forward Taylor Heise of the Minnesota Frost. USA Hockey and at least 17 NCAA Division I programs have all used the NHL Sense Arena training tools.
“I think it’s been instrumental in my career and a factor for why I’m able to play the way that I do at the NHL level. It’s integral in my training and my preparation,” Daccord said.
The Carolina game wasn’t the first time Daccord turned to VR during a game. He recalled a road game against the Arizona Coyotes a few seasons ago in which he wasn’t happy with how his glove hand was reacting during the first period.
“I went in the back, threw on the headset and programmed it to shoot a hundred pucks at my glove. After I caught a hundred pucks, I went out and my glove was fine the rest of the game,” he said. “As more guys use it, it just becomes more normal. And getting the backing of the NHLPA shows that it’s here to stay.”
On Wednesday, Sense Arena became the first and only licensed NHL and NHLPA virtual and mixed-reality hockey platform, announcing a partnership with the NHLPA that will bring the names and likenesses of NHL players into virtual and mixed reality for the first time. The company has had a partnership with the NHL for more than two years, bringing team names and branding into its virtual drills. Sense Arena also partnered with several NHL teams, including the Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils and Vegas Golden Knights.
“This partnership with Sense Arena is an exciting opportunity to bring fans closer to the incredible talent of NHL players,” NHLPA chief commercial officer Steve Scebelo said. “This is truly a dynamic new platform that will showcase the talents of the players and bring fans closer to the action in a way they have never experienced before.”
Users can now receive passes or face shots from Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and dozens of other NHL stars.
“When I first tested the beta version, you are two inches from the face of Leon Draisaitl or Nathan MacKinnon. Now you look into their eyes, you look at their uniforms, all of the textures,” Sense Arena founder and CEO Bob Tetiva told ESPN recently. “So it’s such a real experience, man. I was blown away.”
Users can also attempt to sneak pucks past elite goalies such Connor Hellebuyck, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Daccord. Heck, even the goalies themselves can become the shooters in VR.
“I’m not using the goal-scoring part of it, despite what other people may think,” said Daccord, who has made multiple attempts at scoring an empty-net goal in the NHL, including on Monday against Chicago.
“I’m using it for the goalie stuff.”
DACCORD HAS DEDICATED HIMSELF to off-ice cognitive training since around the age of 16. He did a block of vision training, and that sent him down the path for “training the eyes and training the mind” that continues as a pro athlete.
He remembers telling his father how he wished there was a way for him to “sit there and just read [shot] releases all day.” A few months later, around the COVID-19 shutdown, Daccord’s father showed him a VR headset and the Sense Arena program.
“I remember at first thinking it’s just kind of a game, that I’m never really going to use that. And now I use it before every single game I play in the NHL. It’s a huge part of my training and my game-day routine,” Daccord said.
That routine starts about an hour before warmups, as Daccord does about 20 minutes on the headset. “I start with the cognitive drills, stuff that I like to do to get my brain firing a little bit,” he said.
One drill Daccord said he has relied on involves a machine shooting different-colored pucks at him. His hands are rendered with corresponding colors, and he must match puck-to-hand in a split second. After that, Daccord will move on to some technique drills in which pucks are being shot into specific spots, and then another drill that simulates shots from NHL-level scorers.
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“When I get out on the ice for warmups, I feel like I’ve already [seen] 150 shots,” he said. “I’m good to go. It’s almost like I’m not even warming up. I’m kind of in flow. I’m reading the release off the stick pretty well. I think it’s a huge advantage for me.”
Daccord has also used the VR training program as a substitute for on-ice practices. Recently, the Kraken played road games against the Philadelphia Flyers on a Monday and the Washington Capitals on a Tuesday. Daccord played against the Flyers and didn’t suit up the next night. The Kraken then flew to Winnipeg for a game Thursday.
The schedule meant that Daccord didn’t have any ice time for the two days leading up to the Jets game. So he used virtual ice instead, practicing in Sense Arena before the Capitals game, then for 25 minutes before his flight to Winnipeg and then another 45 minutes after arriving in Manitoba.
Daccord stopped all 32 shots he faced in Winnipeg for a 3-0 Kraken victory.
“I felt so good at morning skate on Thursday. Just tracking the puck, seeing the puck. I felt like I had skated the day before,” he said. “Most of the boys would tell you that they like to skate and feel the puck and see shots. When the schedule works out weird, you’re not able to get reps. Sense Arena was a great way for me to get those reps.”
THOUGH VR TRAINING benefits pros such as Daccord, it could also be a boon for younger generations of hockey players, who are more likely to test out new technology and training methods.
“They’re on screens, they’re seeing analytics, they’re seeing different ways to train that are very different than how I trained,” said Andrew Alberts, the hockey development director for Sense Arena who played nine seasons in the NHL for the Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, Hurricanes and Flyers.
Alberts says he views VR training as a way for young players to go beyond scoring a goal or completing a pass to better understand the processes behind them.
“For young kids that go through those reps of picking their head up, scanning, playing with their head up, understanding time and space, that’s all part of that hockey IQ that those young players need,” he said. “Right now I think there’s a big emphasis on stick handling and speed, which is great, but you need to have the whole package.”
As a former defenseman, Alberts says he enjoys the drill that mimics a player going back for a puck and seeing the passing options before getting crunched by a check — without consequences.
“Going through these reps as a player and not getting killed, that’s what’s great about it,” he said.
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Sense Arena launched its hockey VR experience in 2018. Back then, it would send installers to places such as the Kings’ training facility to build physical spaces for the off-ice VR training. The platform made inroads with goaltenders first, back when Sense Arena was available via the Oculus headset. Teams such as the Devils valued the potential for players recovering from injury to use VR hockey training without putting a strain on their bodies.
The leap in quality and affordability of wearable technology enabled Sense Arena to market its off-ice training platform to the home user. It’s available exclusively on the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S.
Earlier this year, Sense Arena released DanglePro, a mixed-reality stickhandling module. Using their own stick and a training puck, users dangle through a mess of debris coming at them like water bottles and equipment.
“I think being able to control what you want to work on and develop is so key for players that are looking to keep stay at the top of their game,” Alberts said. “Goalies want certain situations where they’re tracking pucks, reading releases, rep after rep after rep. We’re trying to do the same thing with players now, introducing this new technology with the mixed reality.”
In addition to individual training modules, NHL Sense Arena ’26 has a new 3-on-3 gameplay mode that allows users to play a full 82-game NHL season, managing a roster and selecting teammates. That’s where they can unlock other NHL players — the NHLPA-backed version will start with around 15 players from each team with others added during gameplay.
“It’s up to you to put yourself into the GM’s role and then acquire new players based on your wins,” Tetiva said.
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In the future, Alberts said they’d like to have each virtual player mimic the moves of their real-life counterparts. Currently, the Sense Arena team records NHL and NCAA players and melts those movements down into 3D models. To have VR Alex Ovechkin blasting pucks from the “Ovi Spot” is something they’re working with the NHL on perfecting using advanced data, and that’s down the line for the platform.
Alberts believes the technology has a lot more to offer NHL teams. For example, his group has proposed filming their skaters so players could watch themselves in a virtual environment to “see what goalies see” on their shots. Sense Arena allows for replays from the perspective of the puck coming off the shooter’s stick, and angles that provide insight into player movements that normal video can’t replicate.
Daccord says he believes that hockey VR training will continue to grow — especially for his fellow netminders.
“I think you’re going to just continue to see more and more people use it because it’s such a good tool. How can you justify not using it on an off day before the game, seeing a couple hundred pucks?” he said.
“It’s about the access, right? I think if you want to be a real goalie, this is a resource you can use. The No. 1 thing in hockey is being able to read a release of a shot. With this, you can sit on your couch if you want and just read release after release after release. I think it’s incredible.”
