Just a number

Soon-to-be-40 Giordano will be NHL’s oldest player this year

If Mark Giordano didn’t know already he was the oldest player in the NHL, there would be an easy way to find out: Ask his Maple Leafs teammates.

“He’s the oldest guy in the league,” Morgan Rielly says. “We remind him of that all the time.”

Good-natured needling aside, Giordano will turn 40 on Tuesday. Goalie Craig Anderson was the oldest NHL player last year, at 41, but the mantle has passed to Giordano, who will be the 95th NHLer to play after his 40th birthday. He says he has no intention of retiring “until I really lose the desire to play, or if you fall off so much that you know you can’t contribute anymore.”

“I can still play at a level that helps the team,” Giordano says. “And, obviously, it would be a lot different if I had a (Stanley) Cup in my back pocket. But not having one, and not having had that experience, you keep chasing it ’til they kick you out.”

Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe is no rush to force Giordano to the sidelines. With injuries piling up last November, Giordano was the team’s No. 1 defenceman for a stretch.

“He was a top-four defenceman for us on what was a very good team last year in the regular season,” Keefe said. “And he played a huge role for us, bigger than we had anticipated because of the number of injuries we had up until the trade deadline.

Gordie Howe had the best season of his career at age 40 (44 goals, 103 points) and played until he was 52. Jaromir Jagr played in the NHL until he was 46, and continues to play in the Czech league at 52. Both Joe Thornton and Allan Stanley played for the Leafs at 43. So Giordano has a way to go to catch them.

Still, how does Giordano do it?

There’s a science behind it, says Lawrence Spriet, a professor in the college of biological science at the University of Guelph. Spriet studies how skeletal muscle generates the energy needed for athletes to compete. He has worked with the Leafs, as well as other teams across the NHL and in basketball and soccer, studying the effects of dehydration in sports.

Spriet says most people have lost five per cent of their muscle mass by age 40, but adds that’s only an average and Giordano appears to be an outlier.

“In Giordano’s case, he’s a big man,” Spriet says. “So that helps because it’s a very physical game. He plays a position that maybe doesn’t require the top-end speed of some of the forwards. He maintains his fitness. They all try to, but some people are more successful

than others. Another big thing is getting through all those years without a major injury.”

Giordano’s worst injury — and there haven’t been many — was a torn biceps back in 2015.

The biggest thing, Spriet says, is rest and recovery.

It also helps that the Leafs have the NHL’s biggest medical and performance staff, and relay the message of recovery to the players.

“I’m really focusing on the rest in between games,” Giordano says. “Maybe take some pre-game skates off here and there like they like to tell me, which I hate. But really maybe pay attention a little bit more to the science part of it.”

He says he wants to play all 82 games but, “I’m not a dummy either. I’m not naive to think that there’s times where they’re going to probably want me to take breaks or

a rest.”

Giordano became the NHL’s alltime leader in blocked shots (2,078) last season, leading the Leafs with 147. He had four goals and 20 assists, and played just under 19 minutes a game. But the playoffs didn’t go well for him. He was minus-9 and barely touched the ice in the final two games of the Leafs’ secondround series against Florida.

Giordano is using that as motivation.

“I know I’m better than those last few games of the last season. So I’m coming back with a fresh outlook right now. It’s all in the past. Just come out again and try to reestablish your game and improve yourself. I know that sounds funny because I’m 40, but I’m always looking to get better and find new ways to contribute. The game is changing. So you have to as well.”