There are a lot of information about physical stress in different exercises and competition situations, but not so much research about recovery in professional team sport. The aim of this study was to produce new information about stress and recovery of the players in the international league. Another objective was to find out the individual differences of the stress and recovery of the players, when the program is the same for all. The big amount of games during the season has increased requirement of good recovery of the athlete. The subjects (31) of this study are professional ice hockey players of Finnish club team Jokerit in Kontinental Hockey League. The average age was 29 years, height 185 cm, weight 91 kg and VO2max 54 ml/kg/min. The autonomic regulation of HRV was measured during the season in 12 different periods lasting 2-6 days. The autonomic regulation of heart rate variability (HRV) was measured by using Firstbeat Sport and Firstbeat Life Assesment methods. R-to R interval were acquired with the Firstbeat Bodyguard 2 wearable heart rate monitor on 1ms resolution. According to over 100 night recovery measurements the average time when recovery started, was 7 hours and 42 minutes after the ended game. The average duration of the night recovery was 5 hours and 33 minutes. One of the most notable finding was really big individual differences of the night recovery between the different players. The fastest recovery started two hours after the game and the slowest player didn`t recover at all during the night. A player has to be an athlete 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. The physical and mental stress of the ice hockey game is so big that it delays the start of the recovery. Finding a balance between playing load and recovery is a key factor to maintain good athletic performance. Regular recovery assessment is a key factor in successful athletic programming. Firstbeat assessment methods are easy-to-use methods to assess the recovery of an athlete or a team.
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