F-U-N: One Of The Missing Ingredients In Hockeytown
By Nick Seguin
5 years agoHelene St. James opened her latest piece for the Detroit Free Press on a very sombre note: “Nobody is happy, Detroit Red Wings forward Thomas Vanek said. Nobody is having fun.”
It’s kind of sad, actually,but it makes sense. It’s hard to have fun when you’re losing. The problem is that this ominous, negative attitude just breeds more losing.
This team needs to lighten up a bit. They need to have some fun.
But how can they have fun when they’re not winning? Well, I’ve got a short formula that corresponds with each of the letters in the word.
Forget
With every game, the Wings let the pressure mount more and more. It piles on with every loss and makes it harder to climb out of the slump. What the team needs is a palate that’s been wiped clean for them to build on. A fresh start, so to speak.
Dallas Green (a.k.a. City and Colour) told an interesting story on the 31 Thoughts Podcast a few weeks ago about being invited to see a Washington Capitals game in Nashville by his good buddy Braden Holtby. Holtby was chased from the net after allowing six goals in the first period and, when he went to meet Green after the game, was all smiles. When prompted on how he could be in such a good mood, Holtby shrugged and said, “that’s hockey, buddy!”.
This is the kind of amnesia the Wings need to adopt. Not all of their eight losses were terrible games that they played. There were some really solid efforts against really good teams where they just weren’t getting the bounces.
Those bad bounces are going to happen. So are poor performances. Dwelling on them is only going to build more pressure in the coming games and pressure like that can breed negativity. Negativity is going to lead to more losses.
Just forget about the loss and move on. The best way to do that is to…
Unwind
Being a professional athlete in today’s world means always preparing for the next practice and/or game, but sometimes you just need to turn it off. Look, I don’t know what these guys do in their free time, but I sure as hell hope they can find a way to take their mind off the game.
Everyone has their own way of unwinding and the Wings each need to figure out what that means for them and just embrace it. After games and on days off, take time away from hockey. It’s good for the mental health to take your mind off of what’s bothering you. It allows you to come back at it with a fresh perspective.
Whether it be video games (yeah, I said it), Netflix shows, or reading a book, the Wings need to find ways to take their mind off the game and recharge their mental batteries. It will help them forget the negativity and come back with a…
New Outlook
It’s not easy to put a loss behind you, but doing so gives you the chance to have a new outlook on the present and the future. This kind of fresh start for the mind can drive invaluable results in all aspects of life. First, you’re a little looser, laughing with your buddies in the locker room. You maybe don’t feel those negative thoughts about the guy who turned over the puck last game. Then, suddenly, you see the ice better. Everything slows down and you start to see opportunities out there that weren’t there before. So you’re jumping into plays and finding open ice. You’re reacting quicker and trusting your instincts.
This renewed sense of confidence is something the Wings need badly and it comes with a new outlook and a fresh perspective. But you can’t get there without forgetting and unwinding.
These steps will only take the team so far. They are certainly missing some elite talent on their roster and missing some of the core competencies that make a hockey team objectively good. Having FUN will not skyrocket them to the top of the standings. But it will bring some levity to the dressing room and peace of mind to the players.
A lot of these guys are very young. I can’t imagine having that kind of pressure on my shoulders at 23-years-old. For their own sake, they need to lighten up and go back to the fundamentals of the game. That includes having some fun.
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