Hockey is a mental game

We all know that hockey players are tremendous warriors. They sacrifice their bodies every game and suffer through terrible injuries that we can only imagine the pain of. You can literally see the battle scars on players’ faces. They are unbelievable human beings. But physical toughness is not all it takes to make it in the NHL. Mental toughness is key.

Sometimes it baffles me how much of a mental game hockey really is. The Philadelphia Flyers started off October with just 3 wins in 8 games. They were struggling to score and their PP was horrendous. They kept saying that they had to put in a full 60 minute effort and that they had to get their skating legs going, but the play on the ice never reflected those words. The team would offer up words of confidence and willingness to play better, but they still couldn’t do it. Saying it and doing it were clearly two different things.




But calling out players for not backing up their words would seem like I’m making a point that clichés and words of wisdom do not help. But that’s not what I am saying. The Flyers were clearly not doing what they had to do once the puck dropped when they went 1-4 from October 14th to the 25th. It seemed to be a lack of mental toughness. They weren’t focused. They were doing to much. They new they were playing terribly and started to panic. They were often out of position and it seemed like every bad play was costing them. This was not for a lack of effort. The Flyers obviously wanted to win more than anything. But they were thinking too much and not doing the little things that make a difference.

Suddenly the Flyers are on a three game winning streak and are playing Flyers hockey yet again. It’s clear that Chris Pronger looks healthier and Sergei Bobrovsky is the real deal. So those things falling into place make a huge difference, but you can tell that the Flyers also got mentally tougher.

Friday night’s game in Pittsburgh could have been a disaster. There were penalties galore in the first period and plenty of bad blood. But the Flyers came out composed in the second period and took over the game. Claude Giroux scored a beautiful shorthanded goal and the power play continued what it had started in Tuesday’s win over Buffalo with a goal. Dan Carcillo showed that despite being a healthy scratch for most of October that he was still dedicated to his team and played hard enough to get his first goal of the season.

The Flyers went on to crush the Islanders on Saturday night. Sure, things did get ugly from a physical aspect and there was a lot of bad blood. But despite things getting ugly, the Flyers never let the play between whistles throw them off their game. They still kept shooting and the offense never set back or stopped playing. The Flyers gave their full 60 minute effort.

The orange and black proved that if you stay focused mentally but at the same time don’t stress or try to do too much, then you can turn a streak of bad games around. The Flyers have a talented team, but when they aren’t thinking right they can look like one of the worst teams. Let’s all hope that these past three games are a sign of things to come for the Flyers.