The Best Players in the League are Gonna Have Off Nights--DURING the Playoffs!

                            

“That’s the worst feeling. That’s why I try to work extra so I wouldn’t go through that feeling. But sooner or later, you’re going to go through it. You’re not going to be your best every night for 10 years. It’s impossible. I know they went through it. It’s not easy. I’m sure next year they’ll come back and be the best again.”  -Jaromir Jagr, 2013

                Translation:   Doesn’t matter if you’re the greatest player in NHL history, you’re going to have an off game or two, and you’re going to have those nights IN the playoffs, too.   It’s the most horrible feeling in the world when you’re a great player and you don’t produce when your team most needs you to be on but you just don't have it.  You feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders and you press like crazy and it still doesn’t work and it just sucks.   

                Takeaways:   There’s a psychology to what was happening with the Pittsburgh All-Stars in the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals. It was why Jagr once said he was “dying alive” when he could no longer score goals (no, Pittsburgh media, that quote never had anything to do with Jagr hating your city; it had everything to do with an elite talent fed up with himself because he couldn’t perform to his expected levels).   Crosby, Malkin, and Letang knew they HAD to produce for their team to win.   So they tried—and tried too hard to force plays that weren’t there.   Not because they didn’t care or because they were selfish or because they were dumb.  Because they were stars who were having really, really bad games, unable to produce when their team most needed them to do so against a very good opponent—and they knew their team was going down if they didn’t do SOMETHING.

Action Items:     Dealing with the “psychology” of superstars is never easy.    They’re used to being able to dominate.  And when what they usually do (dominate!) doesn’t work, they don’t typically react well.  They may not even know how to react.   They revert to doing things that ought not to be done, because, they can usually get that pass to work and create a scoring chance from the high-risk play that works against inferior competition in the regular season.  

   Somehow, you have to get the superstars to relax.    So, you have to give them help.  They need to know someone else can cover if they’re off, so they can just make a safe, simple, and smart play rather than force it.   But, psychologically, they also need someone to tell them what a 41-year-old Jagr might wish he could back and tell his 29-year-old self:   “Yo, kid, you have a ton of talent, but there’s no way you’re winning a Cup by yourself, so just relax and just play cause this slump isn't going to last forever."

    In upcoming seasons, SOMEONE, regardless of whether that’s a forty-one-year-old Jagr or a coach or whomever—actually has to get that message THROUGH to Pittsburgh's All-Stars.   It’s not so much “acquire a veteran” or “get a different coach” as it is “deal with immense pressure by reminding players they won’t succeed if they try to do it all themselves.”   Pittsburgh's biggest takeaway is to get THAT message through to their best players, such that they simply play hockey--and don't try to do what no human (no matter how gifted) can do.