by Shannon Penfound, Staff Writer and Event Coordinator, All Habs Hockey Magazine

WINNIPEG, MB. — As fans, when we disagree with a call, we can yell anything and everything at the TV screen and, though our blood pressure may be a bit elevated for a while, it has no ill-effects. As an elite athlete, you have to try your hardest to not let your emotions get the best of you. Last night, the Montreal Canadiens displayed a lacklustre effort and fell 6-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning for their second loss in a best of 7 series. Emotions ran high during a game where the officials took a few liberties and Tampa capitalized on their powerplay four times. You can read the full game recap here.

But it’s what happened after the game that has many people talking. Brandon Prust made a few comments in the post-game scrum regarding referee Brad Watson,

“He kept provoking me, he came to the box, called me every name in the book, called me a piece of you know what, a mother f’er, coward, said he would drive me right out of this building…That’s the ref he is, he tries to play God and tries to control the game and he did that tonight.”

Some fans immediately rushed to Prust’s defense, claiming NHL referees are ‘out to get’ the Habs. Others felt that that Prust went overboard and should have left what happened on the ice, well, on the ice. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I want to point out some of the issues in letting your emotions get the best of you in a game that is of high-intensity and high-importance.

Plain and simple, emotions flare in the arena. What a boring sport hockey would be if everyone kept their emotions in check 100 per cent of the time. But the reality is that when an athlete experiences intense emotion (whether happiness and confidence, or anger and aggression) his performance is affected. When a player is angered, like Prust was last night, his attentional focus narrows. When attentional focus narrows, performance is impeded.

Additionally, when a player is angered, and aggression levels increase, we tend to see poor decision making. Case in point, Prust dropping the gloves against Braydon Coburn, then tossing his elbow pad directly into the Tampa bench as he skated off for the night. Following the game, we heard a bit more of the story, with Prust dishing out quite the quote regarding his on-ice interactions with Watson. Prust ended up with 31 penalty minutes last night. Following the game, coach Michel Therrien said that his team’s lack of discipline was unacceptable.

Prust is known to push boundaries on the ice. His job sometimes requires him to aggravate the opposition and draw someone into a fight to boost morale on the home bench, while distracting his opponent. I wouldn’t call him a full-out ‘goon,’ but he’s certainly the closest thing the Habs have to one. None of this is being said to paint Prust in a bad light, as I do believe his role is still a valuable one, overall. That being said, in certain situations, his actions can actually be a detriment to the team on a whole. If a player is more focused on ‘getting even’ with the opposition, for example, that shift in attentional focus, and potential for poor decision-making, makes him a risk factor every time he steps onto the ice.

Aggressive acts are more likely to occur when a team is being out-played and losing by a large margin. Additionally, athletes who are embarrassed, or perceive unfair officiating, are also more likely to engage in aggressive acts on the ice. All of this leads to an athlete honing his focus on an area that likely will not benefit the outcome of the game in his team’s favour. The key for Prust now is to leave this issue behind him (pending a call from the League) and look towards game three on Wednesday evening.

So when it comes to emotions in pro-sport, especially in a team that is battling towards their 25th Stanley Cup Championship, things are bound to get a bit intense. But there is a time and a place for everything, and this simply wasn’t it.

What do you think of Brandon Prust’s quotes?  Please leave a comment in the section below.