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

SARNIA, ON — With the first half of the 2014-2015 season just about to wrap up, I wanted to take an opportunity to discuss the importance of mental skills coaching in today’s NHL arena. Mental skills training is still a relatively new field and only a handful of NHL teams currently employ mental skills consultants or sport psychologists. These professionals will work with athletes in order to maintain a positive balance between the physical and mental demands of elite sport. But what can mental skills training do for you as an athlete, or for a team overall?

It’s been argued that sport can be broken down into four separate categories:

1. Technical
2. Physical
3. Nutritional
4. Mental/Psychological

Mental skills training can help enhance an athlete’s performance by preparing them mentally for a practice, game, or tournament. Professionals (researchers, psychologists, coaches, and athletes) argue that sport is 50-90 per cent  mental and 10-50 per cent physical. Therefore, if an athlete does not put in the time to prepare mentally, his performance may suffer.

The current NHL teams who utilize mental skills consultants and/or sport psychologists are:

The Buffalo Sabres: While it’s easy to give up hope following a tough start to the season, this Buffalo team is a resilient one. The Sabres have taken down big-name teams like the Detroit Red Wings, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Toronto Maple leafs. The Sabres even walked away with back-to-back wins against the Montreal Canadiens earlier in the season. With some Habs alumni now on the Sabres’ roster, as well as an impressive, young Michal Neuvirth and Jhonas Enroth between the pipes, this Buffalo Sabres team appears to have the necessary mental skills to persevere this season. The team hired Barbara Meyers to take on consulting work with the team. Meyers worked with defenseman Tyler Myers last season and the 24 year-old said Meyers’ help made a ‘huge difference’ in his approach to the game.

The Chicago Blackhawks: This 5-time Stanley Cup winning team has earned its winning reputation. The Blackhawks have a nearly 90-year history in the NHL and have produced some of the best players to ever hit the ice. The Blackhawks last won the Stanley Cup during the 2012-2013 season. With players like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane at the helm, the Blackhawks are a team that have no trouble lighting the lamp. Their numbers so far this year are an honourable 23-10-2, making them  second in the Western Conference. The team hired James Gary and Andrew Joy, allowing the players easy access to mental skills consults during the season. It has been rumoured that 22-year old left-winger, Brandon Saad, works with James Gary regularly, employing various techniques to help him remain focused on the tasks at hand. Saad currently has 22 points in 35 games this season.

The Nashville Predators: I will be the first to admit that I don’t know much about the Preds. By league standards they are a relatively young group, having been founded in 1998, and have no Stanley Cups to show for their past 16 seasons. In fact, the team has missed the playoffs for the last two seasons. With Shea Weber and Pekka Rinne skating the ice at the Bridgestone Arena, the team doesn’t lack talent. This year, it shows. Sitting comfortably at third place in the Western Conference, the Preds are 22-9-2. Having racked up a total of 46 points, the Nashville Predators are at fourth place in the league. Is this the year the Preds turn things around? The team hired their current neuropsychologist, Gary Solomon, quite a few years ago. In 2005, Solomon also took on the role of ‘psychological assessor,’  and helped the team work through the loss of their teammate, Wade Belak, in 2011.

The Pittsburgh Penguins: Pittsburgh is one of those teams that always seems to be ‘there,’ even when you don’t want them to be. It’s a team that doesn’t always win the conference, but is a guarantee to make the playoffs. Pittsburgh is currently sitting at 2nd overall with a 22-7-5 record. The team hired Amiee Kimball in 2006. When Kimball had been hired, the team had failed to make the playoffs for four consecutive years.  Since her hiring, Pittsburgh has won a Stanley Cup (2008-2009) and has made the playoffs every single year.

The Montreal Canadiens: Montreal works with an off-site sport psychologist. While I can’t personally attest to Dr. Sylvain Guimond’s approaches, it’s clear that the organization understands the importance of mental preparation. The Canadiens have had their ups and downs over

the past two seasons, but following Guimond’s hire in October of 2012, we have witnessed an improved team. Marc Bergevin has made some huge adjustments to the roster during his tenure as GM, and the calibre of players now donning the CH are a breath of fresh air. Since Guimond took over, the Habs have made the playoffs for two consecutive years and were just two wins away from the Stanley Cup finals last season. Currently, the Habs sit at 21-11-2 and are third in the Eastern Conference. While I agree that the wins haven’t always been pretty, this team typically appears physically and mentally prepared for their next game, despite some blow-out losses this season. It’s a refreshing mindset in a sports arena where we, as fans, sometimes have trouble letting go of a poor performance.

Hockey is a team sport that too often focuses on individual players. Mental skills training helps athletes better prepare themselves for competition, both individually and as part of a team. While this article advocates for mental skills training, it certainly isn’t the sole reason for these teams’ successes and failures. However, it could be argued that these teams have excelled in various ways following the hiring of these trainers and I sincerely hope that more teams begin to understand the importance of training their players both physically and mentally.

As it stands, 4 of the 5 teams listed above would make the playoffs and those four teams would have home-ice advantage.