5 Ways to Play Your Best in a High Pressure Game
Image Credit: AP News
At this time of year, everyone enjoys watching the Stanley Cup Finals. What has been particularly interesting about this season’s Finals is that the Oilers, after going down 3-0 in the series against Florida, have won 2 games in a row to make it a close series again. One could make the argument that they have all the momentum as the series heads back to Edmonton for Game 6. While the spotlight is focused on McDavid, there has been another, quieter key performer this series who caught flak from fans and the media early in playoffs: Stuart Skinner. His numbers when facing elimination in this year’s playoffs are nothing to scoff at: he is 3-0 with a 1.38 GAA and a .938 SV%.
In all games that were games 4 through 7 this postseason, possibly the highest pressure games there are during playoffs, he’s posted a 9-0 record with a 1.58 GAA and a .938 SV%. Numbers don’t paint the entire picture of how a goalie is playing, but apparently, during the biggest games on the biggest stage, he has managed to do something right.
When the pressure is on, particularly playing for a market as difficult as Edmonton, how is he able to bring the best out of himself at the most crucial times?
Here are 5 ways that you can play your best when a tournament, championship, or your entire season is on the line.
Accept the Nerves and Manage Them
Anyone who cares about the team is going to be nervous in a big game. While some may be more so than others, it’s hard if not impossible to completely remove nerves from a big game. Since you can’t remove them, the next best thing you can do is manage them, and use them to sharpen your focus. Focusing on how nervous you may be will throw you off focus. Accepting that you are nervous, re framing it as excitement, and then focusing on what you need to do to play your best will help your nerves sharpen your focus. Focus on what you need to do, and the rest will take care of itself.
2. Take the Pressure Off
What makes a big game a big game is the number of variables surrounding it— maybe you’re playing for a tournament championship. Maybe you are playing for a league championship. Maybe if you lose this particular game your team misses playoffs. Or maybe, you are eliminated and your season is over. One of the added variables that Skinner dealt with in the previous series after game 3 against the Dallas Stars, was media and fans calling for him to sit on the bench for the rest of playoffs, and even his removal from the team next season. The next game, Game 4, he found himself and the Oilers down 2-0 barely 5 minutes into the game. As the camera panned to the Oilers crowd after the second goal went in, you could see fans calling for the Oilers to pull him and replace him with Calvin Pickard. They didn’t, and Edmonton ended up winning that game, with those 2 early goals being the only ones Skinner would surrender all game.
Certainly, between the nature of it being a Conference Final game, and the fans, there was a bit of pressure on Stuart Skinner to say the least. The Oilers obviously went on to win the series and advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, with Skinner stellar in net.
This is not an easy situation to handle mentally. But the key to playing your best under the weight of so much pressure is by choosing to focus on what you need to do to play your best, not the variables surrounding the game. If you focus on the consequences of the game, win or lose, you will put more pressure on yourself than there already is, and you will feel the pressure, rather than feeling focused and ready to play.
To counteract pressure, focus on your game and your routines. What gets you focused? What are you thinking about when you play your best? What are your routines that help you feel ready to play?
Focus on these routines, and focus on being at your best for the next shot, and you will remove the pressure, allowing you to play your best game.
3. Trust Your Game
We get to choose whether we trust our game every time we get into that net. When you get into a big game, choose to trust your game. Often times, thinking about what might happen during the game and how you will handle a situation in your mind is worse than when it actually happens during a game. Even though you may feel unsure of how the game will turn out, trust that you will be able to handle any situation you are thrown into, whether it be giving up a goal early, or having to face a long 5 on 3 penalty kill.
Choosing to acknowledge your nerves over a game, while at the same time choosing to trust yourself and your game in every situation will allow you to play your best when the puck drops.
If you are scored on early, choosing to trust your game will allow you to get on track and settle into a rhythm as the game goes on.
After being replaced during the previous series against the Canucks, with his hometown fans calling for him to be benched for the playoffs, and the very next game giving up 2 goals in the first 5 minutes, Skinner had a decision to make: he could crumble under the circumstances, or he could choose to trust his game. Clearly, he chose to trust his game and get the best out of himself.
After being down 3-0 to the Florida Panthers in the Finals, and winning 2 in a row to get back into the series, he continues to do so.
4. Stay the Course
Like any other game, things may not always go your way during a high pressure game. Due to the nature of the game, this can make adversity more difficult to deal with. If you are scored on early, you may feel like you aren’t ready to play and you may lose the game— and the championship. It’s easy to let your mind get ahead of yourself in a higher stress game. When one thing goes wrong early, you may feel like things will go wrong the entire game. This is just your mind’s bias towards negativity. It’s part of being a human. Don’t let it go down a negative path. Instead, choose to trust your game, trust your preparation, and trust that you will get into a rhythm. It’s one thing to trust these things heading into a stressful game, but it’s another to stay the course mentally when things aren’t going well to start.
If you get scored on a couple times in a short span in the middle of the game, same thing— do not worry about the goals. Redirect your focus to where it needs to be, and you will stand tall for your team late in the game. If you get caught up being negative about the goals, you won’t be as good as you should be.
After giving up 2 goals early against the Stars, with fans calling for him to be pulled, Skinner stayed the course and didn’t allow any more goals for the rest of that game. The Oilers ended up winning that game, and the series. His ability to stay the course throughout a game and throughout a series is one key that has allowed Stuart Skinner to play his best even when things don’t go his way.
5. Have Fun
Remember that playing in big games is why you play hockey, and why you play goalie. Yes there is added pressure. That’s the nature of the position. But with that added pressure and responsibility comes an unmatched fulfilment when you play well and when you win. Your teammates who play forward or defenseman don’t have that same opportunity for fulfilment, because their job doesn’t entail so much pressure. Even if you lose, there is still fulfillment in knowing that you played the best you could, and you did everything you could to help your team win.
But although there is pressure in big games, remember to always enjoy the game. You want to remind yourself to enjoy the game for two reasons:
One, is that if you do not enjoy playing the game, if you do not enjoy the competition, then you wouldn’t be playing hockey. Enjoyment of competing and making saves is why you do all the training you do and put in all the work you put in.
And two is that if you focus on enjoying the game, you will allow yourself to focus and be in your flow state. We get into flow when we are enjoying what we are doing. If you are so focused on the pressure, you won’t focus on doing what you need to do and enjoying the game. You won’t be at your best, and you may try too hard. Enjoying the game allows you to play on instinct, and when you are playing on instinct, you are at your best.
Control Your Nerves, Control the Game
The key to playing your best in big games is to focus on what you need to do to play your best, and focus on executing it. When you direct your focus to that, all the variables surrounding the game that create pressure fall by the wayside. Instead of feeling added pressure, you end up enjoying the game. And when you enjoy the game, you get into flow. When things go wrong, you are unflappable and able to handle them.
In this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, Stuart Skinner has seen his fair share of criticism, and really, an unfair amount of criticism. But in the midst of all that, when the pressure is highest, he’s able to find his best game. While he may not receive the same praise as he has criticism, clearly what he is doing is incredibly difficult to do, but inspiring from a goaltender’s point of view.
But even though he has not been in the spotlight, finding his best game when the chips are down is what has allowed the Oilers to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, and claw out of a 3-0 hole to make the series close again against the best team in the NHL. His journey through these playoffs has been fun to follow along. And although difficult, it is one that we can learn a lot from and appreciate deeply as goaltenders.
