So after sitting through another extremely frustrating loss by the Penguins, my hockey “friends” have been having a good laugh at the expense of my hometown team via email, Facebook, and Twitter.
They love the fact that the most highly-skilled offensive team in the league has fallen flat on its face. They particularly enjoy the fact that the two best players on the team, and some would argue the two best players in all of hockey, Crosby and Malkin, have no goals and no assists in the conference finals against the Boston Bruins.
As bad as the Pens have played they will get another shot at the Bruins at 8 p.m. Wednesday. I will remind my “friends” who are fans of the Caps, Rangers, Devils, and Flyers that the only game their players have to worry about on Wednesday is their golf game!
OK, that was sophomoric. It is also why I decided to spend time writing this article. It absolutely fascinates me how the playoffs bring out the best, and worst, in players and fans, me included.
We are so emotionally invested in our teams that we put aside any reason or logic and we utter such great comebacks as the one I spewed above. Worse yet are the “frontrunners,” as my dad used to call them. The people who stand firmly behind the team …. until “those bums” lose a couple of games and then everyone’s suddenly qualified to be the next head coach or GM because they know exactly what ails the team.
The postings that “fans” write about their own team and coaches are at times downright rude, sometimes hysterically funny, and oftentimes just plain mean-spirited. It is the society in which we live and it makes winning, especially in a team sport where group dynamics are so critical, that much more difficult. To steal a quote from that masterful movie series “Highlander,” in the end: “there can be only one.”
So here is my challenge to you fans who “live and breathe” for your team …. stay true through thick and thin and maybe all that positive karma will create a force in nature that will help “will” your team to victory. Okay, fat chance of that happening so just cheer on your team and enjoy the ride!
In the good old days a coach just had to tell his players to “tune out the fans and ignore what they write in the papers.” Then it was “just turn off the TV and don’t pay any attention to those fans they interviewed or what that so called expert commentator had to say about you.” Now it is “turn off all your electronic devices, ignore those Twitter posts, and don’t check your emails!” Heck, nowadays you have players tweeting about players and parents texting about the other kids on the team … during the game! The impact of the external pressures and distractions alone are worthy of a thesis!
Every generation has its stories about why this team won and that team lost and why this player rose to the challenge and this one “choked.” Whoops, I’m not allowed to use that phrase in today’s PC world. The player simply didn’t bring his or her “A” game. That sounds so much nicer.
So having been in a few playoff games in my sports career, I am just as interested as many of you about why certain teams, coaches, and players seem to rise to the occasion while others simply buckle under the pressure and scrutiny that comes with post-season play. I don’t care if we are talking little league baseball, youth soccer, high school or college football and basketball, or the major professional sports leagues. There have to be common characteristics that “Champions” all possess.
What made Michael Jordan the great champion of his era? How did the Montreal Canadians win so many Stanley Cups and the New York Yankees so many World Series? Do Phil Jackson, Mike Krzyzewski, Scotty Bowman, Joe Torre, and other great coaches really know the secrets to winning in the post-season? Can they somehow impart that information in such a way that it will help you better understand the game as a fan and be better prepared as a player or coach come playoff time?
Well if you were searching for that answer here, I apologize, because there isn’t enough time or space in this column to even begin to try and answer that question in a serious way.
When I look back at my own “career” I think a lot about why some of my Penn State Icer teams found a way to “seal the deal” while seemingly better, more talented teams under-achieved (at least in some peoples’ minds). We played in 10 straight ACHA National Championship games and won four in a row from 2000-2003 before losing three straight title games by a one goal margin. I actually had a colleague ask me what was “wrong” with the program as we suddenly found ourselves holding the runner-up trophy!
Ok, I will tease you with a few thoughts about what makes a champion a champion. Here are the standard characteristics most of us will probably agree are critical:
Talent. You must have talent to win at any level in any sport. You can work hard and have a great attitude, but in the end the teams with the most talent usually make it the farthest into the post-season.
Leadership. Both from coaches and team captains and the organizational culture as well.
Confidence. Coaches, players and staff firmly believing they will prevail.
Chemistry. Check the egos at the door and put the team first. More difficult today than ever before with all the media coverage, yet even more relevant.
Role Players. Every team needs them and if they do their jobs it helps the team at those critical times and can be the difference in a contest.
Preparation. You need to have a coach with a great game plan and a team ready, willing, and able to execute.
Health. Avoiding injury and having your best players available at season’s end. Although you may recall even when Michael Jordan should have been in bed fighting a high fever and the flu he STILL outplayed the best players and dominated the game.
Determination. This is a broad stroke but in the end “You must have an intense, burning desire to succeed.” Never underestimate the heart of a champion!
Discipline. You have to keep that same “intense burning desire to succeed” in check and not let your emotions get the best of you. (My former players will tell you that my sometimes over-the-top “passion” was a blessing and a curse).
Luck. The old “Catch 22” and something you can’t control but most teams need. The fortuitous bounce of the puck and perhaps a friendly call by an official.
There are certainly others and you can go to any bookstore or go online and find thousands of articles, books, and papers written about what makes some players, coaches, and teams champions.
In my experience it is the confluence of all these factors.
However, in the end, I will go on the record as saying that in my time in sports it is ultimately three of these traits at playoff time that are the “difference makers”:
Confidence, Determination, and Leadership. Those are what most people call the “Intangibles.”
Plenty of teams have talent, great game plans, are injury free, and have great chemistry. My observations and experience tell me that it is the athlete, coach, and organization that firmly believe they will win and has that “inner arrogance”, a “relaxed but energized” demeanor, and a leader or leaders who “rise to the occasion” to inspire or lead through example, that “seal the Deal”
Regardless, sooner or later, “Champions Find a Way”.
