How psychology helped the Oilers through the Stanley Cup playoffs

So for these players, high stakes, high pressure, but also lots of help when it comes to dealing with the stress. And here's somebody who knows a lot about that. Matt De Mossack is a sports psychologist. You've worked with some high end athletes. Yeah. I have the pleasure of working with elite athletes, top performers, whether it's rodeo, hockey, business owners and leaders and some amateurs who want to work their way there. So I get a really nice interesting diversity of people that I get to work with. And the Oilers are working with a guy named George Mumford who you know his work and you're really impressed by him. 100%. My favorite sports like book is actually his first book, The Mindful Athlete. I think that he does a really good job of being really personable and down to earth, but sharing like really relevant and important, like science and research to help performance be at their best, be present no matter the stake, no matter how big the moment is. I think they couldn't have hired a better person to kind of be with this team, building this culture. The proof, of course, is in how the Oilers are doing coming back from three games to none. But but the evidence is sort of in the way they speak. So I want to play some clips from today. OK, and let's start with Conor McDavid and Leon Dry Seidel. Well, you got to prepare just like you always do. You know, obviously it's not your ordinary game. Everybody understands that, but you got to make it as ordinary as possible in your in your head. You know, I think part of that is just sticking to your routine. You know, our room has done a great job of, you know, being at our best in these big moments. And I would expect no different tomorrow. We're all human and we're aware of the situation and what we've accomplished so far. So what do you hear in those clips? I think collectively hearing the responses from Jaya settling McDavid, I hear this sentiment of just keeping it the same, keeping it ordinary. I like that McDavid use that word because the thing about being in the zone or being in flow state, it's a thing that all sports psychologists are obsessed about, is that it's a state where everything is either known or you're OK with not knowing. So when you approach a game seven kind of situation and you start thinking about how it's different or it's bigger or there's more pressure, all of a sudden it makes it more difficult to be in a flow state because your brain's looking for new information. It's trying to figure out, oh, do we have to do something differently? Do I have to prepare differently? But clearly with the coaching staff and with Mumford and just everything this team has learned throughout the course of the season, they understand that just by preparing the same way they have every single game, they increase the chance of them being at their best. OK, the guy with the toughest job, I would say, well, both goaltenders, but Stuart Skinner for Edmonton, let's listen to him. I'm definitely feeling good. I've I've felt good many times in the season. I've also felt terrible and lots of spots. I I remember Flurry said this once. He said sometimes when he has the worst practices and the worst warmups, he ends up playing the best game. So at this point, doesn't really matter. It's just about, you know, coming in and being ready and preparing my absolute best that I can be for tomorrow. And what about Stewart Skinner? Yeah, I love that. Skinner quoted Flurry about even if you feel bad when you wake up and your warm up's bad, you can still play amazing. One of my favorite little bits of psychoeducation is teaching people that you are not your thoughts or your feelings. We always have an opportunity to respond differently than what that original state is because brains be doing brain things right. We can't exactly control what that first feeling is going to be. So Skinner understands that even if the nerves are a bit higher or even if he feels a little bit shaky after that first shot, it doesn't matter because he always has an opportunity to rebound and refocus on how he got himself there and how he is so confident in his ability and and what the team is doing in front of him. He's so honest. He's willing to say that he had good days and he had bad days. I find that remarkable. I think that kind of genuineness that makes it easier for him to kind of be in the spotlight. Here's no secrets. He's not pretending that he's a gladiator, that he makes no mistakes, that he's perfect by showing the human side of himself. He's comfortable handling the ups and downs in the game, which is just exactly what hockey is about, is the UPS and the downs and the mistakes that you can't control. And I have full confidence that he'll be able to be exactly who we need him to be tomorrow. All right, Matt, thank you very much. You bet.