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Imagine you’re climbing Mount Everest, something you’ve dreamed of doing your entire life. Then, just as you’re about to reach the summit, you suffer an equipment malfunction and you fall just short of your goal. Then, you’re told it will be an entire year before you can make another attempt.
This was basically the story of the Florida Panthers in 2023.
By the time the Panthers fell to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in five short games in the Stanley Cup Finals last spring, they were essentially a M*A*S*H* unit on skates. Star forward Matthew Tkachuk had suffered a broken sternum. Top defenseman Aaron Ekblad fought through a broken foot and two shoulder dislocations. Enforcer Radko Gudas was hobbled by a high-ankle sprain.
The Panthers weren’t so much beaten last year as they were too beaten up to win.
Unfortunately, professional sports doesn’t come with a reset button. So, for the Panthers to get another opportunity at hockey’s summit they would need to navigate the NHL’s numbing 82-game regular season and then three rounds of grueling playoffs. It’s the type of journey that requires not only mental toughness but patience.
The Panthers have actually been at the forefront of stressing the importance of mental health for a while now, employing a sports psychologist on their coaching staff since 2018, when only a handful of clubs were experimenting with the concept. No one embodies this commitment more than Florida goaltender Sergei “Playoff Bob” Bobrovski, whose meticulous preparation routines have become stuff of legend and allowed Bobrovski to redefine his career at age 35.
(Ironically, Bobrovski’s opportunity with the Panthers came when highly-touted keeper Spencer Knight, a former first-round draft pick, left the Panthers in 2023 to seek treatment with the league’s player assistance program for obsessive compulsive disorder. Happily, Knight got the help he needed and is working his way back to the NHL).
The Panthers maintained their focus throughout the 2023-24 season, finishing second in the Eastern Conference before methodically moving through the first three rounds of the playoffs, employing their signature style of constant pressure and zone-style defense to dispatch Tampa Bay, Boston and the New York Rangers.
Florida then jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead against the Edmonton Oilers in the Cup Finals, despite the Oilers having the best player in the world in Conor McDavid. But just as it appeared the series was headed toward a quick coronation for the Panthers, the Oilers began their own journey of redemption, one that’s only happened four times in NHL history and only five times in American professional sports – rallying from a 3-0 postseason series deficit to win.
So far, the Oilers have fulfilled the script, winning two straight to set up a Game 6 tonight in Edmonton. If they’re successful in joining the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, 1975 New York Islanders, 2010 Philadelphia Flyers and 2014 Los Angeles Kings (and don’t forget about the 2004 Boston Red Sox in Major League Baseball!), they’ll owe a good deal of their success to their practice of mindfulness.
Prior to the current season, the Oilers hired renowned mindfulness coach George Mumford for their coaching staff. Mumford, whose resume includes advising NBA legends Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, advised the team throughout the season and has been behind the bench in the playoffs, espousing his “Four As” mindfulness tool: awareness, acceptance, compassionate action and assessment.
From our perspective at alphabeats, this may very well be the most mindful championship series in sports history and that’s a good thing. The rigors of long regular seasons and playoff campaigns, combined with the demands placed on the athletes off the field/court/ice, simply demand as much care for the mind as they do the body.
Ready to elevate your game? Join us at alphabeats and discover how our neurofeedback and music integration can transform your mental training. Because when you train your mind, you can achieve anything.