Colorado Avalanche: Bowen Byram’s Frustration — Where Could It Take Him?

Colorado Avalanche top prospect Bowen Byram shouldn’t be down on himself for his performance with the NHL club. He’ll learn and get even better.

For Colorado Avalanche player Bowen Byram it must have felt amazing to be out on the ice playing for the NHL team he’d been drafted by.

After all the hard work and dedication, he made it. He was chosen to play in the Avalanche’s Preseason Exhibition Games.

As a player in this situation, I imagine that all you want to do is prove yourself to the team, the exec’s, the people that had faith in you. Enough faith to draft you to their team.

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It’s got to be exciting right?

How about the extreme pressure though? What about the sense of dread when you make a mistake and it costs the team?

I can’t imagine what it was like during the Avalanches second pre-season game when Byram makes not one, but two mistakes that led to the Stars scoring a goal.

His frustration showed when he thumped his stick on the ice after the goal was scored.

There’s nothing wrong with expressing your frustration. In fact, it’s a healthy thing to do. Showing his feelings showed that he was aware of what didn’t work so well.

There’s a problem if Byram begins to tell himself that he made a mistake and it was his fault the other team scored.

When this happens, or perhaps, IF this happens, he is more likely to make more of the same mistakes.

He’ll begin to doubt his own abilities as a player. And that’s the last thing you want to see in a player who looks like he will be a welcome addition to the Colorado Avalanche defensive core in the longer term.

So, how could Bowen Byram use what happened in that game for his best benefit?

He could let the whole incident go by chalking it up as a young player’s lesson. I’m sure his coaches will work with him to review the video of the situation and look at what he could have done differently.

This might help him see that there was another way to play in that situation if it happens again. And it’s likely to.

He’s well and truly shown, in the short time he’s been with the team, that he’s a great draft choice.

Let’s hope he uses his frustration to develop even more, now that he’s going back to the WHL.

I’m really looking forward to seeing him next year as part of the Colorado Avalanche lineup again.