Colorado Avalanche: The Mental Impact of COVID-19 on the Players

What is the mental impact on the Colorado Avalanche of this COVID-19 enforced shut down of hockey and how will they come back after this?

The Colorado Avalanche have found themselves in a unique situation right now: Nothing like having yourself in the mental space to be winning the next game, no matter what’s happened to the team, then have that stop abruptly.

Hockey players need to have the mental toughness to handle all of the emotions of a hockey season.

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For the Colorado Avalanche this season I imagine they have had lots of emotional battles to manage.

Early on in the season, there was a spate of injuries that saw Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen and a group of other players sidelined for an extended period of time, with injuries. During that time a number of AHL players were given the opportunity to stand up and be counted in key places on the team.

For the players stepping up, and it wasn’t just the AHL’ers that did, they needed to be on their mental game, as well as a physical game, to win those battles on the ice that counted. And they did.

Their win streak on the road alone, the best in the NHL, is nothing to be taken lightly.

Then just before this enforced break due to COVID-19, they went through the same thing, but this time with a long list of same and different players out due to different injuries.

The team were gunning to be the ‘Best In The West’ trying hard to beat the Blues to that top spot in the Division and Conference.

They showed up each and every night with the mental attitude that they would win, at all costs, to put themselves in the best possible place – that home-ice advantage for the Play-Offs.

During the season a number of players talked about the ‘next man up’ mentality. That takes some mental strength to manage. You might just be the ‘next man up’ expected to do more and be more for the team.

Then suddenly, it was all gone.

Season over, temporarily, or permanently, no one is sure.

The team went into enforced lockdown with no contact with their teammates, coaching staff or us fans. Daily life as they knew it changed and they had to mentally cope with that change.

No hockey practice. No mentally preparing for games. No need to be physically ready, day in and day out, for back to backs or games every other day.

That’s one big mental shift.

The players make this sort of shift every season when they move from the play-offs to the off-season. This is different though because of the big unknown of IF the season will recommence, or not.

I know that I for one have struggled with no hockey and I’m only one of those dedicated fans. I don’t need to train and be mentally prepared for each game.  I simply turn up and cheer loudly for my Avs.

Given some of the video’s and photo’s that the players have shared it looks like they are coping emotionally with this change.

Let’s just hope that when and if the season recommences they can quickly get themselves back into that space of willing themselves to win games. I’m sure for most of them that won’t be a hard thing to do because they have the Stanley Cup clearly in their sights.