I was reading in the Athletic about the crazy restrictiveness the players’ protocol has been all season. Teams that are vaccinated are finally going to be able to have some rules relaxed, so guys can eat in the same room, ride in a golf cart together, etc. I can’t even fathom how isolating a road trip must feel when you are adhering to what they were required to do. Robin Lehner’s outspoken criticism of the protocol from a mental health standpoint was very moving.
When I see the team fighting through all the adversity they’ve had this year, on top of the pandemic itself, and finding a way to pull it together against a very difficult schedule, through the injuries, through the schedule disruptions due to other teams, through the limited fan support, it just makes me cringe when I read some forum bozo bitching about an OT loss to Vegas and how they are mentally weak.
It’s BS. This team has demonstrated incredible mental fortitude this year. Players league-wide deserve credit for fighting through this. Yes, they’re well compensated for it, but that doesn’t mean the isolation and demands aren’t brutal to experience.
The other thing I wonder though, and we got a hint of this last year in the bubble, will there be players or teams that cash in their chips and find postseason elimination to be a relief? Will they give their all to keep fighting, as you normally see in the Stanley Cup playoffs? If you have a little self-doubt that you can win it, post-season adversity may be harder to overcome. I could totally see guys thinking, “Thank goodness it’s finally over.”
I’m less worried about this mindset creeping into the Blues. But I’ll be interested watching other teams around the league, how deep can they dig?