I think for the coach it's always stressful no matter what time of year, but this is entering the fun time of year where every game matters.
It's not that every game doesn't matter over an 82-game season, but you're getting down to your last 12 or 10 games, and for a lot of teams it means something.
To play meaningful games at this time of year is when young players really learn about the National Hockey League. It changes. The game really changes coming out of training camp and changes again just before Christmas.
It slows down a little bit in January, but then it starts to ramp up again and it's starting to ramp up again getting down to the last 10 games. It's getting faster, getting harder and there is not as much space on the ice. Even though the rink is the same size as it was in October, there's no room out there all of a sudden.
To have players learning that part of the game and that aspect of the game honestly is very important for their future, but even for veteran players it changes a little bit.
It's not like they flip a switch or anything, but things change. All of a sudden, they're a little harder on the puck, they're a little stronger and they're starting to ramp their game up to do what they need to do to make sure they're ready for when the season plays out and they're playing in a playoff series.
Teams fighting for a playoff spot just have to focus on the game in front of them. You can't do anything about what's behind you and you can't tell what's coming in front of you. All you can really see is today and what I have to do today.
You can break it down to the hour or the minutes, but it's about what you have to do next. As soon as you start looking down the road and the schedule and start thinking about a team you can beat and a team you're going to have trouble against, then you're in trouble already.
You have to make sure you're focused on who you are playing, and you do it day by day in your preparation as a coach. Although you have those 10 games left and you're organizing who is scouting and who is doing whatnot, which you do all year, when you're talking to the players, you just focus on whether it's a practice day or a game day. Whatever day that is, that's the attitude you take.
Also, the coach needs to make sure his attitude is good and he's in a position mentally that he knows what button to push and what things he wants to work on. Practice time becomes pretty valuable if you need to work on things for the playoffs because you don't have a lot of time to prepare once the regular season is over. There still are some things that you probably want to iron out going through the end of the season and the start of the playoffs.
It's a busy time for everybody and some teams are more stressed than others, but that's what makes it exciting. It gives the playoffs and the end of the season its jump and that edge and really what makes it intense and that's why people like to play at this time.
I think teams locked in a playoff spot are playing a little game of possum. They want to make sure they're playing the right way, but if they know where they're going to be and they know where they're going to end up, they're not in that dire situation every night.
If you look at the standings, the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings and Vegas Golden Knights in the Pacific Division, and the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche in the Central, they're not at the same stress level that the Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues, Utah Hockey Club, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks are in.
Calgary and Vancouver are in a tremendous amount of stress right now in the West trying to get themselves sorted out.
Then in the East, you have the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, the New York Rangers and New York Islanders, and you can go down to the Columbus Blue Jackets and maybe to the Detroit Red Wings, and those teams are under tremendous pressure and anxiety and everything that comes with it.
But those teams that are up there in the middle, if you're a team like the Tampa Bay Lightning that have been there a bunch of times and know what to do whether they're second, third or first in their division, it doesn't really matter. They're not stressed about that, and neither are the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are stressed like crazy because they want to finish first because they haven't had success the other way.
Every team has different types of stress, but there's a few teams, the Kings, Stars, Avalanche, they're kind of dancing around and are playing a lot looser than other teams because they have a lot less stress. And that stress and anxiety takes a lot of a team.
With that anxiety, a loss can be devastating and a win is euphoric. It makes it really hard on the team, and by the time they get to the playoffs, if they can in, they might be worn out. All the juice you had for the playoffs might be gone just trying to get there.
Usually over time that's what ends up happening, those teams that are fighting, fighting and fighting to get into the playoffs, once they get in there, it's over pretty quick.
