The Mental Angle. Git In Their Head

The Blues don't have any problem getting physical as Olivia Newton John once sang. The quotes below are a perfect example on how the Nucks took the wood to us in the mind games department. Lots of fans think hockey is mostly a banging physical game but many times it's over before the players even step on the ice. To have one of your team leaders lose his cool like this is a bad mental breakdown.

SWEDISH BIRD CALL: Not only do quiet Canucks Daniel and Henrik Sedin talk on the ice, they chirp, according to David Backes.

The Blues' centre said he raised his gloves and stick into Henrik's face with seven seconds remaining in Sunday's game because the Canuck talked trash to him.

"It was unsportsmanlike, I thought, on his part to come and rub in the fact it was going to be a 3-0 series deficit for us," Backes said Monday. "I take exception to it. It was nothing to hurt him, maybe just send the message that we're a prideful team in here and you may have gotten the best of us that night, but you don't need to rub it in our faces."

Sedin said he didn't beak Backes.

"I didn't have a chance to say anything," Henrik said. "I turned around and he hit me right away. I would never say something like that because it's far from over."

Backes was assessed a pair of cross-checking penalties but no further discipline from the National Hockey League was expected.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/hockey/vancouver-canucks/Notebook+Kariya+practising+likely+ready+play/1516228/story.html

We actually started out the first game crashing the net and getting the Nucks off their mental game temporarily. We never pushed that edge until late in game 4 when it was way too late. Even Nuck fans on their boards were wondering WTH didn't the Blues get in Lu's space and head? Nuck fan knew they had temper problems and we never exploited that, in fact we ended up losing the mental battle badly to the Nucks

Turning the cheek is probably the hardest thing to do in hockey when you get a  two hander to the hands and then the azzhat goads you while the ref eyeballs you for the call. That, or you're getting your teeth kicked in on the scoreboard and someone wants to taunt like Sedin in this article. You just gotta smile and skate off. Take one for the team as the saying goes.

Skating off does 2 things. You don't end up in the sin bin and it makes the other guy wonder WTF? Now you're in his head. You can fake a retaliation and when the guy clocks you, you get to laugh and taunt as the goof heads to the box. You see guys like Avery bait other players like this. I'm not saying we need a goon like that POS Avery but you gotta admit he does throw folks off their game some times with his antics.

I've seen games where a player was so cranked off wanting some payback they came right out of the box and went straight for the other player again, something that really disrupts a team trying to get some momentum going.

Sun Tzu put it best,

Therefore one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful.

Hopefully our young Blues learned how much taunting and chirping they will have to endure in a cup run.

Only then can they git in other team's heads.