Tuesdays With Hildy: Performance Anxiety - There's a Pill for That.

Norm Sanders tweeted the question, and Panger, Bernie, and DK were discussing it during the 3rd period last night - what is wrong with us at home?

The Post-Dispatch hopped onto the "Good God, seriously?" bandwagon this morning as well, questioning what is going on that puts the Blues in such a chipper, goofy mood during road games. 5-9-2, either home or away, does not a playoff team make, but there's a home ice advantage that is supposed to play into this. It's psychologically proven (it's in my psych book, I swear!) that positive crowd reinforcement encourages better play. No one wants to do something amazing and not have anyone care, good or bad. The Teej claims it's people getting too comfortable. I don't know about you, but comfort doesn't mean score less than 2 goals a game. Comfort means knowing you're supported, so get out there and try.

Is it the last second goal that threw them off? Is a goal with less than 30 seconds in a period a viable reason to go sit in the locker room, pout, and then come out and play flatter than a pancake? Did getting scored on make them stop and go "Wait, awww, we're letting the fans down here! Let's do it more!" I really, honest to God wish that there were some way to bug the locker room to hear what's really being said, because canned responses and "I don't know, really"s aren't worth anything, and the guys know it.

They're not getting heckled by their own fans, I didn't hear any big booos (though I wasn't there - if you were and it happened, please correct me). There isn't a hostile atmosphere. Maybe that's the issue. Perhaps if the opposition didn't feel so comfortable in our barn it wouldn't be so bad. Both teams aren't really impacted much one way or the other by where they're playing. That needs to change.