Will home ice help the Canucks avoid elimination tonight?
Posted April 23, 2015 7:19 am.
Last Updated April 23, 2015 7:41 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It all comes down to tonight for the Vancouver Canucks, who head into a make-or-break game down 3-1 to the Flames in their best-of-seven series.
The team will no doubt be greeted by a boisterous crowd at Rogers Arena, which should give them at least some sort of boost.
“Professional athletes who play at the highest level are usually very accustomed to the emotion surrounding the game. But if you’re in an arena that is packed with cheering fans, it certainly gives a surge of energy to the home team,” says Dr. Saul Miller, a sports psychologist who has worked with the Canucks and other professional athletes.
But an early goal for Bob Hartley’s Flames could change that in an instant.
Though young, Miller says the visitors should be able to weather the early jeers from the Vancouver crowd.
“As the visiting team, you use that energy. You take it in yourself; it pulls you together and makes you want to work harder. I think sometimes younger, inexperienced players might get a little too pumped up but for the most part, it’s just energy that you can put to use.”
Even if the Canucks do fall behind early, Miller says the veteran team should be able to look past the deflated crowd. But the Flames could also benefit.
“You’re going to have a lethargic home crowd, which can draw some energy from you. But if you’re an experienced team you use that void of energy to pull you together so that you can play off each other. ‘The crowd is not for us, let’s us be for each-other’ kind of thing,” says Miller.
“Whatever happens, either you use it or it uses you. What you have to do in that situation, you feel that emotion, you draw that energy to you and you just use it to go out and play your best. I think a good crowd is stimulating and if the crowd is against you, it’s stimulating.”
The action gets going tonight at 7 p.m. at Rogers Arena.
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