Free your mind and the rest will follow.
Perhaps the break in the schedule is just what Ottawa Senators centre Colin White needed.
It’s allowed him to step away from the day-to-day pressures of trying to produce. Nobody was more disappointed in his season than White and he wants to get back to be a consistent performer.
“Definitely, things happen, and I put a lot of pressure on myself,” White said in a telephone interview with Postmedia Wednesday afternoon from his home in Boston. “Now, I’m just seeing it as an opportunity. There’s not a lot of pressure. We have a great team and there’s a lot of great guys to play with so now I’m used to the same coach. It’s going to be a pretty fun year when we go back.
“I just have to play that smart, two-way game and I started to figure that out at the end of the year by not doing too much with the puck. I think I got really nervous in the middle of the year and the beginning of the year after I got hurt. I was just trying to force plays. I was mentally drained. This break has probably been great for me mentally. I took a little break from hockey and now I’m just excited to get back.”
Being in the right frame of mind is a big part of the battle as any. When he was able to return to the gym in the summer, he was at a facility where several members of the New England Patriots work out.
“A lot of people don’t see what goes on behind the scenes mentally,” White said. “It’s an 82-game season and it’s physical every night so it’s basically football on skates but you play 82 games. It’s mentally draining sometimes. I’ve just tried to find my own ways and even at the end of the year I started to lift more and find a routine that made me happy that gave me more confidence.”
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