By 
This year, the hockey world was stunned when the Montreal Canadiens ousted the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins from the playoffs.
One of the biggest reasons has been the mental toughness of Mike Cammalleri of the Canadians.
Cammalleri has 12 goals in 14 playoff games for the Canadiens. The last player to do that for the Canadiens was in 1993, and that was after 4 rounds of hockey playoffs.
And Cammalleri did it in the 2nd round.
Sweet.
One of the reasons is Cammalleri’s mental toughness. He’s been incredibly balanced in the playoffs. He never gets too high or too low emotionally no matter what is going on. After each goal he scores, Cammalleri greets his teammates with a brief hug and then returns to normal.
There is a cliché in sports: “It always goes back to ground zero.”
Sport tempts you to go up and down emotionally. …but you have to go back to ground zero to be consistent. After the game you can celebrate. During the game it’s all about your Right Focus.
More Cammalleri is using the sports psychology skill of VISUALIZING – in a big way. He goes to the court, sits on the bench and uses his mind’s eye to program himself to score.
Check out this link of him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zylg-cmxHJY
Do you want to be like Mike?
One of these secrets is how to harness the extraordinary power of visualization or mental imagery. Many players know about visualization but don’t do it correctly to perform excellent hockey skills under pressure. So they never reap the benefits.
To boost your self-confidence, start using mental imagery at night before you fall asleep. Review the drills you did in practice or the moves you made in your most recent game. Ask yourself to remember your BEST moves on the screen of your mind.
At first, the image may be weak. However, you may not be able to get an image at all. Stick with it. Soon you will be able to FEEL what it was like to pick a pass or throw the puck.
Now you are in business. You are in a position to program yourself for success by thinking about your next game.
What do you want to happen?
Suggest it to your mind. Try to see it.
Remember, when it comes to hockey, what you see IS what you get.