Trent Frederic is going through a pivotal season in his Boston Bruins profession.
At the age of 24, Frederic — the B’s second first-round draft choose in 2016 (twenty ninth total) – has proven flashes of the rough-and-tumble, bodily ahead the group so desperately wants. On the opposite hand, he has not embodied that presence constantly sufficient to maintain from discovering himself on the bench for lengthy stretches and even up within the press field on occasional recreation nights.
Whether a brand new coach might be the important thing that turns him into an on a regular basis NHL energy ahead that may be a going concern for the opposition stays to be seen. Frederic believes he has extra to present.
He additionally concedes that a lot of what has held him again thus far has been what’s occurring between his ears, and he’s doing what he can to rectify that.
Frederic remains to be engaged on his on-ice abilities. He spent a lot of the offseason in his mother and father’ basement within the St. Louis areas taking pictures pucks, engaged on totally different taking pictures angles and launch factors. He additionally labored with a skating coach each morning in the summertime.
But Frederic additionally labored fairly a bit within the offseason with Eric Hoffberg, a former hockey coach at RIT who now focuses on teaching “mental toughness” geared toward increased efficiency.
“It was just about talking to someone and trying to figure things out. As weird as it sounds, I never thought you needed something like that. But it’s just like training the other parts of your body,” mentioned Frederic after a exercise at Warrior Ice Arena. “A lot of guys have the same skills, but a lot of (success) is mental. I can see that as I’ve gone through the beginning of my NHL career. You go into a game trying not to make a mistake. I was trying to score, obviously, but if you don’t think it’s going to go in yourself, it’s never going to go in. You don’t want to have a negative mindset. It’s just something I’m trying to put into my head. You train your body all summer and you have to train the mental side of it, too. That’s something new I’ve done, and I’m going to try to stick with it during the year and use that aspect of the sport. I know more and more people are using it.”
It would appear like a sensible method for Frederic. While Frederic had his excessive factors final yr, the occasional errors appeared to have a deleterious impact on his play. After he had taken a penalty, you possibly can virtually see his psychological gears grinding on the subsequent shift. When group president Cam Neely talked about younger gamers being “afraid to make mistakes” in assessing now-former head coach Bruce Cassidy final May, it was exhausting not to attract a connection to Frederic as being a kind of gamers.
Frederic mentioned his relationship with Cassidy was “fine” and he put the onus for his overthinking tendencies on himself.
“It was just a hockey relationship. I guess it was just normal. I think maybe sometimes I was more worried about him more than the game, if that makes sense, just trying to be a people pleaser,” mentioned Frederic. “But I think that’s normal for someone in my position. He was a good coach and he knew the game really well, so I’ve got nothing negative to say about him.”
While they’ve but to work collectively within the warmth of battle, Frederic is worked up for the subsequent chapter in his profession underneath new coach Jim Montgomery.
“I’ve spoken to him quite a bit. He’s been awesome so far. I think once the season gets started, he seems to be a good communicator in the sense of what he wants,” mentioned Frederic. “And I’ve talked to him little bit about how he wants our team to play and what he needs me to do. That’s kind of nice. It’s more transparent. That was the hardest thing for me. Sometimes it was not transparent.”
Frederic conceded that he’s nonetheless determining the suitable time to carry the sandpaper, which doesn’t essentially imply dropping the gloves however reasonably simply to being a hard-to-play-against presence.
“There has been a lot of second-guessing and hopefully I can get rid of that and just go back to when I was in Providence, when I thought I was doing a good job of it. I think I’ve lost a little bit of that,” mentioned Frederic. “And I want to do that. It helps me play well and it helps the team. It’s more just playing hard and not necessarily like being an agitator. But when the stuff happens, you’re there.”
Montgomery mentioned that selecting your spots for a participant like Frederic is an acquired ability, and he’ll get help in that endeavor.
“It’s all about understanding the league and getting comfortable a little bit and a player recognizing momentum,” mentioned Montgomery lately. “That’s on our staff to help all players understand their roles and recognize game management. That’s part of the staff’s job to help there.”
Frederic mentioned that how he suits within the lineup will likely be decided by how he performs in camp. Though there are some features of his recreation that he needs to scrub up, he can and does extract confidence from the work he was capable of do with Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith in February and March when that line was instrumental in serving to the B’s solidify a playoff spot. He completed with 8-1-18 totals in 60 video games.
“I was just playing free,” mentioned Frederic. “You don’t want to make mistakes, obviously, but I was just playing free and they’re good guys, easy to play with. I enjoyed playing with them and had a lot of fun.”
As for what this season may imply for him, Frederic – who’ll be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights subsequent summer season – mentioned that’s one factor he’s not centered on.
“I’m not trying to think like that,” mentioned Frederic. “I know it’s a big year in general for the team. We have a really good chance to make a run. I think we have the roster for it. That part of it is a big deal. I think with team success comes individual success. And at the end of the year, the chips will fall where they will.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com