MIND OVER MATTER

Eric Tangradi is thinking positively about his chances of playing in the NHL again.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

“Ninety percent of this game is half mental.”
– Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra was talking about baseball when he articulated the importance the mind plays in a game, but he could just as easily have been talking about hockey.

When a netminder is allowing too many bad goals or a skater is mired in a scoring slump, staying positive isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially when one’s confidence is haunted by the specter of serial struggles.

For many players, the prescription is mind over matter: “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” But the reality is that psychology is a powerful piece in the puzzle of every player’s performance. Dealing with the ups and downs of a professional career, players learn that the mental aspects of the sport can be almost as important as the physical parts.

Just ask Eric Tangradi. The Grand Rapids Griffins’ power forward knows the rollercoaster ride of professional hockey all too well.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Tangradi was a diehard Flyers fan. His bedroom included Eric Lindros and Keith Primeau jerseys and a Flyers “Legion of Doom” poster. In a city where hockey took a backseat to baseball and football, he loved playing stick sports (lacrosse was another early passion).

When it came to ice hockey, Tangradi was actually a bit of a late bloomer.

“I was playing in a floor hockey league at the YMCA when someone suggested to my dad that I should try roller blades,” said Tangradi, the son of a postal worker who was a carrier before bad knees forced him into a desk job.

“I played a couple of years of roller hockey before someone else suggested that he try me on skates. It was like someone was looking over us and telling us the direction that Eric Tangradi was supposed to go. Once I got on skates, I knew that hockey was what I wanted to do.”

“I played all kinds of sports, but hockey was the one thing that was different. I would play baseball, football and basketball with all the kids in the neighborhood, but we had to drive 30 minutes for me to play hockey. It was like this whole separate life where I played ice hockey with a whole new group of people.”

Tangradi was always the biggest kid in class, a little overweight until he hit his growth spurt in the ninth grade. “When I look at my minor hockey films, I see this big tree being chased around by a bunch of little guys,” he chuckled.

When he was 16, his coach was Ed “Boxcar” Hospodar, a retired NHL defenseman who was an enforcer for the Flyers and New York Rangers, among other teams. “He asked me to name my favorite players and when I said Keith Primeau, he said, ‘That’s your guy. Be like him,’ which meant playing a north-south game, being physical and strong on the puck.”

So Tangradi wore No. 25, which was Primeau’s number with the Flyers, when he played junior hockey in Belleville, Ontario, after spending a year at Wyoming Seminary Prep School in Kingston, Pa. In juniors, he became close with P.K. Subban, the future Montreal Canadiens defensemen. Both had been chosen in the same round of the OHL draft and Tangradi was taken one pick (42nd overall) ahead of Subban in the second round of the 2007 NHL draft.

“Our relationship grew stronger over the years, from two kids just trying to have some fun to him playing in the World Juniors for Canada and me for the U.S.,” Tangradi said. “We learned a lot from each other. It seemed like he did well, I did well, and then we got to the NHL level and he just took off.”

Tangradi was traded before he ever played a game in the NHL. On Feb. 26, 2009, he was dealt along with Anaheim Ducks forward Chris Kunitz to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for defenseman Ryan Whitney.

All of a sudden, Tangradi had to change his thinking.

“It was my first taste of the business,” he said. “Growing up in Philly in a family of diehard Flyer fans, getting traded to the Penguins was like being pushed across the state to the enemy,” he said. “I knew people who would only wear Penguins shirts under their Flyer jerseys while I played there.”

As a top prospect, Tangradi was expected to eventually develop into a linemate to Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, but he struggled in several auditions with the Penguins, tallying one goal and four assists in 45 games spread over four seasons.

“I think the hardest part was being a young kid and learning how to deal with the media,” he said. “Before you even show up to the rink, you have people writing articles about how you’re going to be the next Kevin Stevens or the next linemate to Sidney Crosby. When handled the right way, that might give you confidence, but as a 21-year-old kid on his own without proper guidance, it was very tough on me.”

Tangradi made the Penguins’ roster out of training camp at the beginning of the 2010-11 season but saw his minutes dwindle before he was eventually sent back to Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

“The Penguins still had a win-now mentality and there wasn’t a whole lot of patience for a young guy,” he said. “One of the closest guys in age to me was Crosby, and he was not somebody who you could knock on his hotel room door and say, ‘Hey, can I get some advice?’ Not to find excuses, but it was very, very tough, and I think I wasn’t the strongest mentally at the time.”

Tangradi admits that he may have been thinking too much.

“I would go to the rink, practice and go back to my hotel room. What else was there to do? I didn’t really have anybody to talk to or vent to, so you sit in the room and you do a lot of thinking, way too much thinking,” he said. “Nobody’s going to be perfect in this league, but if you beat yourself up over the little things, it definitely compounds over time and it can be a tough way to play.”

On Feb. 13, 2013, Pittsburgh sent their former top prospect to the Winnipeg Jets for a seventh-round pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. For Tangradi, it was an opportunity for a fresh start.

“In Winnipeg, I got to play a lot of minutes and I did a lot of good things,” said Tangradi, who played 91 games during the two seasons with the Jets. “Playing on the fourth line, I was able to chip in a few points, get into a few scraps and play my role.”

Being relegated to the fourth line allowed Tangradi to do what he does best.

“What I learned over the years is that when you press to put points or stats on the scoresheet, it never comes,” he said. “When I was on the fourth line, I played some of my best hockey because there was no pressure to do those things.”

Winnipeg was good for Tangradi’s confidence but not so good for his car. Winters in Winnipeg are harsh and Tangradi wrecked his car on icy roads and was dismayed when his car battery died three times in one season. “I remember a news story that said Winnipeg was colder than Mars,” he said. “It reached like minus-51 degrees. It was something I had never experienced, that’s for sure.”

But a coaching change in Winnipeg ended Tangradi’s time in Manitoba and got him thinking again. Was he doing something wrong? “I wished things had worked out in Pittsburgh and I wished things had worked out in Winnipeg, but I decided to turn the page.”

He decided he needed to change something. “I got to play a lot of minutes in Winnipeg, but I just couldn’t find the back of the net. I did a lot of good things and I was able to earn a two-year contract and show that I could be a stable NHL player in the lineup. I felt like things were starting to add up and then – boom! – I was the odd man out.”

After talking with his agent and a number of former coaches, Tangradi decided to start seeing a sports psychiatrist. “My play wasn’t suffering for a lack of effort on the ice or hard work in the gym,” he said. “The mental aspect of the game is the one thing that I never really dialed into.

“We spend five nights a week pumping iron, running stairs, and practicing, but as hockey players, we don’t do the proper things to train our brains. After Pittsburgh and Winnipeg, I felt it was something that I needed to focus on and so I’ve really started to hammer on it the last two years.”

Tangradi believes the sessions have been therapeutic. “This game is so crazy that it’s not easy to be focused and stay on the right path,” he said. “The highs and lows are huge and if I miss a couple of weeks, I can feel myself slowly getting off-track. It’s all about staying positive and staying on task in terms of what’s important.”

In Tangradi’s mind, it’s about keeping things simple – and fun. “You try to create a big picture in your mind of why you’re playing hockey,” he said. “This sport means so much more than putting on your gear and scoring goals. It goes back to the beginning – to your family, your parents, your faith. It’s about keeping everything in perspective. It humbles me and, at the same time, it motivates me.”

He has learned not to sweat the small stuff.

“There is no conscious thought of good or bad. You’re just going. Now that I’ve worked with a sports psychologist, I think I’ve gotten the mental aspect of my game where it needs to be. It’s called being in the zone, and that zone is about trying to relax and doing what you’re good at.”

Winnipeg traded Tangradi to Montreal on Oct. 5, 2014, in exchange for Peter Budaj and Patrick Holland. Tangradi spent most of last season with the Hamilton Bulldogs, although he saw action in seven games with the NHL’s Canadiens.

“It was very special playing for a historic organization like Montreal,” he said. “Putting on that sweater and playing in front of that crowd, it’s one of those moments that I’ll remember for a long time. But in the end, it was one of those things. Getting another chance back in the NHL, I might have put too much pressure on myself and I wasn’t able to establish my game.”

Given the chance to sign with the Red Wings this past summer, Tangradi jumped at the offer. “I wanted to go to a place where winning is just the DNA of the organization,” he said. “When the opportunity to come to Detroit presented itself, it was a no-brainer.”

Tangradi had actually given thought to going to Europe to play. “I had plenty of opportunities to go to Europe and give this whole thing up,” he said. “But when I looked into the mirror, I saw that I truly believed I could play in the NHL. At 26, I’m not too old and I think I have what it takes to play there. I came here because I wanted another crack.”

He admits that he was a bit dismayed by the Griffins’ slow start this season.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t struggling with us being 1-7. You start questioning yourself,” he said. “You just have to refocus and pay attention to the little things and know that everything will be OK.”

Tangradi contends that the Griffins’ early season struggles are proof that games are won on the ice and not on paper.

“Just having a strong roster on the board doesn’t guarantee you’re going to have success, especially in the AHL,” he said. “This is the league where hard work wins more games than it loses. In the NHL, you can get away with skill a little more because the talent there is so amazing. In the AHL, it often comes down to who has a little more heart, will and determination.”

Tangradi remains confident that the Griffins will find their destiny.

“If we focus on hard work and determination first, the talent and all of the other things will take care of themselves. The sky’s the limit for this team,” he said, just before the Griffins earned points in five of six games (4-1-0-1) and posted three straight wins against Western Conference powers.

As for himself, Tangradi resolves to strengthen his standing as a potential net presence for the Red Wings. “It’s too narrow to say ‘power forward’ only. I think I can be a net-front force who can play in every situation and who can carry a team at the right time.

“I want the coaches to know what they’re going to get out of me every night. I’m playing an in-your-face style, I’m finishing every check, I’m showing offensive tools where I can make plays and I’m creating space for the other guys. I want to be that physical force who can open up the ice for the skilled guys, maybe tilt the ice a little bit. I want to be a game-changer.”

All in all, life is good for Tangradi, a dog lover who owns a boxer named Carson in honor of the street in Pittsburgh where he met his wife, Caitlyn Hess.

A Penn State graduate with a knack for fashion, Caitlyn started SCHEÉ (pronounced SHE-ay), a shoe company with a philanthropic twist where a percentage of each sale goes to a charity. “She’s doing well enough to stay afloat, which is all we can ask at this point, while supporting causes like autism, breast cancer and cystic fibrosis,” Tangradi said.

With its altruistic angle, SCHEE takes nothing for granted – an attitude that Tangradi fully embraces. “You have to come to the rink every day with that mentality,” he said. “The guy next to you is someone who is trying to take your job. You have to come to the rink and do everything possible to prove you deserve to play.”

In the end, if Tangradi doesn’t play in the NHL again, he believes he will have nobody else to blame.

“What I have learned about this business is that it’s the guys who are going to give the team the best chance to win who get to play in the NHL,” he said. “You have to do something that makes you stand out as an everyday NHL player. It’s entirely up to you.”

Eric Tangradi is thinking positively about his chances of playing in the NHL again.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

“Ninety percent of this game is half mental.”
– Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra was talking about baseball when he articulated the importance the mind plays in a game, but he could just as easily have been talking about hockey.

When a netminder is allowing too many bad goals or a skater is mired in a scoring slump, staying positive isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially when one’s confidence is haunted by the specter of serial struggles.

For many players, the prescription is mind over matter: “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” But the reality is that psychology is a powerful piece in the puzzle of every player’s performance. Dealing with the ups and downs of a professional career, players learn that the mental aspects of the sport can be almost as important as the physical parts.

Just ask Eric Tangradi. The Grand Rapids Griffins’ power forward knows the rollercoaster ride of professional hockey all too well.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Tangradi was a diehard Flyers fan. His bedroom included Eric Lindros and Keith Primeau jerseys and a Flyers “Legion of Doom” poster. In a city where hockey took a backseat to baseball and football, he loved playing stick sports (lacrosse was another early passion).

When it came to ice hockey, Tangradi was actually a bit of a late bloomer.

“I was playing in a floor hockey league at the YMCA when someone suggested to my dad that I should try roller blades,” said Tangradi, the son of a postal worker who was a carrier before bad knees forced him into a desk job.

“I played a couple of years of roller hockey before someone else suggested that he try me on skates. It was like someone was looking over us and telling us the direction that Eric Tangradi was supposed to go. Once I got on skates, I knew that hockey was what I wanted to do.”

“I played all kinds of sports, but hockey was the one thing that was different. I would play baseball, football and basketball with all the kids in the neighborhood, but we had to drive 30 minutes for me to play hockey. It was like this whole separate life where I played ice hockey with a whole new group of people.”

Tangradi was always the biggest kid in class, a little overweight until he hit his growth spurt in the ninth grade. “When I look at my minor hockey films, I see this big tree being chased around by a bunch of little guys,” he chuckled.

When he was 16, his coach was Ed “Boxcar” Hospodar, a retired NHL defenseman who was an enforcer for the Flyers and New York Rangers, among other teams. “He asked me to name my favorite players and when I said Keith Primeau, he said, ‘That’s your guy. Be like him,’ which meant playing a north-south game, being physical and strong on the puck.”

So Tangradi wore No. 25, which was Primeau’s number with the Flyers, when he played junior hockey in Belleville, Ontario, after spending a year at Wyoming Seminary Prep School in Kingston, Pa. In juniors, he became close with P.K. Subban, the future Montreal Canadiens defensemen. Both had been chosen in the same round of the OHL draft and Tangradi was taken one pick (42nd overall) ahead of Subban in the second round of the 2007 NHL draft.

“Our relationship grew stronger over the years, from two kids just trying to have some fun to him playing in the World Juniors for Canada and me for the U.S.,” Tangradi said. “We learned a lot from each other. It seemed like he did well, I did well, and then we got to the NHL level and he just took off.”

Tangradi was traded before he ever played a game in the NHL. On Feb. 26, 2009, he was dealt along with Anaheim Ducks forward Chris Kunitz to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for defenseman Ryan Whitney.

All of a sudden, Tangradi had to change his thinking.

“It was my first taste of the business,” he said. “Growing up in Philly in a family of diehard Flyer fans, getting traded to the Penguins was like being pushed across the state to the enemy,” he said. “I knew people who would only wear Penguins shirts under their Flyer jerseys while I played there.”

As a top prospect, Tangradi was expected to eventually develop into a linemate to Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, but he struggled in several auditions with the Penguins, tallying one goal and four assists in 45 games spread over four seasons.

“I think the hardest part was being a young kid and learning how to deal with the media,” he said. “Before you even show up to the rink, you have people writing articles about how you’re going to be the next Kevin Stevens or the next linemate to Sidney Crosby. When handled the right way, that might give you confidence, but as a 21-year-old kid on his own without proper guidance, it was very tough on me.”

Tangradi made the Penguins’ roster out of training camp at the beginning of the 2010-11 season but saw his minutes dwindle before he was eventually sent back to Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

“The Penguins still had a win-now mentality and there wasn’t a whole lot of patience for a young guy,” he said. “One of the closest guys in age to me was Crosby, and he was not somebody who you could knock on his hotel room door and say, ‘Hey, can I get some advice?’ Not to find excuses, but it was very, very tough, and I think I wasn’t the strongest mentally at the time.”

Tangradi admits that he may have been thinking too much.

“I would go to the rink, practice and go back to my hotel room. What else was there to do? I didn’t really have anybody to talk to or vent to, so you sit in the room and you do a lot of thinking, way too much thinking,” he said. “Nobody’s going to be perfect in this league, but if you beat yourself up over the little things, it definitely compounds over time and it can be a tough way to play.”

On Feb. 13, 2013, Pittsburgh sent their former top prospect to the Winnipeg Jets for a seventh-round pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. For Tangradi, it was an opportunity for a fresh start.

“In Winnipeg, I got to play a lot of minutes and I did a lot of good things,” said Tangradi, who played 91 games during the two seasons with the Jets. “Playing on the fourth line, I was able to chip in a few points, get into a few scraps and play my role.”

Being relegated to the fourth line allowed Tangradi to do what he does best.

“What I learned over the years is that when you press to put points or stats on the scoresheet, it never comes,” he said. “When I was on the fourth line, I played some of my best hockey because there was no pressure to do those things.”

Winnipeg was good for Tangradi’s confidence but not so good for his car. Winters in Winnipeg are harsh and Tangradi wrecked his car on icy roads and was dismayed when his car battery died three times in one season. “I remember a news story that said Winnipeg was colder than Mars,” he said. “It reached like minus-51 degrees. It was something I had never experienced, that’s for sure.”

But a coaching change in Winnipeg ended Tangradi’s time in Manitoba and got him thinking again. Was he doing something wrong? “I wished things had worked out in Pittsburgh and I wished things had worked out in Winnipeg, but I decided to turn the page.”

He decided he needed to change something. “I got to play a lot of minutes in Winnipeg, but I just couldn’t find the back of the net. I did a lot of good things and I was able to earn a two-year contract and show that I could be a stable NHL player in the lineup. I felt like things were starting to add up and then – boom! – I was the odd man out.”

After talking with his agent and a number of former coaches, Tangradi decided to start seeing a sports psychiatrist. “My play wasn’t suffering for a lack of effort on the ice or hard work in the gym,” he said. “The mental aspect of the game is the one thing that I never really dialed into.

“We spend five nights a week pumping iron, running stairs, and practicing, but as hockey players, we don’t do the proper things to train our brains. After Pittsburgh and Winnipeg, I felt it was something that I needed to focus on and so I’ve really started to hammer on it the last two years.”

Tangradi believes the sessions have been therapeutic. “This game is so crazy that it’s not easy to be focused and stay on the right path,” he said. “The highs and lows are huge and if I miss a couple of weeks, I can feel myself slowly getting off-track. It’s all about staying positive and staying on task in terms of what’s important.”

In Tangradi’s mind, it’s about keeping things simple – and fun. “You try to create a big picture in your mind of why you’re playing hockey,” he said. “This sport means so much more than putting on your gear and scoring goals. It goes back to the beginning – to your family, your parents, your faith. It’s about keeping everything in perspective. It humbles me and, at the same time, it motivates me.”

He has learned not to sweat the small stuff.

“There is no conscious thought of good or bad. You’re just going. Now that I’ve worked with a sports psychologist, I think I’ve gotten the mental aspect of my game where it needs to be. It’s called being in the zone, and that zone is about trying to relax and doing what you’re good at.”

Winnipeg traded Tangradi to Montreal on Oct. 5, 2014, in exchange for Peter Budaj and Patrick Holland. Tangradi spent most of last season with the Hamilton Bulldogs, although he saw action in seven games with the NHL’s Canadiens.

“It was very special playing for a historic organization like Montreal,” he said. “Putting on that sweater and playing in front of that crowd, it’s one of those moments that I’ll remember for a long time. But in the end, it was one of those things. Getting another chance back in the NHL, I might have put too much pressure on myself and I wasn’t able to establish my game.”

Given the chance to sign with the Red Wings this past summer, Tangradi jumped at the offer. “I wanted to go to a place where winning is just the DNA of the organization,” he said. “When the opportunity to come to Detroit presented itself, it was a no-brainer.”

Tangradi had actually given thought to going to Europe to play. “I had plenty of opportunities to go to Europe and give this whole thing up,” he said. “But when I looked into the mirror, I saw that I truly believed I could play in the NHL. At 26, I’m not too old and I think I have what it takes to play there. I came here because I wanted another crack.”

He admits that he was a bit dismayed by the Griffins’ slow start this season.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t struggling with us being 1-7. You start questioning yourself,” he said. “You just have to refocus and pay attention to the little things and know that everything will be OK.”

Tangradi contends that the Griffins’ early season struggles are proof that games are won on the ice and not on paper.

“Just having a strong roster on the board doesn’t guarantee you’re going to have success, especially in the AHL,” he said. “This is the league where hard work wins more games than it loses. In the NHL, you can get away with skill a little more because the talent there is so amazing. In the AHL, it often comes down to who has a little more heart, will and determination.”

Tangradi remains confident that the Griffins will find their destiny.

“If we focus on hard work and determination first, the talent and all of the other things will take care of themselves. The sky’s the limit for this team,” he said, just before the Griffins earned points in five of six games (4-1-0-1) and posted three straight wins against Western Conference powers.

As for himself, Tangradi resolves to strengthen his standing as a potential net presence for the Red Wings. “It’s too narrow to say ‘power forward’ only. I think I can be a net-front force who can play in every situation and who can carry a team at the right time.

“I want the coaches to know what they’re going to get out of me every night. I’m playing an in-your-face style, I’m finishing every check, I’m showing offensive tools where I can make plays and I’m creating space for the other guys. I want to be that physical force who can open up the ice for the skilled guys, maybe tilt the ice a little bit. I want to be a game-changer.”

All in all, life is good for Tangradi, a dog lover who owns a boxer named Carson in honor of the street in Pittsburgh where he met his wife, Caitlyn Hess.

A Penn State graduate with a knack for fashion, Caitlyn started SCHEÉ (pronounced SHE-ay), a shoe company with a philanthropic twist where a percentage of each sale goes to a charity. “She’s doing well enough to stay afloat, which is all we can ask at this point, while supporting causes like autism, breast cancer and cystic fibrosis,” Tangradi said.

With its altruistic angle, SCHEE takes nothing for granted – an attitude that Tangradi fully embraces. “You have to come to the rink every day with that mentality,” he said. “The guy next to you is someone who is trying to take your job. You have to come to the rink and do everything possible to prove you deserve to play.”

In the end, if Tangradi doesn’t play in the NHL again, he believes he will have nobody else to blame.

“What I have learned about this business is that it’s the guys who are going to give the team the best chance to win who get to play in the NHL,” he said. “You have to do something that makes you stand out as an everyday NHL player. It’s entirely up to you.”