Change is happening across the game of hockey.
One conversation at a time.
The Flames host their 13th annual Hockey Talks night Thursday when the Avalanche visit the Scotiabank Saddledome, an evening highlighting mental health awareness and supporting mental health resources. GET TICKETS
Those conversations are happening in the Calgary dressing room, too.
The team has employed mental performance specialist Matt Brown for close to a decade.
And while presentations – and the occasional road trip – are part of his portfolio, so too are one-on-one conversations.
“I think for one thing, the more passionate and invested you are in something, the more your emotions are going to fluctuate,” Brown said. “So having some support on that emotional front, it’s kind of a moral obligation of an organization, to make sure you’re looking after your guys.
“Professional sport, in general, is highly stressful in terms of the pressure and expectation, but also, they play a dangerous game,” he continued. “It’s physical and sometimes violent, so there’s just a base level of stress that goes with the whole thing.
“Having supports in place to look after athletes psychologically, mentally, emotionally, is pretty important.”
Brown has a lengthy resume in sports psychology, too. While completing his doctorate, he worked with Olympic athletes and Hockey Canada before getting his first NHL opportunity with the Arizona Coyotes.
And over that time, he’s noticed – slowly but surely – that players feel increasingly comfortable in using him as a sounding board.
“I find that even over the course of the last eight or nine years in pro hockey, you see more of an understanding of, and a respect for the importance of mental health, and just the willingness to lean on some support,” he said. “As a result, I think what you end up with is stable, resilient, emotionally literate young athletes.”
Defenceman MacKenzie Weegar appreciates Brown’s presence in the Flames organization, admitting he’s faced anxiety at times over the course of his career.
But he considers that type of support important, not just as a resource, but in continuing to remove the stigma associated with mental health.
“You definitely need to have somebody like Brownie around,” he said Wednesday. “You know, my family’s had mental health (issues), I’ve had tough anxiety or panic attacks throughout a year, and just to have a voice there, or just somebody to lean on, you don’t want to necessarily go to one of your buddies all the time.
“Just having him around, it’s big, just if guys want to go talk to him, vent something out, or if he has advice for you.”
And that willingness to talk is part of the sea change Brown says he’s noticing in the pro hockey sphere.
There’s maybe a case to be made for hockey – and evenings like Hockey Talks – helping to drive the power of conversation across the wider community.
“There’s certainly been an opening-up, I think probably more in sport than outside, honestly,” said Brown. They have to be on every night, they can’t have off-days and when they do, it’s not quickly forgiven just in this realm. It’s just one more way that they recognize they have to be healthy, in order to be good and consistently good.
“So it’s certainly shifting, which is encouraging. It’s trending in the right direction, for sure.”
For Weegar, too, Thursday’s initiative is another step forward.
“I’m glad we’re doing Hockey Talks,” he said.
“It’s an important thing for us.”
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