The Vancouver Canucks have produced a series of TV commercials to encourage season ticket subscriptions, a smart move in the wake of the retirement of Henrik and Daniel Sedin.
In the spots, some of the young stars of the team, such as Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser, are shown training, running up a steep mountainous trail or pulling logs across a sandy beach. The next scene features the same player blowing by some pylon on defence and rifling the puck into the net past a dumbfounded goaltender.
In other words, while it may be summertime and the living is easy for mere mortals, Vancouver Canucks players are working hard in the off-season to get ready for the campaign to come.
A closer look at the commercials reveals something about what makes Horvat and Boeser successful professional hockey players.
Watch their faces as they push themselves in those punishing workouts.
Their eyes are bright and focused, their determined faces feature grimaces that can also be mistaken for smiles. Their faces look exactly the same as they do when they play. In other words, they work as hard and have as much fun training as they do on the ice scoring goals.
Genetics and inherent physical talent only go so far. An aching desire to make the big leagues is required, but that's still not enough. These athletes can't just have the willingness to put in the necessary work to be among the best hockey players in the world, they have to enjoy the work.
Athletes at this level spend less time practicing what they're already good at and more time and energy working on what they're not so good at. Dedicated to constant self-improvement, they are keenly aware of deficiencies in their play and they target them with ferocity.
Guaranteed, Boeser is spending more time this summer working on his strength and conditioning, as well as his defensive play, than he is on his shot, which is already one of the best.
And he's having a blast doing it, trying to lift what the stronger players can and run and skate as far and as fast as the quicker players can. In return, he's offering pointers to them on that wicked shot of his, which is developing his mentoring and leadership skills.
Whatever the pursuit, from athletics to politics to artistic endeavours to trades, the masters of those skills enjoy the hard work as much or more than they do the pride of a job well done. In hockey terms, they're as happy doing another round of burpees in the gym with a couple of teammates as they are scoring the overtime goal in front of thousands of screaming fans.
For those who dream of being the best hockey player or guitar player or astronaut or doctor, loving the toughest parts of the job and never settling for anything less than excellence is living the dream, not the cheers or the awards or the money.
-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
