Think to Win (or Lose)

Ottawa Senators is a fantastic hockey club. Daniel Alfredsson, the Captain of the team and a fine hockey player has contributed a lot to its success and prestige. So it was a surprise when Ottawa Senator loyalist were upset with him over his post game comments on May 22. 

Alfredsson was asked after the loss to Pittsburgh Penguins if Ottawa can win the next 3 games. They needed to do that to win the 7 game series against the Penguins. Alfredsson's response was "Probably Not".

Alfredsson's clarified later that he was telling the truth or being realistic.  

Was he doing the right thing by being realistic?

Probably not. 

In the book by Bob Skura, "How the Great Golfers Think", there is an interesting principle that Bob has talked about. It is about Positivity.

The principle is very simple. 

Just like when you search for something in Google, it fetches you the search results for that specific word(s), our mind does the same thing. You ask the question of yourself, "How I suck so much?" or "How can I be so stupid?" and the brain will faithfully and efficiently supply you with the responses to your question. It will not understand that you actually are not looking for responses for these questions but are instead are being sarcastic. If you change the question and ask "So how can I fix this?" And you will be provided with the responses for this question. It is absolutely critical that we ask the right question and talk "correctly".

As it turned out, Ottawa was "stream rolled" by the Penguins in the next game, exactly as Alfredsson predicted so realistically. 

So had Alfredsson answered the question differently, would the result have been any different? Possibly.