Flames players say mental health support making a positive impact

Calgary Flames centre Kevin Rooney admits it took him a while to get comfortable when he first joined the team in 2022.

Rooney, then 29, had worked his way through the New Jersey Devils’ farm system as an undrafted signing to establish himself as a reliable, bottom-six, penalty-killing forward. After a stint with the New York Rangers, he signed the biggest contract of his career – two years, $2.6 million – with the Flames in July of 2022. He was joining a veteran club in win-now mode, and making the most money he’d ever made in professional hockey.

Rooney put a lot of pressure on himself to live up to the new deal while trying to get comfortable in both a new city and locker room. A few weeks into his Flames’ tenure, Rooney was struggling to adjust to his new team and losing confidence. He decided he needed help.

“It was coming to a new team, a team that was already pretty set from the year before, being a new guy and trying to find my way and fit in with also just being who I am,” Rooney said.

He reached out to the Flames’ mental performance specialist, Dr. Matt Brown. Dr. Brown has a PhD in counselling psychology and has been with the Flames since 2016. His work with Rooney centred on simplifying his thoughts and focusing on his strengths as a player.

“Those are the things I’m thinking about on the bench,” Rooney said. “We always talk that hockey’s a game of mistakes. You have to be able to flush a mistake quickly and I think that’s really helped me.”

In his role, Rooney tends to play between seven and 12 minutes a night, often in the defensive zone. He said Dr. Brown has helped him stay engaged during stretches where he’s not seeing the ice.

“That’s where I’ve really grown over the last couple of years, is not get frustrated [between shifts] and stay within the game itself,” he said.

Dr. Brown is a fixture at Flames’ practices and is often seen casually chatting with players. He gives presentations to the team about topics like visualization, emotional management, and re-setting strategies, and sometimes goes on the road with the club. He’s also available for one-on-one sessions with players and staff.

Dr. Brown said that when a player is struggling, part of his feedback is to help them think positively and remember what got them to the NHL in the first place.

“The fastest way back to performing [well] is to remember what ‘right’ feels like,” Dr. Brown said. “Even something like going back and watching your previous goals that you’ve scored and playing them back in your head. Not just seeing them but feeling them coming off your stick, waking those pathways back up can be the thing you need to get over the hump.”

The human brain can have upwards of 50,000 thoughts in a single day, according to Dr. Brown.

“They can be helping you or hurting you,” he explained. “By just starting to tune in to the way that you’re talking to yourself, the things you say to yourself, the things you’re paying attention to, you can steer the ship. You can have two hands on that wheel in terms of your confidence, your competitiveness, your ability to reset, and your ability to self-regulate emotionally.”

That first season in Flames’ colours didn’t go smoothly for Rooney. He struggled on the ice, and midway through the season was waived. Rooney cleared waivers and spent the rest of the campaign with the American Hockey League’s Wranglers. He leaned on Dr. Brown as he adapted to playing in the minors for the first time since 2019.

“I was talking to him right before that,” Rooney said. “My game was not in a great spot, and I was just trying to fit in and find a role with the team.”

Dr. Brown’s message to Rooney was simple.

“Just to believe in [myself],” Rooney said. “The organization invested a lot in me, and they wouldn’t do that if they didn’t see something in me. I just kept staying positive. Every time I talked to him, I felt a lot better about myself.”

Blueliner Jake Bean has also asked Dr. Brown for help. Bean, a Calgary native, has known him for more than a decade and signed with his hometown team last off-season after stints in Carolina and Columbus. Some of those conversations were about the weight of playing in his home city.

“So many different things happen throughout the year and every player, myself included, goes through so many different phases and so many seasons within the season,” Bean said. “We’re so busy. We have so much going on…in pro sports, there’s a lot of swimming upstream. It’s a competitive world. There’s a lot of ups and downs. There’s a lot of pressures. You don’t really have time to not be on top of your game. As things come, it’s important to address them and not let them build up.”

Like Rooney, Bean felt the weight of expectations that came with his contract. He was a healthy scratch early this season, but has since become a staple on the team’s third defence pairing.

“I definitely think there was a level here for me to just get comfortable,” he said. “A team I’ve watched my whole life, players I’ve watched my whole life…[Dr. Brown] helps you put things in perspective, understand the situation, and how to perform the best under those pressures.”

Flames head coach Ryan Huska said that the mental side of the sport is just as important as the physical side.

“Players need to have the tools that can help them recover, help them rebound, help them in bad times,” Huska said. “[Dr. Brown] is an excellent resource for them to go to.”

Rooney feels that the conversation around mental health is shifting slowly in hockey. Players are more comfortable reaching out when they need help, and every team has mental health supports for its players.

Last season, former Calgary defenceman Oliver Kylington returned to the league after more than a season away to focus on his own mental health.

“Guys have become more open to dealing with mental health,” Rooney said. “I still do think there’s a long way to go with it, for sure. Us as hockey players, we’re not guys that are willing to talk about things that are tough all the time…having guys like Brownie in the organization pushing that message that, ‘Hey, it’s okay if you’re going through a tough time. There are people that are here to help and talk to you.’”

Huska said that reduced stigma will benefit everyone.

“It used to be taboo,” Huska said of players discussing mental health. “It’s no longer that way. That’s a great thing for the individual player and for the whole organization.”