NHL Players Mental Health: If It’s Good Enough for MacKinnon and Jarvis, It’s Good Enough for You
NHL Players Mental Health: If It’s Good Enough for MacKinnon and Jarvis, It’s Good Enough for You
Canada lost on Sunday. Before a game like that even starts, there’s a quiet moment. Laces pulled tight. Breath steady. Focus narrowing.
Conversations about NHL players mental health don’t usually happen after a loss like that. But they should. Because what happens inside the minds of elite athletes isn’t that different from what happens inside the minds of the men I sit with every week.
If you watched that game, you felt it. The whole country did. There’s something particular about losing a hockey game like that, one you dominated, one you deserved to win, one that slipped away in a moment of three-on-three overtime. It sits with you.
Here’s what I want to talk about today. Not the loss itself, but something about two of the men who played in that game. Nathan MacKinnon, one of the greatest players to ever lace up skates, and Seth Jarvis, one of the most exciting young forwards in the game right now. They have both talked openly about their mental health, about the work they’ve done on the inside to perform better on the outside.
If two guys we watch for talent and intensity can say that out loud, it’s worth paying attention.
Why NHL Players Mental Health Matters Beyond the Ice
If you grew up around hockey, trades or prairie culture, you probably heard the message early: handle it yourself. Over time, that mindset becomes a major driver of men not wanting to seek mental health support. Push through. Don’t show weakness. Figure it out yourself. That message gets reinforced at every level, from minor hockey dressing rooms to job sites to family dinner tables.
What I see lines up with the numbers too. Men are far less likely to reach out until things feel heavy. Most men I work with aren’t in crisis, they’re just tired of carrying everything alone.
Most men wait until something big happens, a relationship ends, or a decision has real consequences. You’ve convinced yourself that what you’re going through wasn’t serious enough to deserve attention, or who believed that asking for help meant something was really wrong with you.
That stigma has a cost. And it’s one of the reasons I write about this, and why I do the work I do through Men’s Counselling. The men most resistant to getting support are often the ones who need it most. That’s why therapy for men, especially men in Saskatchewan and Alberta who were raised to handle things alone, looks different than people assume. It’s not about talking endlessly about feelings. It’s about understanding how you react under pressure and building better ways to handle it.
You probably don’t think about it this way. You just know you’re running hot more often, second-guessing yourself, or carrying pressure you can’t shut off.
Nathan MacKinnon Mental Health and the Pressure to Perform
When Nathan MacKinnon opened up about his mental health, it caught a lot of people off guard. He was drafted first overall in 2013. He won the Calder Trophy as a rookie. He was one of the most talented players on the planet. By every external measure, things were going well.
Then his second season hit, and he dropped from 63 points to 38. Not because he lost his ability. Because his mental game was quietly falling apart and nobody had ever taught him how to manage it.
MacKinnon has since spoken publicly about the inner critic that was running in the background regardless of how well he performed. No matter what he did on the ice, that voice found a way to find something wrong. He described being a hot head. He judged his play as a reflection of who he was as a person. The way MacKinnon talks about this now shows how much hockey culture is changing.
He made working with a sports psychologist a priority. He learned to manage his emotions under pressure, to focus on what was within his control, and to stop letting that voice run the show. The results were not subtle. He became one of the best players in the world. He has since won the Hart Trophy, the Ted Lindsay Award, and stood on the ice in Milan this morning giving everything he had for Canada.
The critical voice isn’t just an athlete thing. What MacKinnon describes is something I see all the time with the men I work with. This is often what pressure looks like for high-performing men looks like: successful on the outside, relentless pressure on the inside. It shows up in men in Saskatchewan and Alberta every single day, in how they evaluate themselves at work, as fathers, as partners. If that relentless self-critical voice sounds familiar, The Real Reason You Get Defensive So Fast (And How to Stop Reacting to Criticism) is worth reading. That pattern and the inner critic are often more connected than people realize.
Jarvis: The Happiest Guy in the Room Was Asking If He Was Good Enough
When discussions about Seth Jarvis mental health started surfacing, a lot of fans were surprised. If you’ve watched him play, you know the energy. He’s loose, he’s fun, he smiles. He’s one of the most genuinely likable players in the NHL and he looked like he was having the time of his life in Milan this week.
But in the FACEOFF documentary on Amazon Prime, the episode is titled “Good Enough,” Jarvis pulled back the curtain on something most people watching him would never guess. Underneath that easy-going personality, he puts enormous pressure on himself to perform. He talked openly about struggling with self-doubt, about the persistent question of whether he is good enough, at the junior level, at the NHL level, representing his country.
He described being cut from the 2020 World Juniors team, finding out early one morning in a hotel room. That rejection sat with him. Five years later he was suiting up for Team Canada at the Olympics. Going from being cut to being an Olympian did not happen by accident. It happened because Jarvis took his mental game seriously and did not let self-doubt make the decisions for him.
He said something that has stayed with me: “No one can say anything that I haven’t already said to myself.” That line says a lot. That is a man who knows exactly how tough he can be on himself, and who has done enough work to say it with some lightness rather than shame. What stands out is this: self-doubt and confidence can exist in the same person.
That kind of pressure, the pressure men put on themselves quietly, is something that often connects directly to how they show up in relationships and in conflict. If you recognize that pattern, my blog Why Talking About Feelings Feels Like a Threat gets into some of the reasons why.
How NHL Players Mental Health Is Changing Men’s Mental Health Culture in Canada
Here’s what actually changes things: when guys at the top of their game talk openly about working on the mental side too. It does not look like a poster in a doctor’s office. It does not look like a social media campaign. It looks like Nathan MacKinnon sitting in front of a camera and talking about the inner critic that was quietly wrecking him. It looks like Seth Jarvis making a documentary episode about self-doubt and calling it “Good Enough.”
It looks like two men at the top of the toughest team sport in the world saying publicly: I work on my mental health. It helps me perform better. And I’m not embarrassed about it.
That matters because of who is watching. Young men in Saskatchewan and Alberta who grew up playing hockey. Men in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who have spent decades telling themselves that what they’re carrying isn’t serious enough to deserve attention. You’ve probably told yourself at some point that what you’re carrying isn’t serious enough to talk about. You were raised to believe that asking for help is weakness. This hits especially for men who would never describe themselves as someone who needs therapy.
When the players those men watch normalize mental health work, something shifts. Not overnight. But it shifts.
MacKinnon did not get support because he was broken. He got it because something was not working and he wanted to be better. That framing is important. You do not need to be in crisis to take this seriously. You just need to be honest about what’s going on.
What to Do If This Lands for You
Canada played a nearly perfect game on Sunday and lost anyway. The players who gave everything are going to have to sit with that. That’s hard. Processing a loss like that, whether it’s a hockey game or something much closer to home, takes something.
If something in this post resonated with you, whether it’s the inner critic MacKinnon described, the self-doubt Jarvis talked about, or just a general sense that you’ve been carrying something you haven’t named, here are some practical next steps:
- Start simple. Just admit to yourself something feels off. You do not need a diagnosis or a crisis to acknowledge that something is off. Simply saying “I’ve been struggling” to yourself is a start.
- Talk to someone you trust. Not a full breakdown. Just a flag. “I’ve been off lately” is enough to begin.
- Consider getting support. Not because something is broken. Because you are dealing with something real and you do not have to sort it out alone. Working with someone who understands how men experience and express distress makes a real difference. Men’s Counselling or Anxiety Counselling are good places to start if you’re not sure where you fit.
Many men who reach out for counselling say the hardest part was making the first call.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do professional hockey players actually go to therapy for mental health?
Yes. Many NHL teams now use sports psychologists, and more players talk openly about the mental side of performance. Mental health support for NHL players is increasingly viewed as performance training, not weakness.
Isn’t therapy just for people who can’t handle things on their own?
Nathan MacKinnon is a Hart Trophy winner. Seth Jarvis just played in an Olympic gold medal game. Both work on their mental health. Most people who seek support are not falling apart. They are people who want to stop letting certain patterns hold them back.
I’m not an athlete. Does any of this apply to me?
The patterns, the inner critic, the self-doubt, the pressure men put on themselves quietly, are not specific to sport. They show up in how men approach their careers, their relationships, their role as fathers, and how they talk to themselves when things go sideways.
Why are more NHL players talking about mental health?
Teams now employ sports psychologists, players speak openly in documentaries and interviews, and younger athletes are more willing to challenge traditional hockey culture norms around toughness and silence. This shift is helping reduce men’s mental health stigma in Canada and across professional sports.
Canada gave everything this morning. MacKinnon, Jarvis, all of them. They both work on the mental side too.
Conversations about NHL players mental health aren’t just about elite sport, they’re about changing how men everywhere relate to their own struggles.
If you’re a man in Saskatchewan or Alberta who has been carrying pressure quietly, whether that’s in your work, your relationship, or your own head, I offer a free 20-minute consultation to talk it through.
No pressure. No jargon. Just a real conversation about what’s been weighing on you.
You can book that call through my online booking page for Men’s counselling in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
