Chicago Blackhawks: 3 Keys to success for Brent Seabrook

Key 1: Accept that his play has fallen in quality

Seabrook is no longer a player that a team will build around. He hasn’t been this caliber of player for a while now, but it hasn’t felt as if he or the team were treating him that way. The impression has been, at least to me, that the drop in play was an anomaly and he’d right the ship during the off-season. Train a little harder, watch some more video, whatever. Then that next season came around, and Seabrook still looked off.

Now he’s 35, coming off what was probably the worst season of his career, and to top it off he had three major surgeries. Whatever Seabrook thinks he’s going to accomplish on the ice has to start with a hard look in the mirror, and to admit that he’s not the player he was. It would be awful to see Seabrook flounder around the next few years because he can’t be honest about the fact that his play has dropped in quality.

His next steps will all stem from how he’s going to approach the next season mentally. If he’s ready to accept that his abilities aren’t what they once were, then he’s off to the right start. If he doesn’t though…well, it might be a controversial start to the season. The press box is going to be a very real possibility for him this year. Other players have likely overtaken him on the depth chart. This is the natural order of things, but Seabrook needs to admit this to himself.