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1. The deathsof hockeyenforcersreferencedabove referstothe deathsof Wade Belak,Rick
Rypien,andSteve Montadordue tobattleswithdepressionand substance abuse. See “Ex-NHler
Belak”formore informationonthe suicide of Wade Belak,“The NHLenforcerswhogodown
fighting”formore informationonthe suicide of RickRypien,and“Steve Montador,former
Flamesdefenceman,diesatage 35” for more informationonthe deathof Steve Montador.
Devan Fafard
57584154
Dr. Carmen Mathes
WRDS 150 11A
13 November 2015
Professional Hockey Players and Anxiety: Linking Anxiety to Depression
The recent deaths of severalhockey enforcers,players who are tasked with the role of self-
policing the ice through the use of violence, has caused substantial upheaval and discussion within the
hockey community.1
The deaths of these enforcers were the end result of individual battles with
depression, but many people are confused about the root cause of this problem. Although there has been
a great deal of attention, by scholars and in popular culture, on the long-term effects of concussions on
brain function, one possible conclusion as to why enforcers are at risk to develop mental illness could be
the intense amount of pre-competition anxiety that they try to control (McKee et al; Stern et al;
“Concussion”). Georges Laraque,a former NHL heavyweight enforcer,has described having to try to
manage pre-competition anxiety for several days before the actual event takes place (n.pg). This
sustained anxiety would make it difficult to achieve anxiety levels within the “Zone of Optimal Function”
and maximize performance (Raglin 263). Important conclusions on the “fear of failure” and the
perceived “consequences” of these failures could help to explain the heightened anxiety levels amongst
enforcers (“Why young elite”; “Success and failure”; Conroy et al 100). However,there has been a
failure to adequately relate the fears of an athlete to the development of depression. It appears that there
is currently a lack of research and knowledge as to why hockey enforcers are at risk of developing
depression. In this paper I want to highlight factors that contribute to pre-competition anxiety for hockey
enforcers and the connection of these factors to depression. By analyzing comments by current and
former enforcers about the stress of the role, I will evaluate how the fear of failure and the fear of injury

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contribute to anxiety levels and can potentially lead to depression. Increased anxiety levels and
performance are closely related. This paper finds that the potentially negative effects of high anxiety
levels on performance can lead to individuals developing depression.
In the last severaldecades there has been much psychological research into the relationship
between pre-competition anxiety and sport performance. John Raglin, in his article “Anxiety and Sport
Performance” cites Charles Spielberger’s definition of anxiety as being “emotional reactions that consist
of a unique combination of: (1) feelings of tension apprehension, and nervousness; (2) unpleasant
thoughts (worries); and (3) physiological changes” (248). This definition can be related to Brian
Massumi’s work on emotion and affect because the physiological changes caused by anxiety are
autonomous bodily reactions that occur before we cognitively acknowledge their existence and describe
them as “nervousness” or “worries”, a situation that Massumi would determine to be the difference
between affect and emotion (Massumi 85; Raglin 248). In his article, Raglin identifies “Zone of Optimal
Function Theory,” a theory on the ideal level of pre-competition anxiety stating that different individuals
perform better with different levels of anxiety, as being the superior model for pre-competition anxiety
because it accounts for athletes who perform their best at levels above or below the moderate range (263).
Two potential causes of heightened pre-competition anxiety amongst hockey enforcers are the “fear of
failure” and the “perceived risk of injury” (Sagar; Short et al). Sam Sagar et al discovered in their paper
“Why young elite athletes fear failure: Consequences of failure” that athletes develop pre-competition
anxiety in relation to their “fear of failure” because they are scared of the “aversive consequences” that
come with failing in competition (1180). Over the course of their study Sagar et al found several
“perceived consequences of failure” such as “diminished perception of self, no sense of achievement,
emotional cost of failure . . . letting down significant others and negative social evaluation” (1180). This
corroborates Conroy et al’s work in the development of a “Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory” that
assesses the “aversive consequences of . . . experiencing shame and embarrassment,devaluing one’s self-
estimate, having an uncertain future, important others losing interest, and upsetting important others”

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(77). Sandra Short et al’s paper “The Relationships Among Three Components of Perceived Risk of
Injury, Previous Injuries and Gender in Contact Sport Athletes” identifies “probability of injury,
worry/concern of being injured, and confidence in avoiding injury” as the three main factors of the
“perceived risk of injury” (38). Short et al’s inclusion of “worry/concern of being injured” as one these
main factors suggests that it plays a major role in athletes “perceived risk of injury” and is a prevalent
feeling among athletes before competition (41). Although the matter has not been investigated there
appears to be a link between the “aversive consequences” of failure and the research on the connection
between low self-esteem and depression (Conroy et al; Sagar et al; Orth and Robins). In the article
“Understanding the Link Between Low Self-Esteem and Depression,” that evaluates the effectiveness of
severalcompeting “theoretical models concerning the link between low self-esteem and depression,”
Ulrich Orth and Richard Robins find that the “vulnerability model, [which] states that low self-esteem is a
causalrisk factor for depression,” has had the strongest support amongst the academic community for
providing the most plausible connection between low self-esteem and depression (455). Low self-esteem,
defined by Orth and Robins as “an individual’s subjective [negative] evaluation of his or her worth as a
person,” appears to be similar to the negative consequences of failure identified by Sagar et al and Conroy
et al (Orth and Robins 455; “Performance Failure”; “Why Young Elite”).
Due to their physically demanding and violent role within the game “perceived risk of injury”
appears to be a major contributing factor to the intense levels of pre-competition anxiety experienced by
enforcers. PaulBissonnette, a NHL enforcer,describes his typical game day as involving “a lot of
restlessness . . . a lot of anxiety . . . a lot of imagining the worst in your own head” and that over the
course of an entire NHL season there is “a lot of time thinking about getting hurt – and actually getting
hurt” (n.pg). This

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description of the stresses of a typical game-day appear to corroborate Short et al’s findings that
“worry/concern of being injured” is a major contributing factor to an athlete’s pre-competition anxiety as
it relates to “perceived risk of injury” (41). Specifically, Bissonnette’s statement that “that’s a lot of time
thinking about getting hurt-and actually getting hurt” suggests that injuries over the course of a season are
an inevitability for enforcers and are a justifiable reason to worry about injuries. Bissonnette’s illusion to
the feeling of nervousness throughout the season exemplifies that these athletes have to grapple with
sustained anxiety levels and have to attempt to control these “affective” forces in order to achieve their
individual “Zone of Optimal Function” and perform their best (Massumi 85; Raglin 263). This is
conceivably a difficult thing to accomplish and has the potential to cause these athletes to fail to play their
best and fail fulfill their role within the team. These failures could potentially elicit the “aversive
consequences” mentioned by Sagar et al and cause players to have feelings of “diminished perception of
self,” “letting down significant others,” and “negative social evaluation[s]” (1177).
To go along with the constant threat of injury, enforcers also have to deal with the stress and
pressures of maintaining their job and effectively fulfilling their given role within the team. Rich Clune
and Sean Avery describe how they dealt with these worries in their articles for The Player’s Tribune
when Clune says that he “put on a mask to deal with the fear” and when Avery recounts how he “handled
the pressure by inventing a character” and how he would “put his game face on before [he] left for the
rink” and how he would “take it off when [he] got home” (n.pg; n.pg). In his article “The Battle” Clune
communicates how he would “put on the mask to deal with the sleepless night before you know you have
to go out and drop the gloves with the 6’5” monster on the other team . . . [and] put on the mask to deal
with that ever-present fear that it could all go away in an instant” (n.pg). Avery describes in his article
“Transition Season” that he “didn’t love the uncertainty that [his] career could

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end at any moment” and that “the pressure that [they] experience[d] while . . . playing can be depressing”
(n.pg). Avery also expressed his frustration with the knowledge that “you know that you’re one small
piece of a large machine, and there are guys in suits in the stands watching how you help or hurt that
machine” and how this feeling left him in a constant state of uncertainty (n.pg). Clune’s comment that
“as a hockey player, you’re constantly worried about what the boys think. What coach thinks. [That] we
have been taught to view words like ‘disease’ as a weakness” seems to confirm the presence of Sagar et
al’s consequences of failure such as “letting down significant others” and “negative judgement and low
regard from others” (1177). The presence of the belief of these negative “consequences of failure”
appear to have contributed to the development of Clune’s mental illness and addiction, with the addiction
being a large component of the “mask” that he put on to attempt to deal with his fears and perform at his
best (Sagar et al 1177; Clune n.pg). Avery’s comments on the constant worry about what the “suits in the
stands” are thinking and the “uncertainty” that this creates suggests the presence of Sagar et al’s described
“consequences of failure” such as “letting down significant others” and “hav[ing] an uncertain future”
(n.pg; 1177). These consequences appear to confirm the presence of intense “affective” forces that
contribute to enhanced pre-competition anxiety levels (Massumi 85).
The presence of enhanced anxiety levels due to the “fear of failure” and “perceived risk of
failure” appear to have the potential to adversely affect performance,which can cause the development of
depression (Sagar et al; Short et al). The realization of “consequences of failure” such as “diminished
perception of self,” “no sense of achievement,” and “negative emotions,” due to increased anxiety levels,
appear to distinctly contribute to “low self-esteem” amongst enforcers (Sagar et al 1177; Orth and Robins
455). Orth and Robins belief that “low self-esteem is a causalrisk factor for depression” in their support
of the “vulnerability model” as the superior model that has been developed to link self-esteem to
depression suggests that the realization of the “consequences of failure” has a causal

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relationship with the development of depression. By extension, this means that enhanced levels of
anxiety for enforcers,having caused the realization of the “consequences of failure” which leads to lower
self-esteem, appears to also have a causal relationship with depression. This appearance of a causal
relationship between high anxiety levels and depression suggests that the high anxiety levels that
enforcers face might have a direct connection to depression.
The amount of anxiety that hockey enforcers must try to control and the effect of this anxiety on
their performance on the ice appears to contribute to their risk of developing depression. Using the
“vulnerability model” to describe the link between self-esteem and depression it is possible to connect the
negative thoughts and emotions felt after failure with depression (Orth and Robins 455). Going forward
more must be done to confirm if the connection between anxiety and depression exists and for what
percentage of the hockey enforcer population this connection holds true for. A thorough study with ethics
approval would allow for the interview of a larger number of enforcers and would be able to pinpoint if
the root cause of failure was due to anxiety or because of other factors. This more thorough study would
also be able to determine what percentage of the enforcer population felt the negative “consequences of
failure” after a poor performance (Sagar et al 1177). Furthermore, additional work must be done to
determine what factor the long term effects of concussions has on the development of depression. Recent
studies suggest that repetitive blows to the head can lead to the development of chronic traumatic
encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disorder commonly known as CTE, that includes symptoms such as
“behavioural and mood changes, memory loss, cognitive impairment, and dementia” (McKee et al350).
CTE has also been linked to “depression, suicidal ideation and/or behaviour, and poor impulse control”
(Stern et al 466). The violent nature of the hockey enforcer’s job requires more work to be done to
determine whether depression is caused solely by the long term effects of repetitive brain trauma, or
whether the neurological changes associated with CTE leads to a further increase in anxiety symptoms
that has the potential to lead to failure based depression as was discussed in this paper.

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