Tom Pokorney is no stranger to the penalty box.
He’s been there countless times, skating past the referee into the box after being whistled for doing something wrong.
It’s a path he’s skated on probably too many times. It’s a path he’s trying to skate away from.
The conversations that he’s heard for the last three years echo in his head. He’s been told by multiple people how talented of a player he is and how he makes the game look easy. But he can’t be the elite player he’s praised to be until he learns to stop taking so many penalties.
“I had a different mindset my first three years,” Pokorney said. “I used to not care about getting stupid penalties, but now it really matters.”
He’s tired of hearing about the promise of being one of the country’s best players, so he’s attempting to turn it into a reality. But it hasn’t been a solo journey for mental stability.
His journey started through one of the most looked-up-to people in the program: coach Sean Hogan.
Before the season, Hogan had a lot on his plate. He had a baby on the way, so he had to make sure the logistics of the program and other operations he does at Bird Arena were in check. It was a balancing act he was struggling with until he found a meditation app called Headspace.
“It’s been a stressful time in my life and someone recommended this app to me,” Hogan said. “It helped me maintain a little bit of focus and I thought of him (Pokorney), so I showed it to him.”
Hogan’s been one of the many people in Pokorney’s ear telling him about his potential, and with Headspace, he believed that it could be what Pokorney needed.
While he was apprehensive at first, Pokorney downloaded the app and the next morning, started one of the lessons on it. The lesson was supposed to be Pokorney visualizing that he’s sitting on a rock. As he’s on the rock, cars pass by. The cars passing by are representative of his thoughts and how to let the negative ones pass him by.
“Getting that 10-15 minutes of me-time and getting your mind right has been crucial,” Pokorney said.
In tandem with his on-ice performance, and perhaps where he needs focus the most, Pokorney meditates in his locker stall before games as a way to be mentally clear.
So far, it’s worked. Through eight games, Pokorney has only 14 penalty minutes. Both he and Hogan give credit to the meditation.
“There’s tangible results to it as he hasn’t taken as many penalties this year,” Hogan said. “I’m glad it’s been working for him.”
Because he’s had less minutes on the box and more minutes on the ice, Pokorney believes those talks of him being elite. Or at least having the potential to be.
“I only have so much time here, I can’t be spending time in the box,” he said. “I’ve got to be on the ice. I’m an asset to this team, I don’t want to be a liability.”
While his stats don’t jump off the stat sheet – he has just two goals and five assists – Pokorney has had multiple shifts this season when it was clear he was the best player on the ice.
Without being overly aggressive or emotional, the senior defenseman has helped Ohio with some of its best moments of the season thus far in terms of special teams, puck retrievals and simply just setting up the offense.
It’s because of being more level-headed. Pokorney has experienced unrivaled success, so far anyway. And the success has come off the ice first.
“Mental health is just a serious thing,” he said. “You need to take care of your mind as well as your body. I never used to take it seriously and maybe that’s why I’ve had these lapses of judgment.”
As his journey toward being a smarter player trudges forward, Pokorney just wants to do one thing: play hockey.
“I’m tired of watching from the stands or from the box,” he said. “I want to be on the ice, I want to make an impact on the game.”
