Post by Rey Kahuka on Sept 14, 2020 12:51:56 GMT
Whether or not a player has to deal with noise, he still knows that a lot of people are watching (especially if they play in a huge market like Boston, Chicago, New York etc). And why is noise only an impediment when it’s hostile? Players tune this stuff out; some better than others. When a player has an awesome performance in front of a packed home crowd, we don’t chalk it up to all the people cheering him on. Even if we say that raucous fans in Philly shouting “you suck!” makes it harder for players to play, where do we draw the line in terms of the number of fans that need to be present before it’s officially more difficult to play well? I’ve never heard “sure, he threw a no hitter, but there weren’t a lot of fans at the stadium in Cincy on a Wednesday afternoon so it was easier.”
Like I said earlier, no asterisk required. It's not like I'm saying I could throw a no hitter in an empty stadium. But no fans in the stands does affect how some players perform. I wish the Bruins had played game 7 on the road last year in the Cup finals. They were so tight in that game because they were at home, you could see it in the way they frantically hacked at the puck while the Blues simply let the game come to them and took advantage of their scoring opportunities. Pressure to perform to expectations is absolutely real.