Mental Exercise, Meditation Helping Liam O'Brien During Hockey's Hiatus

HERSHEY, PA -- It seems like longer than six weeks since the Hershey Bears were together on the ice, and while not much has changed in those six weeks of quarantine from the league perspective (the season is still in pause, nobody can access facilities, etc.) things the players do to keep themselves in shape in the hopes of resuming the season have certainly changed.

In a Zoom press conference Friday afternoon set up by Zack Fisch and the Hershey Bears organization, Liam O’Brien admitted that in addition to his presence on Tik Tok, he and his girlfriend are working out, cooking, binge watching movies, and putting together crossword puzzles.

Yup, one of Hershey’s enforcers and assistant captains is working on 1000-piece puzzles right along with a majority of Americans.

“We actually had this company reach out to us and they sent us, it’s the New York Puzzle Company, and it was really nice of them,” said O’Brien. “They sent us like six puzzles, 1000-piece puzzles; I don’t know if I’ll be able to do them all.”

That mental exercise along with meditation has helped O’Brien, who has been open about personal issues with mental health in the past, deal with the abrupt loss of hockey and the inability to be with his teammates and training for the game he loves. The meditation has also helped keep him prepared for if and when things do get rolling again.

“I’ll meditate and think about game-like situations and then I try to get outside and stick-handle and keep, you know, the hands moving,” O’Brien said. “I think visualization is a really, really strong thing that I’ve been using.”

And he’s kept in touch with his teammates even though many have returned home.

“We’ve been able to Zoom together...I’ve made contact with a lot of my teammates and just checked in to see how they’re doing,” admitted O’Brien who is one of the team’s alternate captains. “We have our own little chat group that’s very active, so we definitely hope that we can get back together and start playing again.”

O'Brien and the Bears do not know where that will be, when it will happen, and even what it might look like. One of the ideas was to take all players to one location and quarantine them all in area hotels.

“I mean first of all, poor hotel,” laughed O’Brien. “But, yeah, I mean it would definitely be something. It would be like playing at a Peewee Tournament in Montreal or something. That’s what it would be like except you got a bunch of grown men, so it’d be interesting if that’s the way they go,” he admitted, noting that he had heard there could be as many as three games per day at that location.

And while that return would mean that hockey would not be played at Giant Center, O’Brien knows that this year’s team could certainly make a run at the organization’s 12th Calder Cup.

“Top to bottom, I don’t think we had any weaknesses,” O’Brien said about his teammates and coaching staff. “We were a really close group of guys and we had a lot of fun together and I think, you know, we just had a lot of character in our room too, so yeah, that’s just the type of team we had and that’s usually the type of team that wins championships, so I’m just hoping we get back to playing soon.”

One of the biggest questions surrounding the remainder of the season are the Liam O’Brien bobbleheads that were to be given out to fans March 25th.

“You know what, my family was supposed to come in for that,” O’Brien said. “Obviously it didn’t happen on the day it was supposed to, but hopefully we can get that done.”

Another burning question for O’Brien and fans has to do with those Big Tuna hats that were to be sold to help raise money for Cocoa Packs, a local community charity that helps to provide weekend food assistance to children in need in the Hershey area.

“I had them shipped to the rink and anyways, they’re somewhere in the rink and they cannot find them, so if anyone has any information on those hats that is able to get into the rink, please come forward and let me know,” O’Brien requested noting that he actually went to the rink to speak to security, but that they were unable to locate the shipment.

“The players obviously do not have access to the rink and the training facilities right now...so I’m sure we’ll find those hats locked away hopefully safely in our equipment room which is not accessible right now,” added Fisch.

With the mandated shutdowns in some states ending and others set to come to an end soon, it remains to be seen if the 2019-2020 season will be finished and a champion crowned, but if it does continue, at least one member of this close-knit group may look a bit different.

“Definitely not shaving off the beard,” said O’Brien. “That’s a no-no. My girlfriend would leave me. But my hair, I thought about shaving my head. My two younger brothers have actually done it, they did it at home. My other brother bleached his head too, so I don’t think I’d go that far, but I thought about shaving my head, my hair is getting a little out of control.”