Team Canada goalie Braden Holtby's secret to success stems from his unusual routines

The equipment managers at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa might have a look of confusion at training camp next week when they unload Braden Holtby's World Cup of Hockey goaltending gear and come across a bag with a fold-up acoustic guitar.

Expected to challenge Carey Price for the No. 1 job for Team Canada, the Washington Capitals' reigning Vezina Trophy winner has overcome disappointment and bouts of self-doubt to become one of the world's top stoppers.

More than anything, Holtby credits his mental preparation, which includes a game-day jam session on a portable guitar, for his meteoric rise to hockey stardom.

"I knew fairly early in junior that guys were going to be better than I was," Holtby said. "I had to find a different area where I could push myself to the next level, and that was the mental game.

"Not everyone wants to put in that kind of work and not everyone wants to buy into it because it's one of those things where you're kind of the weird guy when you're doing mental exercises. You've got to get over that hump, and that's 90 percent of the reason I'm here today."

Holtby acknowledged that one of his greatest disappointments in hockey came as an 18-year-old when, despite being taken by the Capitals in the fourth round of the 2008 NHL draft, he was not one of the eight goalies invited to Team Canada's camp for the 2009 World Junior championships.

"Growing up, that was a huge goal of mine, to play on the World Junior team," Holtby said. "It took me quite a while to get over that. Obviously, there was a little bitterness. It was one of those negatives I was able to turn into a positive. It was one of those points in your career where you can either use it as negative energy or put it toward proving people wrong."

Holtby spent parts of four seasons with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, trapped behind Capitals goalies Semyon Varlamov, Michal Neuvirth and Tomas Vokoun, before bursting onto the NHL scene during the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs when he helped the Capitals upset the defending Stanley Cup-champion Boston Bruins in the first round.

Holtby has been Washington's No. 1 ever since and last season he tied Martin Brodeur's NHL single-season record with 48 victories, making him an overwhelming choice for the Vezina Trophy and giving him a leg up on Price when the World Cup begins on Sept. 17, one day after Holtby's 27th birthday.

"I'm sure the coaches have a plan in place," said Holtby, a native of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan. "For me, it's a huge honor just to be named. You look at the roster and you're pretty amazed you'll be able to play alongside those guys. It will be a lot of fun and it will be amazing to see the atmosphere in Toronto, being on home soil. It will be pretty cool."

Whether he's strumming along to the folksy rock of Bob Dylan, the island sounds of Jack Johnson or the indie rock of The Black Keys -- "He can play awesome, and he's actually got a really good voice too," said Capitals backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer -- Holtby reintroduced music to his busy game-day routine last season.

"When you're a young guy coming in, you don't really do those things," he said, noting he taught himself guitar as a teenager. "You try to blend in as opposed to stand out."

Holtby said his affection for music was passed down from his grandparents, who were musicians, and his mother, Tami, who was the lead singer of Canadian country band Tami Hunter and Walkin' After Midnight in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"It kind of calms me down and calms everyone else around me," Holtby said. "Game days can be pretty stressful and if you liven things up a bit and make it fresh, it's better than sitting there by yourself waiting for the game."

For a typical 7 p.m. game, Holtby will begin his preparations at 5:30 with a quiet 10-minute meditation, followed by hand-eye exercises in which he tosses a rubber ball against a wall. When the clock strikes 6, Holtby finds a place in the arena, often behind the players' bench or in the stands behind the net, rests his chin on his goalie stick, and begins darting his eyes throughout the arena.

"He's looking for things to focus on," said Capitals goaltending guru Mitch Korn, who coached six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek when he played for the Buffalo Sabres. "Pekka Rinne would do the same thing in Nashville, but he'd sit in his locker stall and find the 'O' in a nameplate, then find an 'A.' Like another player warms up his body, Braden warms up his eyes."

Holtby's unorthodox eye exercises take place just before the arena doors open to the public, but he said the arena crew at Madison Square Garden seems to have caught on.

"At MSG they play some weird music," Holtby said. "I don't know if it's from the Muppets or what, but I think they wait to test their stereo system until I'm out there."

Moments before the puck is dropped, Holtby will rock to the rhythm of the national anthem, spray water on his thick mane, kiss the names of his children on his mask, then buckle up for a 60-minute ride.

When he allows a goal, Holtby will break into another routine. Leaning against his crossbar, he'll squirt water into the air and follow each droplet as it descends in front of his face.

"It started as an eye trick," Holtby said of the post-goal routine he began in junior hockey under the direction of sports psychologist John Stevenson. "Sometimes when you're feeling a little lost, your vision starts to shake a bit when you're trying to focus for too long on the puck.

"One of our tricks is to zone in on something really small and focus on that, and it kind of brings your eyesight back into focus. It reminds me to focus on the next shot."

Korn, who has seen Holtby win more games in consecutive seasons (89) than any NHL goalie since Brodeur (92 wins in 2007 and 2008), said he was so concerned with Holtby's idiosyncrasies that it was one of the first discussions they had when Korn joined Barry Trotz's staff in Washington two summers ago.