After being a healthy scratch on Sunday for the first time this season, Frederic is looking to turn the page from a slow start to his tenure with the Oilers, hoping his reset will kickstart his revival to getting back to playing how he knows he can on Tuesday in the first of two straight Battle of Alberta matchups.
"I prepare pretty much the same," Frederic said. "Every game, I do the same warm-up and the same routine. I'd say just mentally, maybe just having a restart, trying to start the year over, and you can't go back to the past as much as you'd love to play better. So you just use it as a restart to start my season today."
Frederic said his game begins with his skating ability and playing with that physical edge that helped him form his identity early in his career, which saw him push up the ranks with the Boston Bruins to score 17 and 18 goals in his most productive seasons from 2022-24.
Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said that it's important for Frederic to block out the noise and take some of the pressure off himself.
"I think it's really important to keep it as simple as possible," Knoblauch said. "I think there's so much going on in his head that he's like all players when they want to play a perfect game, trying to do all the right things, and then you're thinking about so much and the game's not natural. It doesn't happen quickly for you, and you end up being almost paralyzed.
"I think Freddie's put a lot of pressure on himself wanting to play better. I think his intentions are fantastic. He's a great teammate and a great person, and he wants to help out. He's just in a funk. So right now, you've got to be really careful about how much you show him. Things that we want to show are very precise, almost all aligning with his identity and what we need from him."
