If it were physical it would show in practice, wouldn't it? Why is he seeing a performance coach (shrink) instead of a physical therapist or a hand specialist?
Every player out there has had injuries. We're pretty sure Oshie and Ovechkin have had hand injuries recently. Tom Wilson has better hands than Bura now, and he's spent years pounding them against peoples' faces and helmets. He's come off of several severe injuries himself. Yet he doesn't turn over the puck or make bad decisions at the same rate as Bura.
The consensus inside Burakovsky's circle seems to be that it's mental. Well, no amount of confidence boosting is going to help if the problem is poor basic hockey IQ. If he really does know what to do out there, and is a split second off because of jitters rather than lack of knowledge/familiarity, then I think we'd see more flashes of pure playmaking and positioning brilliance when he's tired and not thinking, or otherwise falls into the zone for prolonged stretches. Instead he's limited to taking advantage of wide open breakaways (pure speed and rehearsed dekes), rebounds (going to the net and luck), and uncontested shots (repetition). All of those are basic stick skills that don't require much hockey IQ.
