1a. Score early. This will relieve all the pressure on the players and the worries of the fans and let the whole team relax.
1b. No turnovers. A turnover on the first possession, like so many games last year, would be crushing to our confidence.
I think one of the reasons that we're seeing so many young guys playing big minutes, is because I believe that some of the older players, bless their heart, are kind of "mentally scarred" so to say from last year. If those guys are in the game and it goes south a bit, there's probably a little part of them that can't help but think, "oh no its happening again." Whereas the younger guys have no memory of this and if things get tough for a little bit, they can just press on through.