Shattuck-St. Mary's vs. Madison Capitols

I decided to make the trip to Shattuck-St. Mary's yesterday morning in order to see the Sabres take on the Madison Capitols.  The game turned out to be fairly boring but anytime I'm able to watch a game at Shattuck it's somewhat of a treat.  I also had the opportunity to watch Maverick recruit J.P. LaFontaine play. 

As noted above, the game was pretty much a blow out.  Shattuck St.-Mary's won 6-1 and outshot the Capitols 44-11 after three periods of play.  That said, the score was still just 3-1 at the start of the third period.  So, despite the shot differential, the game was actually pretty close for 36-minutes of hockey.  

This wasn't my first time watching a game at Shattuck but I'm continually amazed by the history surrounding this program and the beautiful architecture of the school itself.  When you first walk into the sports complex you are greeted by a wall of photos featuring past SSM teams.  If you look up, as you enter the facility, you will see several NHL jerseys hanging from the ceiling; highlighting a few of the school's notable Alumni (Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Zach Parise, etc.-----just to name a few).

The arena itself is neat in that all the walls and ceiling are painted white.  There is a small walkway above the standard seats which travels the length of the ice and curves around one end.  Along the walkway, the school has set-up small round tables with three chairs to a table.  The tables are usually occupied by scouts and this game was no exception. I'm assuming, based on the layout, that the tables were designed for scouts in the first place.  Just below the walkway there are cement steps leading up through the standard seating or bleacher area.  The bleachers are made out of cement but the school recently added a nice wooden bench that runs the length of each section and features a back rest.  The last time I attended a game at Shattuck I sat on the bare cement which was quite cold, so as you can probably guess, I was pleased to see the addition of the wooden bench.  The wall opposite the bleachers---which sits across the ice--- is home to several of the SSM championship banners.    The players' benches and penalty box is just below the banners.  Other than the championship banners and a scoreboard the only thing distracting you from the surrounding white wall is the American and Canadian flags. There is also a scoreboard that hangs just above center ice. 

Anyway, back to the game and J.P. LaFontaine.  This was the first time I've been able to see J.P. play.  For those that don't already know... J.P. is the nephew of NHL great Pat LaFontaine.  

From what I could gather, J.P. is a very offense-orientated forward.  He did play on the penalty kill twice but was typically hovering around the blueline looking for a short-handed breakaway opportunity.  During his first few shifts he seemed to be pretty aggressive but as the game progressed his pace seemed to slow down quite a bit.  This may have been due to the shots-on-goal situation (SSM was dominating).  The Shattuck defensemen were stellar which was likely why J.P. was focused on play-making.  He seemed to read the puck very well in the offensive zone and made some nice passes.  He assisted on the second goal of the game by out-skating the Capitol defenseman down the right wing and making a late pass across the crease to his linemate who had an easy tap-in goal awaiting. His line scored 50% of the Shattuck goals during the game.

I don't feel that yesterday's game was a very good example of J.P.'s overall skill, so I'd like to take in another game or two down the road in order to form a better concept of his playing style.  There was quite a bit of coasting going on which, again, was probably due to the quality of the game.  All in all, J.P. looks pretty good.  There is definitely some room for improvement but at his age that is expected.  Stay tuned for a future update.