Shattock deals with frustration of not playing

From The Daily News of Friday, Jan. 25, 2008 . . .

It is hard to tell what is more painful for Tyler Shattock, the broken leg
that will keep him off the ice until mid-February or the frustration of not
playing.
“Watching makes me want to get back out there,” the Kamloops Blazers’
sophomore right winger says. “It’s frustrating watching them go to battle
and you can’t go to battle with them.”
Shattock was injured during a 6-1 loss to the Rockets in Kelowna on Jan. 5.
Originally, he was thought to have suffered a high ankle sprain, but further
tests revealed a broken left tibia.
He hopes to rid himself of the cast around Feb. 10. The best-case scenario
has him back in the lineup Feb. 15 against the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings.
But it could be he doesn’t return until the Blazers are on their six-game
Prairie road swing, which runs from Feb. 22 through March 1.
“I had never been hurt,” says Shattock, who will watch his teammates play
the Bruins in Chilliwack tonight — it will be the ninth game he has missed —
and in a rematch at Interior Savings Centre on Saturday. The Lethbridge
Hurricanes visit Sunday. “It’s very frustrating. (Trainer Colin Robinson)
always tells me to keep positive because you can’t to much about it anyway.”
So that is what Shattock is doing. He watches practices from the bench area,
chattering away, sometimes leaning on his crutches, sometimes sitting on the
bench . . . anything to stay part of the team.
“I’m at the rink every day,” he says of staying part of the team, “so I’m
around the guys and working out.”
Unable to put weight on the leg, he has been spending a lot of time working
on his upper body. And he expects to get into a swimming pool in the next
few days to begin work on the injured leg.
It was an injury that only served to interrupt what had become something of
a frustrating — there’s that word again — season for Shattock, a 17-year-old
from Salmon Arm who was the sixth overall pick in the 2005 bantam draft.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pounder started like a house on fire, scoring six goals in
seven exhibition games. But then he cooled faster than water coming out of
the Zamboni, and he went through the regular season’s first 17 games with
nary a goal. He persevered, though, and struck for eight goals over his next
12 games. He then cooled off again and hadn’t scored in six games prior to
being injured. But the general consensus was that he was doing things other
than score to help the team.
“It was frustrating,” he says and, yes, there’s that ‘f’ word again,
“because I was playing pretty well when I did get hurt.”
These days, however, the team’s focus is shifting and thoughts are beginning
to turn to the playoffs.
“The first part of the season things weren’t going well for our team,” he
says. “Whenever the team is struggling, you have to play well as
individuals. With winning comes success for the team and individuals, right?
“Hopefully, we can turn it around in the second half. It’s all about the
playoffs, right? Hopefully, we can make a run. Hopefully, we can be the P.G.
of this season.”
It was last spring, you’ll recall, when the Prince George Cougars, coming
off a mediocre regular season, upset the Blazers and Everett Silvertips
before losing to the Vancouver Giants in the Western Conference final.
But before the playoffs start, Shattock says, the Blazers need to find
something.
“We’re so inconsistent,” he says. “We’re good and then we can be bad
sometimes. We have to find that level of consistency every game.”
And Shattock knows that he will be back to help them attempt to do just
that.
“I’m just glad I’m coming back down the stretch,” he says. “I want to help
the guys.”
In the meantime, Shattock will continue to get around using crutches and
with a boot on his left foot and ankle. It’s a Brady boot, you know, like
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was photographed wearing earlier
this week.
The difference between the two athletes is that the paparazzi aren’t parked
outside Shattock’s front door awaiting his next move.
“Not yet,” Shattock says and he flashes that dimple-filled grin, proving
that while you can break one of the kid’s legs, you can’t break his spirit.
BLAZERS BUZZ: C C.J. Stretch, who has missed five games with a concussion,
had hoped to play tonight in Chilliwack. However, head coach Greg Hawgood
said after Wednesday’s 4-2 loss to the visiting Seattle Thundebirds that
Stretch is more likely to return Saturday against the Bruins. . . . Game
time Saturday is 7 p.m.; the Sunday game against Lethbridge is to begin at 6
p.m.