Photo by: Tom Lynn
Fuel for the fire: De St. Phalle's commitment to the mental side of hockey
February 07, 2022 | Men's Hockey
Sophomore finds success in new role for the Badgers
MADISON, Wis. — Mathieu De St. Phalle trudged down the hallway of the Kohl Center and followed his teammates into the locker room. After two periods against Michigan State, the Badgers trailed by a goal and had generated few grade-A scoring chances.
At his stall, De St. Phalle popped in his ear buds, draped a towel over his head and closed his eyes.
But rather than dwell on the mistakes and missed opportunities of the game, he visualized crisp tape-to-tape passes and powerful strides on the back check. He envisioned vivid scenarios of squaring up with the goaltender and firing a shot into the back of the net, then replayed those actions in his mind again and again and again.
Twenty minutes later – on the ice, in real life – De St. Phalle caught a pass in the slot, pulled the puck to his forehand, and picked the top corner.
Cardinal and white jerseys flocked De St. Phalle in celebration along the glass in front of Badger fans on their feet. De St. Phalle's tally was the Badgers' second of the final period and held up as the game-winner, giving Wisconsin a second win against the Spartans in as many nights and a sweep of the series.
With one season already under his belt, the forward from Lake Forest, Illinois, took on a new role for Badgers this year following the loss of their top scorers from the 2020-21 season. De St. Phalle, who logged just two goals in his freshman campaign, currently leads the team with eight goals.
How, exactly, does an undersized skater at 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds become an offensive force in college hockey? It starts with an unsatisfiable appetite to get better every day and commitment to the mental side of the game.
While skating with the Chicago Steel in the USHL in 2018-19, De St. Phalle began working with Pierre DeBar, a mental skills coach, and it paid off. The following season with Chicago, after he'd committed to UW, De St. Phalle led the USHL with 60 points in 49 games.
"It's a lot of visualization, meditation and combat brain training," De St. Phalle said. "When I really started to make a habit of it was when I saw the results. I would go out in a game and would have a few points or really felt comfortable like I was playing with a lot of confidence, that was when I really started to adopt all that stuff."
One of the main tools is visualization. Before games and between periods, De St. Phalle will walk through scenarios in his mind of getting the puck on the point on the power play and finding a clear shooting lane. It's almost like watching game tape except it's in your mind, he explained on a recent afternoon after a brisk practice.
"It's all repetition in your head so that when you get on the ice you've done the same thing 50 times two hours before the game," said De St Phalle. "Now it's like second nature and I can do it with my eyes closed, kind of fine-tuning it like muscle memory in your head."
It was head coach Tony Granato who suggested De St. Phalle meet with DeBar, who's been working with the Badgers as a consultant for four years, upon sensing the talented recruit's potential to become an elite player.
"Getting someone else to talk to about how he's feeling and how he thinks his game is going and just mentally help him prepare for the year was something that was helpful just from the standpoint that you're always as a young player looking to improve," said Granato. "To be able to talk to somebody and listen to someone else's ideas as opposed to just your coaches and teammates sometimes is really helpful."
De St. Phalle, who wears No. 12 for Wisconsin, is the son of former-Badger Jaqcues De St. Phalle. Team photos and portraits of former-Badgers line the walls leading to the locker room, some containing the sophomore forward's father, Jacques De St. Phalle and his '80s mustache the younger De St. Phalle pokes fun at.
This year, in a a season marked by adversity, the 21-year-old sophomore relies on his mental conditioning to stay sharp and focused.
In his freshman season, De St. Phalle got to watch Cole Caufield and came to admire the Hobey Baker winner's intensity on the ice every game.
"I would sit back and watch those guys lead our group whether it was by example or verbally on the bench," De St. Phalle said of the Badgers' leadership class his freshman year. "That was something I wanted to add to my game this year."
De St. Phalle spent the off-season growing stronger and working on the mechanical aspects of his game like creating space and making quick, shifty plays, determined to become an impact player.
"He's very crafty," said Badgers associate coach Mark Strobel on De St. Phalle. "For him, its being able to get the puck back and being able to go into battles with guys that are 6'2, 200 pounds that are much bigger than him. Once he gets into open ice he can be very creative. He's very good on his edges, he has to continue to get stronger but he does have really good vision and can see others on the ice and the spaces where he can give them the puck."
This season the Badgers lost 60 percent of their top scoring from last season, largely due to the departure of Caufield and Dylan Holloway to the big leagues. This vacancy in the Badgers' top-six lineup opened the door for De St. Phalle to step up and take on more leadership responsibilities.
It didn't take long for him to find the back of the net, either. De St. Phalle scored in the first game of the season.
"I came into this year knowing that I would be able to make a big impact out there so that was my main focus from the start," said De St. Phalle "I think that first goal kind of gave me that confidence showing me what I can do offensively this year. That was a good feeling for me."
Despite getting that first tally early on, De St. Phalle wasn't immune to his fair share of obstacles. He struggled to produce offensively for the Badgers in their first handful of series as they adjusted to their new roster.
Having just come off a bad weekend, a mistake in practice added to De St. Phalle's all-around frustration. He came around the net and shattered his stick against the goal post. When De St. Phalle skated to the bench, equipment manager Nate LaPoint told him he'll be folding towels after practice for a week.
"We try to be smart with sticks and limit them so we're not going through 100 sticks in a season," LaPoint said. "If a guy breaks a stick out of frustration they'll come do a little bit of work whether it's folding towels or sorting socks."
De St. Phalle folded towels without complaint, determined to put that "rookie mistake" behind him.
"It actually gave me insight into how hard that guy works and how much he has to deal with," De St. Phalle said. "Now I know not to do it again because the consequences might be worse next time so I'm going to be careful."
Adversity and frustration are part of hockey and an inevitable part of any career. According to De St. Phalle, it's how you mentally deal with setbacks and learn from them that separates the best of the best from the pack.
"I learned pretty quickly how to turn that into fuel for the fire," De St. Phalle said.
That kind of outlook paid off in December when the Badgers traveled to Milwaukee for the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off at Fiserv Forum.
Coach Granato instructed his players to head into the tournament as if it was the Stanley Cup. In the first game, Wisconsin took down Yale in overtime, 3-2, with De St. Phalle providing of the Badgers' second goal. In the championship game, the team faced Providence, which has been ranked in the top-20 most of the year. The Friars grabbed a 2-0 lead, but the Badgers cut the lead early in the third on a goal by Corson Ceulemans.
With just under five minutes to go, De St. Phalle pounced on a rebound near the Friars' net and knotted the game.
After a scoreless overtime, Jared Moe stopped five of six Providence shoot-out attempts. Brock Caufield scored one for the Badgers and Zach Urdahl clinched the championship with a quick release to slip the puck past Providence's goaltender.
The moment Urdahl's shot hit the twine, an elated wave of red jerseys flooded over the Badgers' bench for the on-ice celebration.
Later, as the victory party continued in the locker room, De St. Phalle had to laugh at the strangely tall showers at the Fiserv Forum – designed for NBA players, they gave the 5-foot-9 forward the feeling of standing under a waterfall.
"Something I've grown to find interesting is how much the fans care around here and how much Badger hockey matters [to them]," said De St. Phalle on the Holiday Face Off.
"We took a lot of pride into that tournament just because of that."
De St. Phalle kept his momentum from the tournament heading into the new year with a three-goal performance to help the Badgers to a sweep over Michigan State in January.
In the team's most recent series against Ohio State, he notched two primary assists and a dazzling goal for another three-point weekend.
Coach Granato likes what he's seeing from De St. Phalle, both the on-ice effort and the mindset he's developed as the Badgers head into the final stretch of the 2021-22 season.
"He's going to search for anything he can to get a little bit better," said Granato on. "He puts the time in on the ice and puts the time in mentally. It's just another area he can grow as a player and as a teammate and he's taking advantage of it."
At his stall, De St. Phalle popped in his ear buds, draped a towel over his head and closed his eyes.
But rather than dwell on the mistakes and missed opportunities of the game, he visualized crisp tape-to-tape passes and powerful strides on the back check. He envisioned vivid scenarios of squaring up with the goaltender and firing a shot into the back of the net, then replayed those actions in his mind again and again and again.
Twenty minutes later – on the ice, in real life – De St. Phalle caught a pass in the slot, pulled the puck to his forehand, and picked the top corner.
Cardinal and white jerseys flocked De St. Phalle in celebration along the glass in front of Badger fans on their feet. De St. Phalle's tally was the Badgers' second of the final period and held up as the game-winner, giving Wisconsin a second win against the Spartans in as many nights and a sweep of the series.
📽️: This kid is deadly... MDSP with his third 🚨 of the weekend!
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerMHockey) January 16, 2022
🍎: Bantle, Baker pic.twitter.com/BmAO05DDuX
With one season already under his belt, the forward from Lake Forest, Illinois, took on a new role for Badgers this year following the loss of their top scorers from the 2020-21 season. De St. Phalle, who logged just two goals in his freshman campaign, currently leads the team with eight goals.
How, exactly, does an undersized skater at 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds become an offensive force in college hockey? It starts with an unsatisfiable appetite to get better every day and commitment to the mental side of the game.
While skating with the Chicago Steel in the USHL in 2018-19, De St. Phalle began working with Pierre DeBar, a mental skills coach, and it paid off. The following season with Chicago, after he'd committed to UW, De St. Phalle led the USHL with 60 points in 49 games.
"It's a lot of visualization, meditation and combat brain training," De St. Phalle said. "When I really started to make a habit of it was when I saw the results. I would go out in a game and would have a few points or really felt comfortable like I was playing with a lot of confidence, that was when I really started to adopt all that stuff."
One of the main tools is visualization. Before games and between periods, De St. Phalle will walk through scenarios in his mind of getting the puck on the point on the power play and finding a clear shooting lane. It's almost like watching game tape except it's in your mind, he explained on a recent afternoon after a brisk practice.
"It's all repetition in your head so that when you get on the ice you've done the same thing 50 times two hours before the game," said De St Phalle. "Now it's like second nature and I can do it with my eyes closed, kind of fine-tuning it like muscle memory in your head."
It was head coach Tony Granato who suggested De St. Phalle meet with DeBar, who's been working with the Badgers as a consultant for four years, upon sensing the talented recruit's potential to become an elite player.
"Getting someone else to talk to about how he's feeling and how he thinks his game is going and just mentally help him prepare for the year was something that was helpful just from the standpoint that you're always as a young player looking to improve," said Granato. "To be able to talk to somebody and listen to someone else's ideas as opposed to just your coaches and teammates sometimes is really helpful."
De St. Phalle, who wears No. 12 for Wisconsin, is the son of former-Badger Jaqcues De St. Phalle. Team photos and portraits of former-Badgers line the walls leading to the locker room, some containing the sophomore forward's father, Jacques De St. Phalle and his '80s mustache the younger De St. Phalle pokes fun at.
This year, in a a season marked by adversity, the 21-year-old sophomore relies on his mental conditioning to stay sharp and focused.
In his freshman season, De St. Phalle got to watch Cole Caufield and came to admire the Hobey Baker winner's intensity on the ice every game.
"I would sit back and watch those guys lead our group whether it was by example or verbally on the bench," De St. Phalle said of the Badgers' leadership class his freshman year. "That was something I wanted to add to my game this year."
De St. Phalle spent the off-season growing stronger and working on the mechanical aspects of his game like creating space and making quick, shifty plays, determined to become an impact player.
"He's very crafty," said Badgers associate coach Mark Strobel on De St. Phalle. "For him, its being able to get the puck back and being able to go into battles with guys that are 6'2, 200 pounds that are much bigger than him. Once he gets into open ice he can be very creative. He's very good on his edges, he has to continue to get stronger but he does have really good vision and can see others on the ice and the spaces where he can give them the puck."
This season the Badgers lost 60 percent of their top scoring from last season, largely due to the departure of Caufield and Dylan Holloway to the big leagues. This vacancy in the Badgers' top-six lineup opened the door for De St. Phalle to step up and take on more leadership responsibilities.
It didn't take long for him to find the back of the net, either. De St. Phalle scored in the first game of the season.
"I came into this year knowing that I would be able to make a big impact out there so that was my main focus from the start," said De St. Phalle "I think that first goal kind of gave me that confidence showing me what I can do offensively this year. That was a good feeling for me."
Despite getting that first tally early on, De St. Phalle wasn't immune to his fair share of obstacles. He struggled to produce offensively for the Badgers in their first handful of series as they adjusted to their new roster.
Having just come off a bad weekend, a mistake in practice added to De St. Phalle's all-around frustration. He came around the net and shattered his stick against the goal post. When De St. Phalle skated to the bench, equipment manager Nate LaPoint told him he'll be folding towels after practice for a week.
"We try to be smart with sticks and limit them so we're not going through 100 sticks in a season," LaPoint said. "If a guy breaks a stick out of frustration they'll come do a little bit of work whether it's folding towels or sorting socks."
De St. Phalle folded towels without complaint, determined to put that "rookie mistake" behind him.
"It actually gave me insight into how hard that guy works and how much he has to deal with," De St. Phalle said. "Now I know not to do it again because the consequences might be worse next time so I'm going to be careful."
Adversity and frustration are part of hockey and an inevitable part of any career. According to De St. Phalle, it's how you mentally deal with setbacks and learn from them that separates the best of the best from the pack.
"I learned pretty quickly how to turn that into fuel for the fire," De St. Phalle said.
That kind of outlook paid off in December when the Badgers traveled to Milwaukee for the Kwik Trip Holiday Face-Off at Fiserv Forum.
Coach Granato instructed his players to head into the tournament as if it was the Stanley Cup. In the first game, Wisconsin took down Yale in overtime, 3-2, with De St. Phalle providing of the Badgers' second goal. In the championship game, the team faced Providence, which has been ranked in the top-20 most of the year. The Friars grabbed a 2-0 lead, but the Badgers cut the lead early in the third on a goal by Corson Ceulemans.
📽️: De St. Phalle turns up the HEAT 🔥
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerMHockey) December 29, 2021
🍎: Gorniak, Peltonen pic.twitter.com/eedvLQuwPK
With just under five minutes to go, De St. Phalle pounced on a rebound near the Friars' net and knotted the game.
📽️: Matty DSP makes it a 👔 game!
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerMHockey) December 30, 2021
🍎: Bantle, Ceulemans pic.twitter.com/gXdEaHwev8
After a scoreless overtime, Jared Moe stopped five of six Providence shoot-out attempts. Brock Caufield scored one for the Badgers and Zach Urdahl clinched the championship with a quick release to slip the puck past Providence's goaltender.
The moment Urdahl's shot hit the twine, an elated wave of red jerseys flooded over the Badgers' bench for the on-ice celebration.
Later, as the victory party continued in the locker room, De St. Phalle had to laugh at the strangely tall showers at the Fiserv Forum – designed for NBA players, they gave the 5-foot-9 forward the feeling of standing under a waterfall.
"Something I've grown to find interesting is how much the fans care around here and how much Badger hockey matters [to them]," said De St. Phalle on the Holiday Face Off.
"We took a lot of pride into that tournament just because of that."
De St. Phalle kept his momentum from the tournament heading into the new year with a three-goal performance to help the Badgers to a sweep over Michigan State in January.
In the team's most recent series against Ohio State, he notched two primary assists and a dazzling goal for another three-point weekend.
Coach Granato likes what he's seeing from De St. Phalle, both the on-ice effort and the mindset he's developed as the Badgers head into the final stretch of the 2021-22 season.
"He's going to search for anything he can to get a little bit better," said Granato on. "He puts the time in on the ice and puts the time in mentally. It's just another area he can grow as a player and as a teammate and he's taking advantage of it."
📽️: Mathieu De St. Phalle puts on an absolute clinic 🏒
— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerMHockey) February 6, 2022
🍎: Caufield, Ess pic.twitter.com/QQOD9uMsRP
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