Rissling slimmer, but tough as ever
More speed brings fewer penalties
One layer of statistics indicates that Jaynen Rissling is enjoying a fine campaign.
For a stay-at-home defender, 12 points — and plus-12 — are praiseworthy numbers.
But delve deeper, there is even more to his story.
The busiest fighter on the Western Hockey League’s scrappiest outfit, Rissling has taken a mere four minutes of non-tussle-related penalties. Not incidental is this stat — total consumed cans of CocaCola, fewer than the fingers on one hand.
See, being soda-free is a critical part of Rissling’s push to lean out and speed up.
A couple of summers ago, the Calgary Hitmen bruiser weighed 245 pounds. And this past July at the development camp of the Washington Capitals — who’d drafted him in the seventh round — he checked in at 225. (From his Twitter account, riznasty09, he’d mocked himself: “pretty sure I set a camp record for body fat percentage, and not in a good way #bringonthechirps”)
He now carries 210 pounds on his six-foot-four chassis.
“It was just fat, really,” says
I worked a lot of my skating this summer JAYNEN RISSLING
Rissling, whose club is prepping for a weekend set — Regina Pats, at 7 o’clock tonight; Kelowna Rockets, at 4 p.m., on Sunday — at the Scotiabank Saddledome. “It’s helped me to be quicker on the ice and led to the decreased penalty minutes. I’d like to see what (my body-fat percentage) is now, because since Caps camp, I’ve been really watching what I’ve been putting into my body.”
Meaning no more pop, no more fast food, no more bonbons.
“It meant cutting back on the sweets,” says the 19-year-old, grinning. “(The Caps brass) knew I liked my junk food. Getting rid of that has helped me a lot already.”
Rissling is playing more than ever. Around 25 minutes per night, he says.
And attackers are beating him a lot less frequently. (He has a single obstruction minor — for holding, Dec. 8, versus Edmonton — this winter.)
“I worked a lot of my skating this summer and that goes to show that it’s been working so far,” says Rissling. “I’m not really a stats guy, in general. Just solid play (is the goal). If my coaches like what I’m doing, I’m happy. Obviously with the amount of ice that I’m getting, I’m very happy with that.”
However, this isn’t to say that Rissling’s snarl has disappeared into a bottomless bowl of alfalfa sprouts. Mike Williamson, at the helm of the 21-7-4 Hitmen, insists that No. 9 still provides plenty of bite.
“He’s playing extremely physical,” Calgary’s head coach says. “He’s been really good for us. From the start of the year, he set a physical tone for our whole defence corps. And that’s the way we wanted them to play from the start. Not necessarily fighting, but hard in the corners, hard on guys in front of the net, and making it difficult for other teams to find ice out there.
“He and Alex (Roach) are the two guys, especially, who set the tone. The other guys have followed.”
Rissling, the 197th pick of the National Hockey League draft, continues to chart his own course.
As a 16-year-old, he admits he was “like a baby giraffe on ice.” Now, trimmer and tougher than ever, he’s a rock for the top squad in the Eastern Conference.
“Every year, he’s continued to improve,” says Williamson. “From 16 to 19 (years of age), and especially from last year to this year, he’s shown a huge, huge jump. His confidence, the situations he’s playing in, the leadership role he’s taken on, it’s very impressive.”
NOTES: The Hitmen, in partnership with Telus, raised more than $14,000 in food and funds for the Calgary Food Bank from their Shake up the ’Dome game Dec. 8. Sponsored by Co-op and Citytv, a total of 5,850 pounds of food was gathered. The Edge School Women’s Mountaineers, with on-site donation boxes, collected more than $3,035.