Sinitsyn ahead of schedule
Dmitry Sinitsyn is making up for lost time.
The Regina Pats’ defenceman has been playing some of his best hockey at a crucial point in the season — and at a juncture when Europeans tend to hit a wall during the WHL’s 72-game schedule.
“It has been very different, playing three or four games in a week,” said the Moscow native, a seventhround pick of the Dallas Stars in the 2012 NHL draft. “You get much more tired and you have to try to stay focused. Sometimes you lose it but right now I’m kind of getting ahold of it. It’s not much of a mental struggle (anymore). It’s just getting in a rhythm of playing game after game.”
Sinitsyn has dressed in 52 WHL games this season, which is approaching the number he played in the previous three seasons combined. Sinitsyn made 57 appearances for the Dallas Stars midget team in 2010-11, then sat out the next season as a redshirt with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, followed by 13 NCAA games with UMass in 2012-13.
“I’m catching up from the past three years,” he said. “It’s going good.”
It’s also working out well for the Pats.
“Dmitry in the last three weeks is probably our most improved player,” offered head coach Malcolm Cameron. “All the things we pounded into his head — for lack of a better term — through the first four or five months of the season, he has completely bought into and you’re seeing it in his play. It has been at an outstanding level. Defensively, he’s a rock. I have complete confidence in his ability to make the right decisions.”
That wasn’t always the case earlier this season.
“He was a bit of a highrisk guy,” said Cameron. “We knew it was going to take some adjustment with the minutes he gets and just the grind of the season because he hasn’t gone through anything like this before. A lot of people probably thought he would go the other way at this point in the year. He’s playing his best hockey right now.”
Sinitsyn wasn’t sure what to expect in his first WHL season, mostly because he knew so little about the league. The only thing he knew for sure was “it would be different.”
As it turned out, that wasn’t a bad thing.
“It has helped me improve my decision-making for sure — to make good decisions quicker — and I’m pretty sure I improved my defensive-zone game,” he said. “That’s probably the thing I’ve been working on the most.”
Sinitsyn’s relatively smooth transition can be attributed to a number of factors, including his age (19), past experience with the North American game (in midget and the NCAA), along with his physical stature (6-foot-2, 205 pounds).
“He’s a horse,” said Cameron. “He’s a mature guy physically. His game just needed to mature. His learning curve and his growth curve is probably five to 10 times (greater than) most of these kids.”
Sinitsyn would like a chance to apply those lessons at the pro level next season, but he’s quick to point out: “That’s not up to me; it’s up to the (hockey) gods.”
Sinitsyn has taken care of his end by developing the defensive part of his game. He has also put up solid numbers, recording three goals and 26 points (ranked among the WHL’s top 20 rookies) in 52 games.
“He has a good balance right now,” added Cameron. “We want our D to be part of the rush. It was more about making the right decisions — when to go and when not to go. Now he’s making those choices. You’re seeing his plus-minus improve (to a minus-two) and he’s still chipping in with some points.
“We took him off the power play for a little while just because we wanted him to focus on the other aspects of his game. He gets so many minutes on the PK and five on five. We didn’t want to wear him out. But he’s proving he can handle it so he’ll be back on the power play.”