“He refuses to be denied” Looking back to Gilbert’s trip from local youth hockey to nhl – nhl.com

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Once your homework is done, it’s time to hit the ice for practice with Amherst. Hockey is Gilbert’s favorite sport, as he first puts skates for three years, dressed in an orange Gatorade cooler to maintain a balance of the rink that his father built in the backyard.

He is home from training around 11:30 pm and quickly goes to the bed, another early start awaits him.

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Gilbert was stirred from weight to school to sports at age when the middle high school student could wander in the mall or play video games. His parents remember deliberately skipping school dances to attend hockey practice. Was a victim but did not seems As a victim, because he did what he loved.

Kim Gilbert still has a tightly covered book that Dennis made for a third grade school project, all about how she will grow as a professional hockey player, a common dream that slowly materializes as a feasibility for her youth career.

It doesn’t come easily. Gilbert and his father get up in Syracuse annually to try for the national camp, but never made the abbreviation. He played his youth hockey for Amherst, not the buffalo regals, the elite program at the time. (His favorite memory, along with his state championship with St. Joe, upset the regals in the state tournament when he was 13 – “It was like a miracle of ice at the time,” he said.)

The rejection made him work more. More shots made. An extra ice time with his brother’s team. Early mornings, late nights.

The first time Dennis Seni admitted that his son could have a future in hockey, he came during a tournament when Dennis was 14 years old. Amherst hosted nationals and lost his opening game badly against a team from Los Angeles. In the last minutes of the loss of the explosion, Gilbert expressed to block slap.

Dennis Senchi thought it was a reckless solution, given the circumstances. But after the match, two college coaches approached him, who had never met. One of the coaches asked what he was thinking of his son’s game.

“I said,” Well, I didn’t like the fact that he went to bed to block this shot at the end. This is a wasted game, it could be made for the tournament, “Dennis recalled. “The coach says, ‘This (game) is the reason I talk to you right now. “

Dennis was offered her first scholarship from Niagara this summer. He continued to improve, rising to Notre Dame and then on the NHL Central Scout lists and finally to the third round of the draft. He continues to adapt his game after becoming a professional by devoting a physical, reliable role that is currently playing for the Sabers protective enclosure.

“Everything Dennis has, he has won,” Crosier said. “And if you look at his trip, that’s quite important. He scratched and nails at every level. … almost like he has the mentality that he refuses to be denied. “

Gilbert was sitting in the dressing room of his home NHL team, surrounded by the fruits of early training and practices of two days and skates on a late night and thought in those days.

“These were long days, looking back at them now.”