Put yourself, for a moment, into Maxim Tsyplakov’s shoes.
Here is someone who flew 4,666 miles and seven time zones, at the age of 26, not knowing anyone in his new home particularly well.
Aside from what he picked up in school — and who really pays much attention to foreign language lessons in school? — and in some lessons this summer, he did not know much English, which by the way, features an entirely different alphabet from the language he grew up speaking.
And he is expected to perform at a high level in the best hockey league on the planet. Immediately.
Tsyplakov is not the first, nor will he be the last, person to make such a jump. But the commonality with which it happens makes it easy to dismiss the scale of such a leap.
So too does the relative ease with which most Russian (or other European) players pick up English — Tsyplakov very much included.
“Guys talk, I understand,” Tsyplakov told The Post after the Islanders practiced Tuesday. “Normal words, I can understand. But hockey terms, it’s not a problem. I talk, guys understand me. And I understand guys.”
As recently as early May, Tsyplakov — who skated Monday night for the first time on the second line with Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri — needed someone to act as an interpreter during a phone interview with The Post.
Even in a few short weeks of camp, his growing confidence with the language has been visible.
Though he is not yet fluent, per se, he can hold a conversation with minimal issues. Tsyplakov’s linemates have no problem communicating with him on the ice.
“I feel like it’s funny, cause he’s speaking about plays and just trying to use simple terms,” Nelson told The Post. “Last night, it happened a couple times where I just pointed out on the board to really make sure we’re on the same page. I think he knows enough, he’s a really smart player out there. It’s usually just a matter of talking about where you were on the ice, where he was, what he saw, what he thought.
“I think he’s got enough English where you can kind of communicate and talk about it. Obviously something you’re still trying to work on and really hammer out to get a bit more chemistry and understand one another even more.”
If Tsyplakov can grab hold of his chance in the top six, it would do a world of good for the Islanders, who are hoping he can be a goalscoring, netfront presence on a line that felt one player short for much of the second half last season.
The team brought Tsyplakov along slowly and deliberately during camp, waiting until now to put him into this situation to minimize growing pains.
“First of all, I want him to be heavy on pucks, forecheck. And secondly, I want him to continue making plays,” coach Patrick Roy said. “I think Brock and Kyle need a player with them that’s capable of making plays and getting the puck.”
Off the ice, Nelson said he’s asked Tsyplakov for a couple Russian words — hello and good morning, for example — that he can use.
Mat Barzal has done the same, and of course it doesn’t hurt that the Islanders have three other Russians who have gone through the same transition in their dressing room.
But when Tsyplakov got serious in terms of learning English after signing with the Islanders, he knew that hockey terminology had to be his first priority.
“Of course, because in Russia, we have international guys,” Tsyplakov said. “And we need to try and talk with them. I tried this [last] season, I think [the last] two years, a little bit of hockey terms.”
Shane Prince, the former Islander who played with Tsyplakov at Spartak Moscow, was helpful there, though Tsyplakov joked that Prince knows “10 words in Russian.”
There’s something of an imbalance there that extends beyond hockey, of which any American who’s traveled abroad has been on the happier end. An English speaker can go just about anywhere and survive without the local language; the same rarely applies when others come here.
“[Those] who come to Russia, talk a little bit of Russian. Why not?” Tsyplakov joked, when this was put to him. “… Whole world can talk in English together.”
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