Trappers spotlight
‘TEAMS BRING THEIR A-GAME AGAINST US’
Time flies. The second full calendar month of the Trappers regular season is complete and the team has already passed the quarter mark of their 52-game schedule.
It’s hard to see the big picture when the last (and third) loss was so fresh. Tilburg will go into their game Sunday against Hamburg Crocodiles with a 16-3-0 record. Losing to Saale Bulls Halle on Sunday stung. But it came after 13 wins in a row. ‘It’s definitely a good start and that gets us in the right direction’, assistant coach Josh Mizerek says.
In your first four years as an assistant coach, Tilburg had 42, 53, 52 and 45 goals against in the first 19 games of the season. Now you have 35. What’s your explanation for this?
‘Overall there’s a culture been created here what the Tilburg Trappers represent, how we play and how we perceived. We’re tough to play against and don’t give our opponents much. We try to limit mistakes in our own end and keep shots to the outside. But the biggest strength of our defense is depth. With Ian (Meierdres) out Ruud (Leeuwesteijn) stepped in, taken a regular load and responded well. Then there are guys like Noah (Muller) and Ninho (Hessels) who take their chances in the absence of Kili and Logi.’
You lost twice to Halle. What exactly makes the Bulls so hard to play against?
‘This most recent game, I think we put ourselves in a better position than in the first game there. We had a good chance to win. We were two seconds away from killing off that penalty late in the third period. But don’t forget it was number 1 against number 2. You expect to get a quality game. Everything you get in that game you just have to grind it out. That’s the difference of playing teams that are lower in the table. In those games you can get away with a few mistakes here and there.’
Just like last year, concerns over the spread of COVID-19 force Tilburg to play only away games in the upcoming weeks. How tough is that?
‘First and foremost, the home teams in this league generally have an advantage. A fair amount of our trips are long bus rides and you travel on game day. So typically those teams have the bus legs and have to wake up a little bit. The home team, generally speaking, has a bit more buzz in the first 10 minutes of the first period than the visiting team. Over the course of the 60 minutes that evens out.
When you think about the players, their lives and the amount of time on the bus. That can wear on them. Last year when we got clearance of finally come back to Tilburg and play and practice at home there was a revival in the locker room. The guys were excited. They like playing at home. Hopefully we’ll ride that high once again.
Tilburg always has been a top penalty killing team. Now you have the best power play in the league. What has changed this season with the man advantage?
‘It’s a finicky entity. That’s probably the best way to describe power play or penalty kill. Over the course of a practice week you’ll add a couple of extra power play moments and over the weekend your power play does nothing. And then you can go through a week where you hardly do any power play…or sometimes even skip it. Then you go into the weekend and your power play is on fire. It’s just unexplainable. If it would be that easy everybody would do it.’
On Sunday you travel to Hamburg to meet the Crocodiles. Except for two games the last eight meeting were all one-goal games. What do you expect from that game?
‘Anyone that knows hockey in the Oberliga Nord will tell you playing in Hamburg Is a tough place to play. Second thing is the Crocodiles have quality goaltending with Kai Kristian. And over the summer they bolstered their lineup. They’ve given themselves depth by adding good players. They’re no longer a one- or two-line team.
They had a bit of a slow start to the season. They have a new coach so they needed some acclimation time. If you looked at the standings they were kind of down there a little bit. After they played each team once they moved up. Now they’re in the top-5.
When teams see Tilburg on their schedule they get amped up. Teams bring their A-game against us. This will probably be the same on Sunday. We have to find ways to make sure we push through those challenges.’
