TORONTO — A towering member of the San Jose Sharks is providing a massive boost to Switzerland’s blueline here at the IIHF U-20s.
Mirco Mueller, who’s an imposing six-foot-three, will play a lot of minutes against other team’s top lines. And that’ll be a welcome change for the 19-year-old defenceman, who’s played 24 games with the Sharks this season, but has been a healthy scratch of late. Mueller hasn’t been in San Jose’s lineup since Dec. 11.
The 2013 first-round pick caught up with Sportsnet after a morning practice to talk about the Swiss team, the decision to play in this tournament, and their opening game Saturday night against the Czech Republic.
This is your third World Junior Championship.
Third, yeah. It came a little unexpected but I’m happy to be here.
What was your reaction when you found out the Sharks were loaning you out?
We’d talked about it. I had my opinion about it, and we had a meeting and I think we all thought it was best for me to come here. I get to play a lot. I was scratched a little bit the last few weeks so I thought it would be a good idea to get some actual play time in again.
What can we expect from your team?
We try to play fast and hard. We had our difficulties against Canada [in the exhibition game], but we worked on a few things the last few practices and we’re ready to go. We worked on the power play a lot. I just came in a couple days ago, so it was important to me to get used to all the players and all the guys around me. For our team there’s a lot more emphasis on being strong on the wall and getting the pucks out on the smaller surface than it is on the bigger ice surface in Europe.
How much does it help to have a few guys on the roster who play in the CHL—like Timo Meier, Phil Baltisberger, and Yannick Rathgeb—and are used to smaller ice?
It definitely helps. Playing the game the right way on the smaller surface, different aspects of the game, you’ve gotta put emphasis on. Being strong in the corner, winning battles, I think there’s a lot more importance on the smaller ice than on the bigger surface back home in Europe. You can use skating there, and here you gotta protect the puck a lot more and make smart plays. Our last game against Canada we made a lot of mistakes, but we’ve been working on that.
Who will your team rely on offensively?
I think we have a few good prospects. Meier is one of them. Kevin Fiala. Both have been playing really good on their respective club teams. [Tim] Wieser’s been having a great year so far [in the QMJHL], with 30 goals already. We’ve got some good young forwards that will have to chip in.
How would you compare this team to the last couple Swiss junior teams?
Difficult question, you got me on that one. It’s kinda hard to remember. The last few times we played on European ice surfaces so I think that was a little different for sure. In general we try to play the same way as a junior national team, try to create our identity around speed and playing hard.
You open the tournament against the Czech Republic. Obviously a win in the opener would be ideal.
I think the start’s gonna be huge, how we get in the game the first few minutes is gonna be important, to try to play simple in the beginning and not really make mistakes, and go from there. We’re excited to get started.
