Balázs Sebők who recently celebrated his 23rd birthday has already broke his previous persona scoring record in the Liiga after having a season where him and KalPa made it to the league finals. After the international break his team won 9 out of their next 9 games.
Balázs Sebők who came up through the MAC youth system left for Finland to play in the youth system of Karpat. At the age of 19 Sebők was loaned out to Hokki in the Mestis liga where he was just under a point per game average.
Sebők is in his third season with KalPa in the Finnish Liiga and is his team’s leading scorer and usually the first line center and has 5 goals and 13 assists.
You are in your third season with KalPa and have set a new personal scoring record, how have you been lately?
Recently things have been going well, I have been playing well and things have been going well for the team also. I pass more often than I shoot, thus I need to have linemate that can convert those passes into goals. To be honest this is what I was expecting from the team and myself this season. Recently this has been a reality, so I’m happy with it.
During the international break you had three assists in three games for the national team, once you got back to KalPa both you and the team took off, did the break really help you this much?
The tournament in Budapest was really great, it was the first time in a long time that I was able to play the way that I usually do. This was a great plus for me mentally. I was playing well before the international break, just the pucks were not bouncing my way. Lucky things changed after the tournament, we won nine games in a row, I started to score and things started to work out.
Last season because of your club responsibilities you were not able to play for the national team, how much did you miss playing for Hungary?
It is always an honor to play for Hungary, and I was unable to do this last year. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have fun last year, we made it to the finals last year. We made it to the finals in a very competitive league. We will see how this year turns out.
A number of experienced veterans left KalPa after last season, how much did this change the locker room dynamic and the line combinations as well?
We went through a number of changes during the offseason and this was evident when the season started. We did not continue where we had left off from the previous season, we have a new coaching staff and a number of new players on the roster as well. It takes some time for the lines to come together and teh coaching staff to see who fits where in the team. Things have turned around in the past month and a half and hopefully we can continue playing like this and improving game by game, because what we are playing right now will not be enough when the season ends.
Right now you are in the middle of the table, in the long run how will KalPa be able to compete with the top teams in the league?
I think that we can compete with anyone in the league, right now we are the hottest team in the league and everyone wants to beat us. We won nine games in a row which is a team record, we went from being second to last in the league to a playoff spot. Just in a span of a month the standings in the league completely changed.
Former NHL star Sami Kapanen,who is also the team owner took over as the head coach this year, what is the new dynamic like?
I don’t feel that it's just a one person club, last year he was an assistant coach, so he was not completely unfamiliar as a coach. It took him some time to become familiar with the players, it took him some time to get used to being the head coach. He is doing a great job with the team and I am happy to have a head coach like him. I know he believes in my and he really wants me to stay here.
What would be the ideal ending to the 2017-2018 season?
I just want to stay healthy for the rest of the season and to play to the best of my ability. I want to make it back to the finals with KalPa, and if this is not possible I will play my best with the national team.
