István Bartalis and the rest of the Hungarian national team are ready to be back on the ice and to be playing in front of the best hockey fans in the world.
There are a number of players who will be playing for the Hungarian national team for the first time this season or are back in Hungary since the season started. István Bartalis and Chris Bodó are playing in Germany, Kevin Wehrs and Andrew Sarauer are in Austria with Vilmos Galló and Balázs Sebők are up north in Sweden and Finland respectively.
We talked to István Bartalis who just came back from a hand injury recently, about what he expects from the Roland Divatház 4 Nations tournament.
“The days start to get shorter and darker in early November so us players who are playing abroad are always happy to come back home, change up the daily routine and to regenerate.” said Bartalis. “The past two seasons I was not able to play during the November international break, I hope this time I will be able to play in as many games as possible and I can’t wait to get on the ice.”
One thing is for sure that things will be different than the past couple of years just for the sheer fact that Jarmo Tolvanen is the new head coach of the national team. “The first thing in playing for the national team is always about having the country’s coat of arms on your chest. There is a new head coach this time, I am sure he will have a different tactics and system that he will want to implement.”
“I think that the Italians are the strongest of the three opponents, and I think that all four teams are all about the same caliber. The hardest part of all of this will be playing three games in three days with most likely implementing a new system. We need to show that why we were selected and that if we can we would want to win.”
Bartalis also talked about what it is like to play in front of the Hungarian fans regardless of where the game is being played. “The atmosphere in the László Papp Budapest Sports Arena is usually better just because there are almost 10,000 people rooting for you. The fans are like an extra player on the ice, it is a great feeling when you do something great on the ice and then they start chanting. It is strange when they are silent, but as a player you want to really work hard and go even stronger when you hear the fans. It is always a great experience when you play for the type of fans that we have.”
