The Cochrane, Alberta centre says the start to his season wasn\u2019t what he envisioned, but he stayed positive and continued to focus on the details of his game. In practice, he pushed harder with every rep and extra touches, trusting that the work would translate.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been consistent when the game demands it most, and it\u2019s been paying off.<\/p>\n
Mueller has primarily centred the top line, recently being flanked by Arshdeep Bains and Jonathan Lekkerim\u00e4ki, and he\u2019s also spent time alongside Anri Ravinskis. He credits the three wingers for helping his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll three of them are great players \u2013 Bainsie, Lekkie, Ravi. They make the game a lot easier when you’re out there with them. Whatever it is, whether it\u2019s little plays, little touches to each other, or forechecking, getting pucks back, or knowing where each other are. It makes it a lot easier to play when they’re out there, because they’re so smart,\u201d Mueller said.<\/p>\n
Abbotsford has strung wins together over the last six weeks, and Mueller says they\u2019ve had success because they\u2019ve kept their eye on the process over the results. The coaching staff drives the importance of keeping good habits in practice and playing the right way.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone’s buying in and we’re having more fun at the rink,\u201d Mueller said. \u201cGuys are smiling again, which is nice to see, and I think it’s just finally starting to click with our systems. We’re more focused on our day-to-day details and figuring everything out, rather than the big picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite roster movement throughout the season, Mueller says integrating new players into the locker room has been seamless. The second-year Abby Canuck says their culture is something they take pride in as a group.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our best things is the culture we have down here. Everyone’s welcome, everyone’s friends with everyone, there’s no cliques, and everyone gets along,\u201d Mueller said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that makes it really easy for those guys to come in and they have a voice right away. They don’t need to sit there and be shy; if they\u2019re talking, everyone’s going to listen, and it’s an awesome place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
With another third of the season remaining, Mueller hopes to continue building on his momentum and contribute even more offensively down the stretch. He likes the direction he\u2019s headed, and it\u2019s about getting a little bit better every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cochrane, Alberta centre says the start to his season wasn\u2019t what he envisioned, but he stayed positive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-483263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}