Outlook Report | Tyson Kozak got off to a strong start at Amerks

“I really appreciate the way he plays the game,” Rochester coach Michael Leone said. “I think he’s a winning hockey player and what I mean by that is he wins a lot of battles. He controls very hard. He tracks like his life depends on it. He plays every shift as if it were his last. As a coach you play with players you trust, and I really trust him.”

Appert texted Kozak days ago to let him know how proud he was of him and that he was excited to see the start he had in Rochester.

Despite spending just two injury-limited seasons with Appert, Kozak also earned his trust.

“He’s a throwback player,” Appert said. ‘Really and truly. We have a lot of confidence in him within our organization. I enjoy coaching him. It was nice to see.”

Over the summer, Kozak worked on the thing that gave him his early season success: getting dirty low around the net.

At 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, Kozak isn’t the traditional big-bodied player you see hanging around the netminder, but he does his job effectively. His physicality at the net has led to bounces his way.

“I focused on it a little bit over the summer, just trying to go to the dirty areas and find pucks there and be able to put them in the net, but I think now it’s kind of puck luck,” said Cossack. . “I mean, I didn’t really have much puck luck. I had a lot of chances, but they didn’t go in, but now it’s just kind of puck luck.”

According to Appert, Kozak’s attacking renaissance for the Amerks could have happened last season had there been no injuries.

“We saw a lot of offensive stuff from him in practice last year,” Appert said. “We saw the confidence with the puck take a big step and we thought there were several moments in the year last year. He was going to break out offensively and for whatever reason that just didn’t happen. I think injuries played a big role in that.”

As Kozak watched from a distance, he had to take his mind off hockey. To do this, he did what he could to prepare for the return to the ice, but most importantly, he trusted his parents to help him through this time.

“Injuries are always tough. I leaned on my parents a little bit,” Kozak said. “I called them all the time, just to take my mind off hockey. That was pretty much the most important thing. It’s just kind of taking my mind off it, not thinking about it too much, and then just trying to get my body physically and mentally ready for when I come back.

Now Kozak is back on the ice and making a difference for the Amerks.

He will try to play the nasty role and continue to put his body on the line for his team while hitting the pucks back on the rebound.

“He is a player whose determination and work ethic are incredibly high,” Appert said. “That’s a young man who, when push comes to shove, when times are tough or in big moments, you want him in the foxhole with you. That’s exactly the kind of player he is, that’s the kind of person he is, it feels good to compete with him.”