Robert Müller (ice hockey player)

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GermanyGermany  Robert Muller Ice hockey player
Date of birth June 25, 1980
place of birth Rosenheim , Germany
date of death May 21, 2009
Place of death Rosenheim , Germany
size 172 cm
Weight 74 kg
position goalkeeper
number # 80
Catch hand Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 2001 , 9th round, 275th position
Washington Capitals
Career stations
until 1997 Starbulls Rosenheim
1997-1998 EHC Klostersee
1998-2000 Starbulls Rosenheim
2000-2002 Adler Mannheim
2002-2006 Krefeld penguins
2006-2007 Adler Mannheim
2007 Foxes Duisburg
2007-2009 Cologne Sharks

Robert Müller (born June 25, 1980 in Rosenheim ; † May 21, 2009 ibid) was a German ice hockey goalkeeper . In the course of his career he played a total of 387 games in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) between 1998 and 2008 for the Starbulls Rosenheim , Adler Mannheim , Krefeld Pinguine , Füchse Duisburg and Kölner Haie . For the German national team he was used at the World Cup of Hockey 2004 and the Olympic Winter Games in 2006 . He made a total of 127 international matches in ten years.

In November 2006, Müller was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which he succumbed to in May 2009. The DEL then blocked his shirt number 80 throughout the league , before Müller had already been accepted into the German ice hockey Hall of Fame .

Career

National

Youth and beginning of the DEL career

At the age of three, Müller stood for the first time with ice skates on an ice surface. Robert Müller began his sporting career at the age of five when he gained his first experience on the ice with the Rosenheim Sports Association in 1985 . During his junior years he played for the U13, U14 and U15 junior teams of the Bavarian Ice Hockey Association and thus made it into the U16 national team of juniors. Müller was considered an unusually ambitious player - he took part in training in the mornings as a striker and in the afternoons as a goalkeeper. "Sport is his life"; “Wherever he was, he created a spirit of optimism .” ( Franz Fritzmaier, then national youth coach ).

The goalkeeper stayed with the Rosenheim team until the 1996/97 season and during this time was four times Bavarian champion with his team, before joining EHC Klostersee in 1997 for one season in the then third-class “2. League “changed. With the EHC, Müller secured relegation in the play-downs , but then returned to Rosenheim, where he guarded the goal of the Starbulls in the German Ice Hockey League until 2000 . During these two years he shared the position of goalkeeper with Claus Dalpiaz , Robert Haase and Håkan Algotsson . After 27 appearances in the main round of the 1999/2000 season, Müller finally played all twelve games for the Starbulls in the relegation round.

German champion 2001, 2003 and 2007

In the summer of 2000, Müller signed a contract with the DEL record champion Adler Mannheim , with whom he became German champion in 2001 and runner-up in 2002 . In addition, he completed several assignments with the young eagles , the Mannheim junior team in the German junior league . For the eagles, Müller was mostly used as a substitute goalkeeper behind Mike Rosati .

Robert Müller in action, 2004

In the NHL Entry Draft 2001 , the Washington Capitals secured in the ninth round in 275th place the transfer rights for North America to Robert Müller. In the summer of 2002, he was given the opportunity to attend a training camp for the Washington Capitals NHL franchise . After participating in the Capitals training camp, Müller decided to continue his career in Germany.

Back in Germany, Müller moved to league competitor Krefeld Pinguine after two years and 40 league games for the Adler . At the Krefeld team, Müller immediately became the goalkeeper and won the German championship with his team at the end of the 2002/03 season after finishing sixth after the preliminary round. In the decisive fifth final game of the best-of-five series against the defending champion Kölner Haie , he had a very strong catch rate of 97 percent in the 3-1 away win of his team and was also the youngest German goalkeeper to become German champions first German goalkeeper since Helmut de Raaf in 1996, who won the title. During his time in Krefeld, the goalkeeper was called to the DEL All-Star Game twice, in 2005 and 2006 , where he played with the best players in the league. After the Penguins had missed the play-off round in the 2003/04 season , Müller was loaned to Switzerland for the rest of the season, where he missed relegation in the National League A with EHC Basel .

After four years in Krefeld and a total of 213 games in the DEL, Müller returned to the Adler Mannheim for the 2006/07 season and signed a three-year contract. In Mannheim, Müller was first used as a goalkeeper in front of Ilpo Kauhanen and Danny from the Birken and won the German championship again at the end of the season with the Eagles.

Cancer and return to the ice

Robert Müller in September 2005 at an event of the Tönisvorst Round Table

In November 2006 , before the Germany Cup in Hanover , Müller developed dizzy spells, which caused him to leave. After examinations in a Heidelberg clinic for neurosurgery, a malignant brain tumor was discovered and partially surgically removed. After this procedure, he had to undergo chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Müller had to take a three-month break as a result of the treatment. He was then used three times in official games, including the season finale in the SAP Arena : After the fans had loudly demanded Müller, he was in the goal of the Adler Mannheim in the last 31 seconds when the Nürnberg Ice Tigers won 5-2 Defeated the play-off final of the German championship .

After Müller had to give up his regular seat to his substitute Jean-Marc Pelletier and his successor Adam Hauser for the coming season due to a decision by management , the goalkeeper was loaned to EV Duisburg in the 2007/08 season, with the option of joining the Adler return should this become necessary during the course of the season.

In December 2007, the Kölner Haie and Adler Mannheim agreed on an immediate change from Robert Müller to the Cologne team. He replaced Travis Scott , who had moved to Russia, and received a contract until 2010.

22 March 2008 Robert Mueller denied with the Cologne Sharks, the third play-off quarter-finals of the 2007/08 season against the Adler Mannheim, the sharks after 168 minutes and 16 seconds with a goal by Philip Gogulla with 5: 4 for themselves decided. With a duration of six and a half hours, it is considered to be the longest professional ice hockey game on German soil and the second longest in the world. Müller saved 100 shots on goal in this game.

End of career and death

In August 2008, Müller had to undergo another operation, during which, according to official information, tissue samples were taken. In fact, as in the first procedure, large parts of the tumor were removed because the tumor had grown in a very short time and was pressing on blood vessels, which was life threatening.

From the end of October 2008, the goalkeeper was back on the ice to train for his comeback. Shortly afterwards, in early November, he released his doctor, Professor Wolfgang Wick, from confidentiality, who published the severity of the disease. Despite the critical prognosis, Robert Müller continued to train. At this point in time, he had already exceeded the median life expectancy that can be expected for a fourth-degree tumor, a glioblastoma .

On November 16, 2008, Müller finally celebrated his comeback when he was used in the last eight minutes in the game of the Kölner Haie against the Nürnberg Ice Tigers .

In mid-December 2008, his health deteriorated dramatically again, and during a public appearance in a children's hospital, he collapsed. In January 2009, the goalkeeper finally announced the end of his career. His last public appearance was in March at the Kölner Haie season-end party.

On May 21, 2009 Robert Müller died of his illness in his hometown Rosenheim. He left behind his wife and two children.

statistics

( Legend for the goalkeeper statistics: GP or Sp = total games; W or S = wins; L or N = defeats; T or U or OT = draws or overtime or shootout defeats; min. = Minutes; SOG or SaT = shots on goal; GA or GT = goals conceded; SO = shutouts ; GAA or GTS = goals conceded ; Sv% or SVS% = catch quota ; EN = empty net goal ; 1  play-downs / relegation ; italics : statistics not complete)

Main round
season team league Sp S. N Min GT SO GTS Sv% A. SM
1997/1998 EHC Klostersee 2nd league 45 28 17th 2581 151 0 3.55 3 16
1998/1999 Starbulls Rosenheim DEL 32 1863 105 1 3.38 88.05 1 4th
1999/2000 Starbulls Rosenheim DEL 39 2228 131 1 3.50 87.92 0 0
2000/2001 Adler Mannheim DEL 25th 1299 51 1 2.36 91.77 3 2
2001/2002 Adler Mannheim DEL 15th 638 26th 1 2.45 88.74 0 2
2002/2003 Krefeld penguins DEL 50 2763 107 5 2.32 91.20 1 2
2003/2004 Krefeld penguins DEL 49 2892 131 6th 2.72 90.14 1 2
2004/2005 Krefeld penguins DEL 47 2769 136 1 2.95 90.14 0 0
2005/2006 Krefeld penguins DEL 51 3003 154 1 3.08 88.80 2 24
2006/2007 Adler Mannheim DEL 23 1059 46 1 2.61 91.50 0 0
2007/2008 Adler Mannheim DEL 5 0 3 233 11 0 2.84 91.73 0 0
2007/2008 Foxes Duisburg DEL 12 6th 6th 698 37 0 3.18 90.21 1 2
2007/2008 Cologne Sharks DEL 24 16 8th 1461 65 1 2.67 91.63 4th 0
2008/2009 Cologne Sharks DEL 2 0 0 12 0 0 0.00 100 0 0
DEL total 351 20918 1000 19th 2.86 90.2 13 38
Finals
season team league Sp S. N Min GT SO GTS Sv% A. SM
1999/2000 Starbulls Rosenheim DEL play-downs 12 5 7th 720 43 3.58 0 4th
2000/2001 Adler Mannheim DEL play-offs 2 103 2 0 1.17 96.61 0 0
2002/2003 Krefeld penguins DEL play-offs 14th 10 4th 843 28 1 1.99 92.43 2 4th
2003/2004 EHC Basel NLA relegation 8th 5 3 465 24 0 3.10 0 0
2005/2006 Krefeld penguins DEL play-offs 5 1 4th 297 21st 0 4.24 86.40 1 0
2006/2007 Adler Mannheim DEL play-offs 1 0 0 1 0 0 0.00 100 0 0
2007/2008 Cologne Sharks DEL play-offs 14th 8th 6th 982 36 0 2.20 93.51 0 2
Total DEL play-offs 36 2226 87 1 2.40 92.2 3 6th

International

International club tournaments

With the Adler Mannheim Robert Mueller took in 2001 for the first time at the Spengler Cup in Davos part. In the preliminary round of the reigning German champions, the goalkeeper played a full game and was substituted on for two more for regular goalkeeper Mike Rosati . In 2003 , Müller only finished fifth and last with the Krefeld Penguins, but was voted the best goalkeeper of the tournament as well as the All-Star Team .

National team

Robert Müller in the jersey of the German national team at the 2005 World Cup

Müller received his first nomination for an international tournament in 1997 for the U18 Junior European Championship , in which he was in the goal of the U18 selection in six games. However, the team missed relegation, so the DEB team had to compete in the second-class B group next year. For his outstanding achievements, Müller was named the best goalkeeper at this tournament .

From 1999 Robert Müller belonged to the German national ice hockey team, where he shared the goalkeeping position with four players from the German ice hockey league and the national hockey league . On February 13, 1999, in a 5-2 defeat against Switzerland, he was in the goal of the senior national team for the first time. In April of the same year, the then 18-year-old competed in his first world championship in Denmark , but only finished fourth with the national team and thus failed to make it back to the first-class A-World Cup.

The team succeeded in this the following year by winning the B group in Poland, in which Müller played two games. In addition, he was used in five games at the U20 World Cup of the same year. After participating in the World Cup in his own country in 2001 , in which the German team was able to move into the quarter-finals, Robert Müller qualified with the national team for the first time for an Olympic ice hockey tournament in an elimination tournament in Ljubljana, Slovenia in the same year . At the Winter Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 , Müller was twice in goal for the DEB selection, as was the World Cup in Sweden .

With the national team, the World Championships followed in 2003 in Finland and 2005 in Vienna and Innsbruck , where the team again relegated to the B group. In addition, Müller was in the squad at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and five times at the Deutschland Cup between 2000 and 2005 . In 2006 he again represented Germany at the Olympic Games, and he and the team made it back to the top division at the 2006 Division I World Cup in France . At the 2008 World Cup , the goalkeeper played for his home country in an international match for the last time.

statistics

( Legend for the goalkeeper statistics: GP or Sp = total games; W or S = wins; L or N = defeats; T or U or OT = draws or overtime or shootout defeats; min. = Minutes; SOG or SaT = shots on goal; GA or GT = goals conceded; SO = shutouts ; GAA or GTS = goals conceded ; Sv% or SVS% = catch quota ; EN = empty net goal ; 1  play-downs / relegation ; italics : statistics not complete)

year team event Sp S. U N Min GT SO GTS Sv% A. SM
1997 U18 Germany U18 European Championship 3 0 0 3 180 17th 0 5.67 88.4 1 0
1998 U18 Germany U18 B European Championship 6th 6th 0 0 8th 2 1.33 94.0
1999 Germany B world championship 4th 3 0 1 240 8th 1 2.00 91.7 1 0
2000 U20 Germany U20 B World Championship 5 4th 0 1 300 7th 2 1.40 93.75 0 0
2000 Germany B world championship 2 1 0 1 120 7th 0 3.50 87.3 0 0
2001 Germany Olympic qualification 1 1 0 0 60 4th 0 4.00 84.0 0 0
2001 Germany A world championship 3 0 1 2 179 8th 0 2.68 90.2 1 0
2001 Adler Mannheim Spengler Cup 3 0 0 1 120 11 0 5.50 0 0
2002 Germany Olympic games 2 0 0 1 78 4th 0 3.07 90.9 0 0
2002 Germany A world championship 2 0 0 2 119 9 0 4.55 85.7 0 0
2003 Germany A world championship 4th 1 0 3 241 14th 0 3.49 87.2 0 0
2003 Krefeld penguins Spengler Cup 3 1 0 2 179 8th 0 2.68 0 0
2004 Germany A world championship 1 0 0 1 60 5 0 5.00 84.4 0 0
2004 Germany World Cup of Hockey 1 0 0 1 30th 3 0 5.94 88.5 0 0
2005 Germany A world championship 4th 1 2 1 239 8th 0 2.01 92.1 0 0
2006 Germany Olympic games 1 0 0 1 60 2 0 2.00 92.0 0 0
2006 Germany B world championship 4th 4th 0 0 239 2 3 0.50 97.3 0 0
2008 Germany A world championship 3 1 0 2 159 11 0 4.14 87.8 0 0

Achievements and Awards

Honor banner in the Mannheim SAP Arena
Overview

In addition to the championships with the Adler Mannheim in 2001 and 2007 and the title win with the Krefeld Penguins in 2003 , Robert Müller was nominated five times during his time in the highest German ice hockey league for the DEL All-Star Game , a friendly game in which the best players in the league each time compete against each other. In 2002 the goalkeeper was one of three German players in the DEL All-Star Team, which competed against the DEL players of the German national team . In 2005 and 2006 , Müller himself was on the ice for Team Germany in the All-Star Game, while the right catcher was nominated for Team Europe in 2007 and 2008 together with the best European players in the league .

“The 80 has power!” As a choreography by the huskies fans in the Kassel ice rink

In the play-offs of 2002/03 and 2007/08 , Müller was also the goalkeeper who recorded the most shots on goal blocked and the best goal average with 1.99 and 2.2 goals per game, respectively. At the second international tournament of his career, the Junior European Championship in 1998, Robert Müller was named the best goalkeeper in the second-rate B-European Championship. At the men's ice hockey world championship in 2006 , the goalie was able to prevail against the goalkeepers of the five remaining participants in Group A of the second-rate Division I and was again named the best goalkeeper of the tournament. At the Spengler Cup 2003 , Müller also received the award as the best goalkeeper and was also voted into the event's All-Star Team .

In March 2009 Robert Müller was inducted into the “Hockey Hall of Fame Germany” of the Ice Hockey Museum in Augsburg as the youngest person to date . Laudator and WDR reporter Eddie Körper emphasized that the recording was no exception, but that Müller met all the criteria for this honor. In the same month, the goalkeeper was also awarded the special prize for “his life on and off the ice” when he was voted “Winter Star 2009” by viewers of the Bayerischer Rundfunk program Blickpunkt Sport .

After Müller's death, Müller's former teams, the Kölner Haie, the Adler Mannheim and the EHC Klostersee, declared that they would "block" the number 80 in honor of Robert Müller, i.e. no longer give it to other players and also put a banner dedicated to him under the stadium ceiling . Although the goalkeeper never played in Munich, the EHC Munich also joined and Müller's shirt number will never be given again out of respect for the “athletic and human role model”.

At the beginning of the 2009/10 season , Robert Müller's shirt number 80 was banned throughout the league .

social commitment

In 2002, Robert Müller was the godfather of an advertising campaign for AIDS-Hilfe Krefeld eV and founded the online project robert-hilft.de , through which donations were also collected for the AIDS-Hilfe through various campaigns.

Müller was the patron of the foundation "Die 80 hat Kraft" , named after his shirt number , which was founded in mid-December 2008 by fans of the cancer-stricken goalkeeper who expressed their solidarity. The foundation collected over 100,000 euros for the German Childhood Cancer Foundation through appeals for donations in the ice hockey stadiums, auctions and through its online presence until February 2009 .

Web links

Commons : Robert Müller  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Joachim Leyenberg: Robert Müller - in the extension. In: faz.net. Frankfurter Allgemeine, November 15, 2008, accessed on September 22, 2012 .
  2. ^ A b Claus Vetter: Robert Müller: His life was a struggle. Zeit Online , May 23, 2009, accessed September 27, 2012 .
  3. ↑ hockeyfans.ch, Robert Müller still on Basel , last accessed on July 1, 2011
  4. ↑ hockeyweb.de, Robert Müller changes to EVD , last accessed on July 1, 2011
  5. ↑ a b Cathrin Gilbert: The last ice age . In: Der Spiegel . No. 46 , 2008 ( online - 10 November 2008 ).
  6. ↑ haie.de: Robert Mueller is taken from a tissue sample earlier in the week , last accessed on 1 July 2011.
  7. ↑ A tragic hero. Kölner Stadtanzeiger, November 9, 2008, accessed on November 22, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Oliver Völkl: Attack of weakness in Robert Müller. In: Focus online . December 18, 2008, accessed September 22, 2012 .
  9. ↑ hockeyfans.ch, Spengler Cup 2001 , last accessed on July 1, 2011
  10. ↑ a b hockeyfans.ch, Spengler Cup 2003 , last accessed on July 1, 2011
  11. ↑ Championnat d'Europe junior 1998 des moins de 18 ans at hockeyarchives.info (French), last accessed on July 1, 2011
  12. ↑ Marcel Stein: Ex-professional dies of cancer: Robert Müller wanted normality and no pity. In: The world online. May 22, 2009. Retrieved October 8, 2011 .
  13. ↑ a b Robert Müller is dead , accessed on June 16, 2009  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) sueddeutsche.de@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.sueddeutsche.de
  14. ↑ iserlohn-roosters.de, DEL-ALL-STAR game in Dresden - the hockey highlight ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , last accessed July 9, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.iserlohn-roosters.de
  15. ↑ haie.de, Robert Mueller was inducted into the Hall of Fame Germany , last accessed on 1 July 2011.
  16. ↑ br-online.de, Winterstar 2009 ( Memento from May 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), last accessed on June 17, 2009
  17. ↑ Express Online Haie-Keeper Robert Müller is dead ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , last accessed on May 22, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / forum.express.de
  18. ↑ abendzeitung.de, EHC honors Müller: "No. 80 will never be given again ” , last accessed on May 28, 2009
  19. ↑ After Müller's death: No DEL player with number 80. merkur-online.de, September 2, 2009, accessed on November 24, 2012 .
  20. ↑ In Memoriam Robert Müller. In: wz-newsline.de. Westdeutsche Zeitung , May 22, 2009, archived from the original on November 24, 2010 ; Retrieved September 27, 2012 .
  21. ↑ mueller-robert.com ( Memento from July 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (last entries 2003), last accessed on June 19, 2009
  22. ↑ The 80 has power - an action hits the heart. In: lr-online.de. Lausitzer Rundschau , January 7, 2009, accessed on October 10, 2012 .
  23. ↑ Incredibly proud of this sum. (No longer available online.) Allgäuer Zeitung , January 24, 2009, archived from the original on May 14, 2015 ; Retrieved September 27, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.all-in.de
  24. ↑ hockeyfans-united.de, current donation status, last accessed on June 24, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ice hockey goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1980
PLACE OF BIRTH Rosenheim , Germany
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 2009
Place of death Rosenheim , Germany