Chicago Blackhawks Defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk made his NHL postseason debut on June 8th in game three of the 2015 Stanley Cup Final. In his rookie season, he was limited to just 18 games to due to patellar and wrist injuries.
The Middletown, New Jersey native is the younger brother of James van Riemsdyk, who plays Left Wing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. James Van Riemsdyk was drafted 2nd overall (right behind Patrick Kane) in the 2007 NHL Draft. The youngest sibling, Brendan van Riemsdyk, is committed to play for the University of New Hampshire.
Van Riemsdyk won the first Stanley Cup of his career as the Blackhawks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. We caught up to him at Nike Train Chicago,
TVR was there to oversee the final training session, and give words of encouragement to those who had just completed an extremely vigorous workout. Joining him was Bo Jackson (for our exclusive with him go here) To experience the intense workouts of Nike Train Chicago you’ll want to go to this link.
Here are some of the highlights of our exclusive with Trevor van Riemsdyk:
On his plans for his day with the Stanley Cup:
Trevor van Riemsdyk: “I’m going to bring it home to New Jersey, and probably take it on my dad’s boat in the morning, and go from there. Probably bring it to my old high school, bring it into town so other people can see it for a little bit and then probably do one more stop after that.”
On if winning the Stanley Cup has truly been everything he dreamed it would be:
TVR: “I don’t know if it has totally sunk in yet. It’s been unbelievable this past week of getting to enjoy it with family and friends, the team, the city; it’s amazing.”
On what he learned from his older brother before he entered the league
“I learned a lot from him. A lot of it was how to become a professional and an athlete is a 24 hour thing. You can just be the hour or two that you’re working out, or the hour or two you’re on the ice. You got to eat right, sleep right, do everything you can to take care of yourself.”
Why hockey players have much better abs and core strength than athletes in other team sports. This is a narrative I came up with and asked him about. He didn’t bring it up. It’s true though. In all my years covering sports at the highest level, in all the locker rooms I’ve been in, I’ve never seen a hockey player who didn’t have ripped out abs. Contrary to other sports, where I have seen at least a couple players who have been sporting a gut.
Why do hockey players have superior core muscles?
TVR: “I don’t know what it is. You need balance to turn, check, stay balanced. To move around out there you don’t want to get too bulky or anything that limits how agile you can be. I think the combination of what you do and what you need to do kind of forces guys to stay a little leaner.”
“There’s benefits to that.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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