Ice hockey: Mission eleven title for the polar bears

“We are well positioned in terms of personnel,” says sports director Stéphane Richer, a sentence that is typical in this industry. But the “squad blacksmith” of the Eisbären Berlin adds: “Last season’s strong squad essentially stayed together and was strengthened in certain areas.” So seven players left the championship team: “But there wasn’t one of them that they definitely wanted to keep,” says Richer. However, top attacker Tobias Eder, who was recently diagnosed with a malignant tumor during a sports medical examination, will be seriously missed.

Optimistic tones can also be heard from head coach Serge Aubin, who speaks of the “increase in personnel” and emphasizes: “We have signed up different playing styles with the new additions. They are all important to us.” No wonder that top striker Leonhard Pföderl combines the Eisbären’s mission of “eleventh title” with a declaration of war on the competition: “If you are champion, second place is not a success.”

In fact, the two defenders Mitch Reinke (USA) and Olivier Galipeau (Canada), who have been well tested in the American Hockey League (AHL), as well as the three attackers Liam Kirk (Great Britain), Gabriel Fontaine (Canada) and Weißwasser from the DEL2 promise to do the same Berlin substituted Matej Leden for reinforcements.

Shortly before the start of the season, a sixth newcomer, Finnish defender Markus Niemeläinen, was signed. The 1.97 meter tall defensive player played 43 games for Edmonton in the North American National Hockey League (NHL), the best ice hockey league in the world, and 127 games for Edmonton’s farm team in the AHL. With these three new defenders, the restructuring of the defensive ranks, which is inevitably necessary due to the absence of Marco Nowak, Korbinian Geibel and Rio Kaiser for several weeks, can be mastered.

The most dazzling figure among the newcomers is Liam Kirk. The winger from Maltby in northern England became the first ice hockey player born in England to join the NHL’s talent pool in 2018. The 24-year-old finally showed his strengths at the top Czech club HC Litvínov and in the British national team. »Liam is the most offensive player of our transfers. He has a special ability to score goals,” emphasizes Aubin.

Kirk himself says of himself: “I’m more of a goalscorer than a playmaker, because my mentality is to shoot directly.” He showed his skills in his first appearance with Eisbären’s cooperation partner and DEL2 team Lausitzer Füchse, when he won 5-0 -Victory with two goals and two assists in the top attack line with Blaine Byron and Ty Ronning shined.

The Polar Bears showed their increased maturity in the run-up to the season, especially in the challenging Champions Hockey League (CHL). After the 1:3 at the Swedish club Växjö Lakers, they rushed from victory to victory with 4:1 at the Polish champions Unia Oświęcim and at their home corrugated iron palace against Dynamo Pardubice (3:2 after penalty shootout) and Sparta Prague (3:0). Only one win is missing to reach the round of 16. “We got off to a good start and improved from game to game,” stated the head coach and announced: “We are going into the season optimistically. But we have a long journey ahead of us.«

If you follow the coaches’ survey, the Eisbären are the clear favorites for the title. The Adler Mannheim also have ambitions for the title, having strengthened themselves enormously in terms of personnel and finances. Under their new coach, the NHL-experienced American Dalles Eakins, they finally want to celebrate their ninth championship after five unsuccessful years. Expectations are also high at the Red Bulls Munich after they were denied their fifth title in the previous season under former national coach Toni Söderholm as successor to successful coach Don Jackson.

The Berliners’ opening opponents this Friday are the hosts Kölner Haie, who have not won a title since 2002. You have now parted ways with club icon Uwe Krupp as coach and are starting the season as a coach with outside chances under former Finnish runner-up Kari Jalonen.

The long-awaited first home appearance of the Eisbären, who have sold over 6,200 season subscriptions in advance, will take place on the third matchday (September 27th) against the Augsburg Panthers. The Panthers were actually relegated in the last two seasons, but remained in the upper house because the DEL2 champions, who were eligible for promotion, could not meet the economic conditions. Also in this 31st season, Augsburg is considered the first candidate for relegation.

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