An words with which they had formulated their high expectations at the start of the adventure were certainly not lacking. But now the time for action has come. More than a week after their arrival in Beijing, the German national ice hockey team “finally” started playing, as national coach Toni Söderholm put it before the opening face-off. He could hardly wait to start with his family in a competition for which they had big plans.
But the prelude to the group stage went horribly wrong: in the first of three matches in the preliminary round, the Germans lost 5-1 to Canada, whose shirts in China do not necessarily boast an impressive array of top stars. That dampened the mood in the camp of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB). “Today we learned what it means to be efficient,” was Söderholm’s subsequent assessment of the situation. He certified that the opponent “moved faster on the open ice” and used his chances “more straight forward”. It is important to learn from this. In his eyes, the performance of the Canadians looked “world class” at times.
One challenge in the first few days on site was getting used to the smaller ice surfaces, which are based on the dimensions in the North American professional league and on which events are even faster than at home in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). . Söderholm’s players, as they showed in the first few minutes in the encounter with the record Olympic champion, who has won gold nine times, have not yet mastered this change convincingly. They partially secured the goal area in front of keeper Mathias Niederberger, lost control of the target in the neutral zone and almost didn’t have a promising finish. “We really didn’t play our best game today,” said captain Moritz Müller, but he didn’t give up confidence, “because it’s a long tournament.”
Canada a size too big even without an NHL player
Once again at the Olympics, the North Americans have to cope with the serious disadvantage of not being able to muster their best people. The NHL, in which the industry giants earn their living, did not allow their staff to travel to Asia because of the corona pandemic. Therefore, Hockey Canada uses a selection of European legionnaires, supplemented by college youngsters. But the fact that the Men in Black are masters of their profession and, above all, not squeamish about their work, was quickly shown to the Germans.
An action paved the way for them to take the lead, which was borderline, but went unpunished by the four referees. Eric O’Dell drove into a duel at speed, regardless of losses, in which Marco Nowak looked down and did not see the disaster coming. The Düsseldorf defender fell to the ground in the crash – and Alex Grant used the confusion after Niederberger lost his blade when he was bumped into with a long-range shot to make it 0-1 (5th minute). With Ben Street, there was only one crack in Canada who usually plays in the DEL: for EHC Red Bull Munich. And the striker duped Berlin goalkeeper Niederberger, who will be his team-mate at Bayern next season, in the 10th minute to make it 2-0.
Just 33 seconds later, Daniel Winnik extended his lead with the third strike against the Germans, who were indisposed at the time. The few hundred Chinese visitors, who happily waved their colorful flags, were amazed – and on the Deutsche Bank the facial expressions revealed that everyone had imagined this Thursday evening differently. For Nowak, it even ended prematurely: he had to be treated in the dressing room after the collision and never returned.
Hager: “Nothing is lost for a long time”
Both sides met more evenly in the middle section. The Germans were now able to set offensive accents themselves. Jonas Müller (24th) missed an opportunity. Tobias Rieder made it more purposeful and shortened to 1:3 (31st). The hope that this could have been the signal for a change for the better among the German winter sports athletes and supervisors who came to cheer on the grandstand did not last long.
Because when Konrad Abeltshauser had to go to the penalty box, Maxim Noreau didn’t hesitate and finished from the blue line to make it 1:4 (33rd minute). Jordan Weal scored the final score (52nd). “We will evaluate the videos and see what we have to do differently,” said striker Patrick Hager, who also criticized “that we made it too complicated at the beginning”. But “nothing is lost for a long time”.
After a day’s break in the program, the losers in the opening round will continue twice this weekend within 24 hours in quick succession. First comes the clash with the underdogs of the Chinese Olympic hosts, who lost 8-0 to the United States at the same time, before a showdown with Team USA. The first place in the three groups of four and the runner-up with the most points will then be directly qualified for the quarter-finals, while those who will rank behind will face a knockout round that will decide who can advance. The Germans have been made aware of the difficulty of the task more clearly than they had all expected.
