DEL, first month report

GERMANY – Ever seen polar bears lonely roaming through the North Pole’s unpleasant surroundings looking for their prey? If you have, this picture gives you a pretty good impression of what it looked like at the rinks of the DEL in the last four weeks. The Berlin-based hockey playing kin of the artic predator are on the hunt and none of their rivals seem to stand a chance right now.
 
After their somewhat sensational 3-8 loss at the kennel of the Kassel Huskies, coach Don Jacksons squad got their act together and won the next seven games in a row and now lead the league with 20 points. During this period they have scored 33 goals while only allowing 16. Leading the pack is captain Steve Walker, who has scored in each of the first eight games – a new franchise record.
 
Six points behind them and with one game in hand the second-placed Augsburg Panthers continue to impress. With high-speed hockey they have earned themselves respect around the league. Coach Larry Mitchell tries to find the right compromise between confidence and arrogance: “We are still Augsburg, not Berlin or Mannheim. If we keep that in mind and do not lose our heads, we will be able to beat any team in the league.”
 
The also seems to be true for the Frankfurt Lions who enjoyed a perfect six point weekend with wins against the Hamburg Freezers (5-2) and at the Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg (3-2) they have improved to third place on the back of it. Right behind them, also on 13 points, the Nuremberg Ice Tigers probably are the second biggest positive surprise so far. After it was unclear for a long time whether they could enter the season at all due to financial reasons, the team is winning the fans back with passionate and hard working play.
 
The same goes for the Koelner Haie (Cologne Sharks), who after eight games have established themselves in fifth position. Although this is a clear improvement compared with last season when the Sharks lost their first seven games, there still is some little reason for concern: So far coach Igor Pavlov and his men in eight games have only managed one three point win. Four more were achieved after overtime or a shootout and therefore only two points each.
 
Apart from Cologne, four more teams have amassed twelve points so far. Fifth-placed DEG Metro Stars – as usual – got off to a rather slow start but seem to have gotten into the rhythm by now. With their best effort so far the came to an impressive 4-2 win on home ice against Mannheim last Sunday. Captain Daniel Kreutzer and his men will be hoping to repeat that performance when the Polar Bears come to town this Thursday.
 
The Iserlohn Roosters, the Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg and Kassel Huskies have also collected twelve points so far, which is pretty much what many expected of them – or maybe even slightly more (especially considering Wolfsburg and Kassel only having played seven games so far).
 
It is a completely different story with Mannheim, the Krefeld Pinguine (Penguins) and the Hanover Scorpions, with eleven, ten and nine points respectively all three of them are not quite where they would like – and were supposed to be. The Eagles were predicted to be Berlin’s hardest rivals, but only managed three wins in eight games so far. The Penguins meanwhile like to look back at last season, when with six wins in their first eight games laid the foundation for a very successful campaign. With three out of seven this year, so far they are a far cry from that. That is something the Scorpions, who finished last year’s regular season in second place must get used, to as well.
 
Which leads us to the last three places of the table where the Ingolstadt Panthers, the Hamburg Freezers and the Straubing Tigers, all united with six points each. While the Panthers seem to have somewhat of an excuse, since they heavily restructured roster and might not have completely grown together just yet; and nobody really expected the Tigers to climb to any higher regions of the table anyway, the situation for the Freezers is getting more and more serious. Six losses in a row, the last one being an embarrassing 2-6 in the battle of the Anschutz Entertainment Group-owned teams against Berlin. All this has put coach Paul Gardner under heavy pressure – even more so after general manager Boris Capla was released of his duties Tuesday evening.
 
“We are definitely not where we would like to be, but panic doesn’t help at all, either”, Gardner pleads. “There still is plenty of time for many good hockey games.” Looking at 56 game regular season schedule that certainly is true, but getting into somewhat of a hurry still might not be a bad a idea – just to be on the safe side concerning his job.
 
Contact: carsten.vanzanten@prohockeynews.com