Fear of favorites: The penguins team works as a collective.
Image: Imago
The Fischtown Pinguins mix up the DEL. The team from Bremerhaven owes it to clever transfers, a Slovenian assault row and a trainer who once ended up in the Stasi prison.
Sor for almost a year now, the pandemic has also been omnipresent for the German Ice Hockey League (DEL). Alfred Prey has come to terms with the Corona circumstances, but he still hasn’t gotten used to it. Once a week, the manager of the Fischtown Pinguins hardly turns a blind eye to the excitement. Then at home in Bremerhaven he sits on the computer before sunrise to call up the results of the current medical check. The fear of the horror scenario that one of his players, who had gone through the mandatory PCR test at the team doctor’s day before, and an infection could result in quarantine of unimagined dimensions, keeps Prey uneasy. So far, however, the team has mastered the health crisis in the best possible way and is therefore in a splendid sporting position.
Half of the main round has been completed. The penguins have won nine of their twelve games. They take first place in the Nord group – ahead of the industry giants from Berlin and Düsseldorf. Prey calls it a situation “to be enjoyed”. But he also says, “that we keep our feet on the ground here because we know where we come from”. Reaching the play-offs, as there are some indications, is synonymous with “a championship title” for him. In 2016, the Bremerhaven-based company was promoted to one of the 14 best clubs. Since then the development has only known one direction: upwards. Or as Prey put it: “It was five fat years.” To keep it that way, he, who was transferred to the coast a quarter of a century ago as a Bundeswehr soldier from southern Germany and made his home there, would prefer to go to church every day and piously Underline your wish with “lighting a candle”. But he doesn’t have the time for that. The Fischtown Penguins are his life’s work, and there is no duty to rule. When it comes to ice hockey, he is on duty “24/7”, around the clock.
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