Marcel Noebels (left) most recently led the national team to victory at the Deutschland Cup. Now he is challenged again with the Berlin polar bears.
Foto: imago images/ActionPictures
From now on only 2G applies. The pandemic is never ending, is rampant in Germany again and the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) is currently feeling this particularly strongly. After a short break through the Germany Cup, it starts almost everywhere with vaccinated or recovered spectators in the stands this Friday. And not every player is allowed to go on the ice for a long time. At Adler Mannheim, opponents of the polar bears in Berlin, head coach Pavel Gross and seven players were most recently tested positive for Corona and sent to domestic isolation.
The eagles are not an isolated case in the DEL. Despite their heavily decimated squad, the Mannheimers played their first knockout round of the Champions League on Tuesday against the Swedish top team from Frölunda and suffered a 1:10 debacle. Bad news also reported the Nürnberg Ice Tigers with currently four corona cases. From now on, the entire team in Nuremberg undergoes daily PCR tests. Previously were with RB Munich – after 22 positive tests! – and the Düsseldorfer EG two complete teams as well as 16 players who tested positive at the Iserlohn Roosters have been quarantined by the health authorities.
“The dynamic of the infections is increasing and the authorities have become significantly more restrictive,” says DEL managing director Gernot Tripcke. “We have to do everything we can to ensure that players, coaches and employees are protected as well as possible and that we can maintain our game operations.” The league has tightened its test strategy for this purpose. The new measures only affect teams that have unvaccinated players in their ranks from November 1st. People without vaccination must now be tested three times a week using the PCR method. Those who have been vaccinated or have recovered only have to do it once a week, but that is also stricter than before, because until now the testing of those who have been vaccinated and recovered has been voluntary. According to the DEL, the vaccination rate in the 15 clubs is 93 percent. “But the uncertainties remain,” says Tripcke.
Above all, he looks with concern at the many postponements. “There is not much buffer in the calendar because this season, in addition to the World Cup in Finland from May 13th to 29th, the Winter Olympics in Beijing from February 4th to 20th.” as an “emergency scenario” could take place in February. “The Olympic break would be our worst-case joker,” says Tripcke. “We have kept it free so far. And everything has to be tried to somehow get the game plan in order. In the worst of all imaginable cases, however, the Olympic joker could be drawn. “Then, however, clubs would have to do without their Olympic drivers instead of those infected with corona.
There is still a long way to go before the end of the main round at the end of March. None of the favorites with defending champions Berlin, Mannheim and Munich have come unbeaten through the season so far. Front runners Mannheim are still in the best shape with three defeats in 19 games, followed by Munich, runner-up Wolfsburg and Berlin. The polar bears have lost their former home strength with only four wins in ten games. They also showed weaknesses compared to the competition in over- and undernumbered games.
The defending champion went into the international break with two 2: 5 defeats at home against Krefeld and in Ingolstadt. “The interruption will do us good. We’ll recharge the battery, ”said head coach Serge Aubin at the time. Although the polar bears slipped from second to fourth place in the table as a result of the two failures, his interim result was still positive: “We are in a decent position. But there is also much more to it. “
At the second clash between the Berliners and the league leaders, both teams are eager to make amends: Mannheim wants to quickly forget the 1:10 bankruptcy, Berlin the 3-0 defeat on the fourth matchday against the Adler. Marco Baßler, who has come from Straubing, could represent a new man among the polar bears. Parker Tuomie will be absent for that. The 26-year-old had asked for a change due to short periods of play and will strengthen the Nuremberg Ice Tigers in the future.
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