So far, the Berlin polar bears around Kevin Clark (right) have mostly just followed their opponents in the DEL.
Photo: imago/Andreas Gora
Admittedly, the season is still young. After seven out of a total of 56 matchdays, no unequivocal statements can be made. But the previous appearances of the defending champion of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), who started the season with twelve new players, should not satisfy either the team or the top floor of the Eisbären Berlin. They certainly don’t live up to the claim of being a nine-time German champion. That should all change now – after the alleged liberation: a 5: 2 in front of a home crowd against the Düsseldorfer EG on Sunday. It was the first full three-point victory after four defeats and a partial success at 5: 4 after extra time against newly promoted Löwen Frankfurt.
For the Berliners, who had been weakening so far, this victory was balm for the battered soul. But the necessary critical view would be clouded if you wanted to put aside the serious shortcomings that have been running through all parts of the team for weeks and reinforce the impression that you are still in the identification phase. »We are going through a difficult phase. It just lacks confidence. This leads to insecurity when even the simplest things, the supposedly small things, which I know we can handle, don’t work out,” admitted head coach Serge Aubin. “But I’m sure we’ll get back on the road to victory.”
In the course of the season so far, a lot has come together that was not to be expected after the sovereign title defense in spring and despite the team upheaval: gross defensive mistakes, coordination problems between goalkeeper, defense and attack, simple loss of targets and not always consistent duel behavior. It’s a long list of shortcomings that the players are also critical of. “We’re not aggressive and offensive enough,” says Dresden-born Marco Nowak, an experienced defender and international at the age of 32 who moved from Düsseldorf to Berlin at the start of the season. National player Jonas Müller also confirms this: “We make too many defensive mistakes that the opponent uses coldly. Sometimes we have to nail a man to the gang at the back, attack the opponent with more physical effort without being sent straight to the penalty box.« But things often »were stupid«, said Müller. “We create a lot of chances to score, but the puck just doesn’t go in the goal.” It was finally different against Düsseldorf.
The Berliners, who are only 13th in the field of 15 DEL clubs, are now facing an exhausting mammoth program. They have to be on the ice four more times this week within six days, including the two DEL games on Friday and Sunday against Ingolstadt and Nuremberg, as well as an international endurance test on Tuesday evening (after the editorial deadline) against the NHL club, which was specially arranged by the polar bears San Jose Sharks from USA.
Less than 24 hours later, the penultimate group game in the Champions League (CHL), which is associated with special hopes, is scheduled for Wednesday in Hohenschönhausen. Opponent is HC Hradec Králové. The victory three days earlier in the championship game could have given the polar bears an important impulse for their badly shaken self-confidence at just the right time. If two more successes are achieved in the first leg in the Wellblechpalast and a week later in the Czech Republic, the polar bears would still oust the current group runners-up and qualify for the round of 16 in the most important European competition for the first time in the club’s history behind four-time CHL winner Frölunda Göteborg.
Without a further increase in the team, however, this will initially remain a pipe dream. And the false start to this season would be perfect. Coach Aubin had formulated a clear message before the start of the season: “We want the title hat-trick” – the third championship title in a row. Even if a decision on that will not be made until next spring, the polar bears currently seem to be much further away.
