It was just an icing whistle that Toni Söderholm was upset about on Sunday, but the facial expressions and the waving gesture with the hand that the new EHC Red Bull Munich coach made were symbolic of the current situation of the current champions German Ice Hockey League (DEL). Because at the time when the normally calm Finn was a little out of himself on the boards, his team was 4-1 behind at the Eisbären Berlin. In the end, Munich lost 6-2 and suffered their fourth defeat in a row in just eight days. In the DEL table, the Munich team are only in midfield and are already eight points behind the first-place Eisbären. “It is obvious that we have no place up there at the moment,” said captain Patrick Hager at Magentasport. “We can’t find the balance at the moment.”
The main problem for Munich at the moment is scoring goals. They only managed three goals in their four defeats. The fact that the Munich team have the statistically best power play in the DEL has helped them many times, including a goal in Berlin. But it also makes it clear that the attacking problems at five-on-five are even greater than the general offensive concerns. A look at the statistics makes it clear how much the master is lacking. The EHC only scored 15 times at five-on-five in the ten league games before Sunday’s game in Berlin. Only the Iserlohn Roosters and the Augsburger Panthers, both in the lower regions of the table, scored even less. It’s understandable that Söderholm expects “definitely more efficiency” in this area. Last week he pointed out that a lot had to happen in order to even get a shot on goal and explained that we were “still in the working phase” in this regard.
Captain Hager admits that his team is acting “a bit hesitantly”.
The EHC also has such a hard time scoring goals because some of its proven strikers have jammed shots. Austin Ortega, a 32-time goalscorer last season, has only scored twice in eleven games, while Chris DeSousa (27 goals last season) only scored once in nine games. Yasin Ehliz, most recently DEL Player of the Year, came back well after his month-long injury break and played in his first games, but was quickly out again due to a check to the head in the derby against Nuremberg and was also unable to get on the ice in Berlin. Since Ehliz, Ben Smith, another important attacker, missed more games than played due to injury, Söderholm had to reassemble the attacking lines several times. “It’s not easy for the coach because we always have to make changes,” said Hager and spoke of an “optimization phase” that last season’s champions are in. The captain admitted that his team is “a bit hesitant” from time to time. It’s about automating certain processes and “turning gray situations into black or white ones.”
In Berlin, the offensive failed to achieve much over long stretches. In the starting third there were only two shots on goal from Eisbären goalkeeper Jake Hildebrand. The scene in the 15th minute was representative of the current offensive misery, when Nico Krämmer had large parts of the goal clear in front of him from close range, but pushed the disc past the right. The Berliners didn’t have these problems, Yannick Veilleux (10th) and Zach Boychuk (19th) scored to take the lead 2-0. That confirmed what Konrad Abeltshauser had criticized on Friday after the 0-1 loss against Wolfsburg: “We’re currently looking for the easy way around, but in ice hockey you have to go into the dirty area.” The goal must be to “work in” a goal if it doesn’t normally happen.
At the beginning of the middle third, Austin Ortega reduced the score to 1:2 with a double advantage (23′), but just 69 seconds later, Ortega deflected the disc behind his own goal in such a way that Marcel Noebels only had to push it into the empty goal (24′). . Veilleux (30th), Blaine Byron (53rd) and Boychuk (56th) ensured the clear EHC defeat, which Markus Eisenschmied’s goal (57th) couldn’t change. Krämmer spoke of “small coordination difficulties” and “small details” that needed to be changed. “But my God, you can earn happiness.” Possibly as early as Tuesday, in the CHL game at Färjestad BK in Sweden.
