If there was one more thing that was missing for the Adler Mannheim, it was the injury of their best offensive player. And because everything that can go wrong is going wrong, that’s exactly what happened on Sunday: Matthias Plachta left the ice early against the Kölner Haie, and on Tuesday the Mannheim team announced that the national player would be out for “up to eight weeks” due to a leg injury . “A big blow,” said coach Dallas Eakins. Plachta is not only the focal point of the Adler offensive, with 15 goals and 16 assists he is currently the best goalscorer and top scorer in the entire German Ice Hockey League (DEL).
Such a loss cannot be compensated for by any team, but especially not for one that only scored 27 goals in the last 14 games – Plachta was involved in 18 of them. And even with him, the Eagles only won three of these 14 games and are the worst team in the league during this period. The title favorite has slipped to tenth place, the last play-off place. Recently there were five defeats in a row.
Although the Mannheim team were superior against Cologne on Sunday, the shot ratio in the first third alone was 21:3, but in the end it was 0:4. “I have never experienced a phase like this in my entire career,” said captain Denis Reul afterwards. “No matter what we throw forward, we can’t get the disc over the line. And someone just always falls in the back.”
New coach: Dallas Eakins : Image: dpa
However, the feeling of crisis is not new. The Eagles won their eighth and last championship to date in 2019, and since then they have always made it to the semi-finals, but that is not enough to meet their expectations. Nobody in the league invests more money in their squad. And nowhere is there more theater – especially homemade stuff. We’ve heard over and over again for years that things aren’t right in the cabin. At times, managers and trainers are said to have only discussed the bare minimum.
Trainer is a good keyword. Nobody has had the time to develop anything recently. It always has to work the same way. It just rarely does. Dallas Eakins is now the tenth head coach in ten years. “This is too much. We’re not proud of it either,” said managing director Daniel Hopp recently at Magentasport when another one had to go. The Swede Johan Lundskog had only arrived in the summer and wanted to create a “new culture”. Positive atmosphere, powerful ice hockey.
At first it looked good. Mannheim was far or even at the top in the DEL and Champions League. But then injuries followed, so they had to change tactics and no longer press all over the ice when they didn’t have the strength for it, said manager Jan-Axel Alavaara. By then he and Lundskog had already been released. Although Alavaara’s contract was only extended until 2026 in October.
There was no change
That didn’t reflect well on Daniel Hopp, the strong man at the Eagles who also provides the necessary change. And he knew that: “We are responsible for this. Especially me. Also on the economic side. But if you realize that you have made a wrong decision, it is even more wrong not to revise it.” New arrival was Dallas Eakins, a big name, the American most recently trained in the NHL. But the turnaround didn’t happen, so far he has four defeats and 4:15 goals.
If this continues this Friday (7:30 p.m. at Magentasport) against Düsseldorf and Sunday in Berlin (3:15 p.m. at Magentasport), the lead in eleventh place could be used up. Then even the seemingly unthinkable would be possible: a season without play-offs. This hasn’t happened since 2006. And actually nobody can imagine that, the squad has too much quality. However, the Berliners also thought so in the previous season, in the end the 2021 and 2022 champions just watched in the knockout phase. At least he kept calm, stuck to the coach and is now back on top.
David Lindenfeld Published/Updated: Bernd Schwickerath Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3 Valentin Teufel, Frankfurt Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3
One looks in vain for personnel consistency in Mannheim. Eakin’s contract also only runs until the end of the season. Nevertheless, he is also supposed to act as manager, even though he knows little about German ice hockey. But the Adler have a large network to help, says Hopp. So he hopes that things will turn out well and that Eakins will want to stay. Not that the next coach needs to be looked for in the summer.
