Ice hockey: Sharks restart under Draisaitl

Peter Draisaitl started his job as coach of the Cologne sharks with much enthusiasm on Tuesday. His famous son Leon is also happy about the commitment of his dad.

In the middle of the night Peter Draisaitl rang the phone. At the other end of the line was his Filius Leon (Edmonton Oilers), who had just learned in Los Angeles, 9155 km away, that his dad is taking over the coaching office at the eight times German ice hockey champion Kölner Haie.

“He is now a happy son, after all, he is a Cologne jong and therefore keeps his fingers crossed for me,”said Draisaitl Sen. laughing when he was introduced on Tuesday at the Shark Training Centre to replace the unlucky Canadian Cory Clouston.

But even for him, too, a dream had come true, after all, after a total of six professional years in the cathedral city, he had always “carried the shark emblem in his heart”after winning the title in 1995.

This is extraordinary and very special for me,”said Draisaitl quite emotionally before taking up his work with much enthusiasm.

When the 146-times international player entered the cabin at 10.38 a. m., there was awe-inspiring silence at Captain Christian Ehrhoff and Co…”My most urgent task is to free the players’ heads. The head is at the moment more important than what’s underneath it,”said the new shark coach, who is already on Wednesday evening at the Iserlohn Roosters for the first time as head coach at the Domstädter gang.

Until then, he wants to solve the blockade for his players:”The psyche is a subject of its own. I have to make it clear to everyone that we will start from scratch again” Two more away games in Schwenningen and with arch-rivals Dusseldorf EC are scheduled for the weekend, before he will be back on 28 March. In November he will make his home debut against the Straubing Tigers.

“It’s a good thing we’re going to travel a little bit. There’s a lot to talk about and that can’t hurt in our situation,”said Draisaitl, who wants to make a few changes at the bottom of the table in the DEL,”There will be only minor adjustments at first. After all, we are not starting from scratch, because my predecessor has done an excellent job. The system is basically right,”said the native Czech.

In the long run, however, his team had to play “faster, harder and simpler”. In addition, the defence had to regain stability:”It can’t be that we have the best and currently the second worst defensive last season. On Tuesday Peter Draisaitl started the repair work.