National coach Marco Sturm has also eliminated two players from his provisional line-up for the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang/South Korea. For Justin Krueger (SC Bern/Switzerland) and Konrad Abeltshauser (Red Bull Munich) the Olympic dream is over, as well as for goalkeeper Mathias Niederberger (Düsseldorfer EG), the Mannheim defender Sinan Akdag and striker Stefan Loibl (Straubing Tigers).
This means that Akdag is once again only on call, as it was before the World Cup in Germany last May, when the DEB team reached the quarter-finals. Krueger and Abeltshauser had played all the games at that time. Without the two defensive forces, Sturm is building on 16 players from the home team. Loibl had replaced the injured Daniel Pietta from Krefeld in the extended squad,”We have a good mix of experienced players,”said Sturm.
Christian Ehrhoff has the greatest Olympic experience with his fourth and Marcel Goc with his third participation. Goalkeeper Dennis Endras was part of the squad in Vancouver 2010 at the last German participation, but was not engaged. All other players debut.
The DEB team meets Finland in Pyeongchang (15. February), World Champion Sweden (16. February) and Norway (18. We have caught the probably strongest group, but we still want to try to annoy the big ones,”said Sturm.
On the 3rd. In February the 25-man team will meet in Füssen. A final test before the departure for the matches, which will take place without the stars from the NHL, will be completed by the DEB selection on the 6th day. February in Kloten against Switzerland (18.30 hrs). The next day, the DEB-Tross flies from Munich to South Korea.