Olympia 2018: With storms into the future: DEB coach extends contract

Marco Sturm was a player at the Olympics three times, before his first participation as coach he extended the contract as national coach. The former NHL pro has initiated an upward trend, but is also pushing for price corrections.

In the next few years, Marco Sturm will remain the front-man of German ice hockey and will lead the national team into a successful future. Five days before the start of the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, the former NHL professional signed a new contract as national coach until 2022:”We wanted to send out a signal before the Olympics – for the team, but also for the fans,”said DEB President Franz Reindl.

Sturm has been kissing the German Ice Hockey Association awake since his inauguration in summer 2015, reaching the World Championships quarter-finals in 2016 and 2017 and bringing it back to the Olympic arena after the embarrassment before Sochi “It wasn’t just about us as a team, it was about the whole of German ice hockey,”he said about the most important success of his tenure so far. Despite all the importance of last year’s World Cup at home – Olympia has a different attraction.

Sturm also combines his words with the demand for clearly recognisable reforms, not least in the German Ice Hockey League, in order to narrow the gap to the world’s top echelons:”If you continue as you have done so far, we will not be among the top ten in the long term, it simply won’t work,”says Sturm.

Together with Reindl, he wants to fill the ambitious project “Powerplay 2026” with life at the top and not allow it to degenerate into a tiredly laughed at vision. If you want to bring in more Germans, you have to reduce the number of players who were not born in Germany. There must also be more U20 players in the DEL constantly playing,”said Sturm. Only then will the national team also improve.

It is high time,”other nations did this ten years ago”, Sturm explained, posing a fundamental question:”What do you want? We need a better, younger, healthier, faster league and then a national team. Otherwise you can’t survive against other sports.”

At the DEB he has close comrades-in-arms who support and promote this line. Sturm also knows that a change is imminent, some of the DEB team’s experienced players will soon have to be replaced, and he needs good quality supplies. Only if this generational change succeeds can an ambitious project come closer: In eight years’ time, the DEB wants to compete internationally for medals.

In the next three weeks, however, the focus will not be on the future; Pyeongchang will be in the foreground. Since Saturday, Sturm has gathered his selection for the final phase of the Olympic preparations in Füssen, on Tuesday the team will test again against Switzerland in Kloten, and on Wednesday the DEB team will start from Munich in the direction of South Korea.

Against Finland (15. February), World Champion Sweden (16. February) and Norway (18. We will do everything we can to beat one of the big nations,”announced the former NHL professional, who, like everyone else, regrets that the world’s best league has not released its stars this time.

But what on the one hand reduces the wow factor of the tournament, on the other hand increases the possibilities of the DEB-Cracks. Sweden and Finland are much more affected by the NHL’s rejection, even though Storm without Leon Draisaitl or Tom Kühnhackl will have to make do with the games,”Storm said.