NHL stars praise German talent

The German NHL stars meet online for group interviews. Leon Draisaitl believes in the success of a former companion who will soon make his debut.

The German NHL stars Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers), Philipp Grubauer (Colorado Avalanche), Dominik Kahun (Buffalo Sabres) and Tobias Rieder (Calgary Flames) have taken a stand on current issues in a joint online interview.

The special thing: One of them was in Canada, the next was from Denver, one from Munich and one from Landshut.

Oilers attacker Draisaitl was top scorer before the interruption of US professional sport due to the Corona pandemic and was well on his way to clear individual trophies.

Kahun, who had only moved from the Pittsburgh Penguins to his new team in February, and Draisaitl also spoke about Marc Michaelis, with whom they once played at the Jungadler Mannheim. The next German hopeful recently signed his first NHL contract.

In the media round, in which we participated via stream, the German NHL stars talked about…

…training conditions and diminishing fitness in Corona times:
Draisaitl: I stayed in Canada. I try to exercise and keep fit for one or two hours every day. Everything is a bit limited, but we all manage that.

Grubauer: I stayed in Denver. I took some weights from the training hall before it was closed. With the racing bike I do a hundred kilometers.

Kahun: I commute between Munich and my parents in Regensburg. I also have weights at home, but not the heavy ones, so classical weight training is not possible. I go running a lot or on the spinning bike. Unfortunately I don’t have any pets, the opponents I have to build myself and put things on the floor.

Rieder: I flew to Landshut one and a half week ago to visit my family. It is almost the same training every day. I go running and cycling a lot. But after a while it gets boring, too. You don’t have the motivation of your teammates, it’s already difficult to motivate yourself. But you can’t do much else at the moment anyway, you have to go through that.

…the longing for the ice and special hockey training:
Draisaitl: We all miss hockey. Everybody has a stick at home, practices a bit of stick handling. I use my dog as a defender and try to play a bit with him. He’s one of the best defenders I’ve played against. (laughs)

Grubauer: Meanwhile it feels like the summer break, where you look forward to the new season. Everyone wants to get back on the ice. My dog is on the couch, he’s more afraid of the racket. But with him I cycle into the mountains.