After the Deutschland Cup, one player received special praise from national coach Marco Sturm: Dominik Kahun from Munich is to take on a leading role at the Olympics.
On Tuesday Marco Sturm will fly to the USA and pay a visit to the German NHL players. The national ice hockey coach will not find reinforcement for the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang on his trip to North America.
“Unfortunately, there is no one there at the moment,”said Sturm after the mixed endurance test at the Deutschland Cup in Augsburg.
At the home World Cup, the German NHL record player had conjured Frederik Tiffels from the US collegiate league in the spring of this year, who became a shooting star in Cologne.
The 22-year-old has now signed a contract with Stanley Cup winner Pittsburgh Penguins. Even if he only plays in the underclass AHL, he is also affected by the NHL’s Olympic rejection – like all German North American pros.
Storm has to turn the international players in the DEL into his Olympic team. Dominik Kahun from the German champion Red Bull Munich urged us to play a leading role.
“He played a great tournament, got a lot of ice age and got better and better”, the national coach praised the 22-year-old.
For the middle forward with a lot of overview and playful class, he has a special task in mind at the winter games in South Korea:”He is an important man for us, because Leon Draisaitl is not there.”
The NHL youth star, Germany’s best ice hockey player for generations, and the other North American pros had made a major contribution to the return of the Olympic team after the forced break in Sochi in 2014.
But he will only watch the games of Pyeongchang on TV. A gap that will not be closed. At least let Kahun try.
“It feels good, it gives me self-confidence,”said the resident of Munich about the special praise of the national coach,”unfortunately I was injured. It’s nice to come back like this, of course.”
Kahun, who had to pause for several weeks in the DEL, shone as a preparation for the first three goals in a conciliatory 5-1 win over the USA.
The center, technically and in terms of running, the strongest international player in the DEL, has qualities similar to those of Draisaitl, with whom he used to mix up the German junior league DNL in Mannheim.
Kahun also tried to get into the NHL via the Canadian junior league – in vain. While the Draisaitl of the same age was drafted by the old master Edmonton Oilers in third place in his class, Kahun returned to Germany disappointedly.
In Munich he quickly played his way into the hearts of the fans, won the Red Bulls twice German championship and also won a regular place in Sturm’s team.
Even though a lot of things didn’t work out at the Deutschland Cup in the first two games against Russia (2:8) and Slovakia (0:3), Kahun Olympia is optimistically looking forward to it:”If we do our thing and work hard, we can do it too. We just can’t show too much respect.”
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