The sad highlight of the Corona season in German ice hockey could only be endured with biting irony for the Nuremberg Ice Tigers. “By the way, you can also sell the ten free places on our players’ bench.”the club replied to the Augsburger Panthers, who had advertised ticket purchases for the Bavarian derby on Twitter.
The large gaps on the Nuremberg bench were the symbolic image for a game that the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) may have harmed. As a “Sample without value” and “a caricature of an ice hockey game” the Ice Tigers called the 4:9 defeat – and hit the nail on the head.
With a core group of only eleven field players and two goalkeepers, the fight was hopeless from the start, even if the corona-plagued Nuremberg team did a very respectable job against a full Augsburg team. Until they ran out of strength. “It was a farce”said Nuremberg’s managing director Wolfgang Gastner SID: “It must not happen again.” Head coach Tom Row fumed: “It was ridiculous and puts the players in a dangerous situation.”
“It was a farce”
Nuremberg had tried to postpone the game due to numerous positive tests and training failures. But the formula, which the Ice Tigers also approved before the season, says: 10+1 = playable. Only an officially ordered team quarantine could have prevented the game – but that didn’t happen. Also because many in the Nuremberg team have already been boosted.
“In this case, the honest is the stupid”said Gastner, whose club also adheres strictly to that “return-to-play protocol” holds. Exposing professionals suffering from Corona to competitive sports earlier than recommended is out of the question for Gastner because of possible long-term COVID-related damage: “For me, safety comes before points.”
During the Olympic break, he wants to convince other league officials to increase the minimum number of playable field players from ten to 13. With only two lines of attack, like Nuremberg against Augsburg, it is utopian to be able to win a DEL game.
competition was eliminated
“The bad thing is that you almost have to be disappointed that we didn’t score any points here”, said Nuremberg defender Oliver Mebus at MagentaSport. He himself stood on the ice for a record-breaking 31:25 minutes, almost everyone in Nuremberg managed more than 30 shifts. The legs are “a bit heavier” than usual and he is glad “that it’s over”admitted Mebus.
In their distress, the Nurembergers joked that sports director Stefan Ustorf, assistant coach Manuel Kofler and physiotherapist Thomas Schinko, who had once been successful players, could be given jerseys. Gallows humor and biting irony – there was no other way the Ice Tigers could endure this day. And given this situation, those responsible at the DEL may have to sit down again.
Status: 01/31/2022, 1:40 p.m