International: German Junior National Teams

[Maverick41]

U17 roster for 2-nations-tournament in Deggendorf (GER) - Group 1:

Pos.	Nachname	Vorname	Geb.-Dat.	Verein 2022/23
GK	Elagin	Michail	08.01.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
GK	Vieillard	Linus	15.02.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
DF	Kaiser	Rio	07.10.2006	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
DF	Händel	Carlos	31.03.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	Hahn	Noah	04.10.2006	Iserlohner EC
DF	Ficenec	Jacob	20.02.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	Schams	Manuel	26.01.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	Schlenker	Colin Farell	08.04.2006	Schwenninger ERC
DF	Serikow	Finn	16.11.2006	EV Landshut
DF	Merkl	Maximilian	27.06.2006	EHC 80 Nürnberg
FW	Oswald	Maximilian	31.03.2006	EV Landshut
FW	Maul	Nick	09.04.2006	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Seidl	Simon	04.06.2006	EV Landshut
FW	Schwarz	Tobias	05.04.2006	EV Landshut
FW	Schütz	Tim	19.04.2006	Okanagan Hockey Academy
FW	Pul	Elias	15.05.2006	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Sager	Clemens	10.02.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
FW	Otten	Bennet	04.01.2006	Düsseldorfer EG
FW	Herzog	Max	27.04.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Biggins	Nikolas	02.06.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Kerbel	Felix	08.05.2006	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Bickel	Maxime	29.08.2006	Jungadler Mannheim

Comments:

• Interesting group on defense
• Händel the only 07 on this roster
• Not a single player I have not seen yet, but several I have not seen enough, so I am hoping for a stream

U17 roster for 2-nations-tournament in Deggendorf (GER) - Group 2:

Pos.	Nachname	Vorname	Geb.-Dat.	Verein 2022/23
GK	Danielsmeier	Cole	26.10.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
GK	Berbner	Marvin	11.03.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	Vieweg	Karl	03.05.2006	ESC Dresden
DF	Händel	Carlos	31.03.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	Zerhoch	Dominik	25.08.2006	Starbulls Rosenheim
DF	Stadler	Ben	13.05.2006	Kölner EC
DF	Schams	Manuel	26.01.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	Beck	Julian	08.01.2006	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
DF	Keppel	Samuel	25.10.2006	HC Davos
DF	Wieser	Josef	08.08.2006	EHC Klostersee
FW	Müller	Nikita	28.06.2006	Strömsbro IF
FW	Scholl	Maxim	27.11.2006	EHC 80 Nürnberg / Höchstadter EC
FW	Seidl	Simon	04.06.2006	EV Landshut
FW	Schwarz	Tobias	05.04.2006	EV Landshut
FW	Schütz	Tim	19.04.2006	Okanagan Hockey Academy
FW	Pul	Elias	15.05.2006	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Sager	Clemens	10.02.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
FW	Lindner	Laurin	14.02.2006	ESC Dresden
FW	Kippes	Emil	27.07.2006	ESC Dresden
FW	Biggins	Nikolas	02.06.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Haberling	Dmitrij	14.07.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
FW	Achatz	Johannes	24.07.2006	Starbulls Rosenheim

Comments:

• Händel again the only 07 on the roster
• Many players players I am not that familiar with, that fall bascially in 4 categories:
  • Players I have only seen once or twice: Berbner, Zerhoch, Beck, Scholl
  • Players I have never seen, but were already on my watchlist: Vieweg, Müller, Kippes, Haberling
  • Players I have never seen, that were not on my watchlist, although I had heard of them: Danielsmeier, Stadler, Achatz
  • Players I have never seen and until now never really been aware of: Keppel, Wieser, Lindner
• This could be a very educational tournament for me. Lots of new faces to watch. I guess that is why they don't have the other 07s here. They want to see some more of the 06s.

 

[Maverick41]

U16 roster for 4-nations-tournament in Kristiansand (NOR):

Pos.	Nachname	Vorname	Geb.-Dat.	Verein 2022/23
GK	Saffran	Kimi	16.07.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
GK	Stuhrmann	Lukas	04.04.2007	Kölner EC
GK	Pfab	Noah	14.06.2007	ESC Dresden
DF	Bleicher	Max	14.02.2007	EV Füssen
DF	Hempel	Niclas	20.08.2007	EHC Freiburg
DF	Warnecke	Moritz	07.10.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
DF	Krüger	Felix	21.08.2007	ESC Dresden
DF	Bicker	Albert	30.05.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	Wijacki	Cedrik	02.02.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
DF	Kose	Fabio	03.01.2007	EHC Straubing
DF	Stock	Philipp	02.06.2007	Kölner EC
FW	Kose	Timo	03.01.2007	EHC Straubing
FW	Schneider	Elias	08.07.2007	Starbulls Rosenheim
FW	Kaufmann	Justus	20.04.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Ziergiebel	Max	03.05.2007	Kölner EC
FW	Kessler	Nikita	13.01.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Zwickl	Sebastian	27.03.2007	Starbulls Rosenheim
FW	Griva	Rihards	08.06.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Willhöft	Dustin	09.01.2007	Rögle BK
FW	Späth Mariscal	Mateu	20.02.2007	EC Bad Tölz
FW	Griva	Gustavs	08.06.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Lewandowski	David	20.02.2007	Düsseldorfer EG
FW	Arzt	Jason	07.02.2007	Jungadler Mannheim

Comments:

• Missing some my favourite goalies, but since I am still not very good with goale evaluations, I'll just trust the coaches.
• Even without Händel that is not a bad defensive group. The forwards get a lot of attention and rightfully so, but the defense is not too shabby either.
• Damn, I love that forward group. Normally, they really should dominate the tournament against this competition (Norway, Austria, France), although I don't really know how strong their 07s are, or if maybe one of them will be sending a U17 team like France has done in the past.

 

[Maverick41]

Schedules for the upcoming tournaments:

U19:

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2	Location	Score	Stream
07.02.2023​	18:00​	Sweden	vs	Germany	Catena Arena	8-2 L	Link
08.02.2023​	14:00​	Germany	vs	Finland	Catena Arena	1-6 L	Link
09.02.2023​	14:00​	Germany	vs	Switzerland	Catena Arena	0-3 L	Link
10.02.2023​	14:00​	Czechia	vs	Germany	Catena Arena		Link

U18:

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2	Location	Score	Stream
09.02.2023​	18:00​	Germany	vs	Japan	Trainingshalle Poprad		Link
10.02.2023​	12:30​	Switzerland	vs	Germany	Trainingshalle Poprad		Link
11.02.2023​	14:30​	Slovakia	vs	Germany	Hockey Arena Poprad		Link

U17:

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2	Location	Score	Stream
09.02.2023​	18:15​	Germany Group 1	vs	Slovakia	Festung an der Trat		Link
10.02.2023​	15:00​	Slovakia	vs	Germany Group 2	Festung an der Trat		Link
11.02.2023​	11:00​	Germany Group 2	vs	Slovakia	Festung an der Trat		Link

U16:

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2	Location	Score
09.02.2023​	16:30​	Germany	vs	Austria	Idda Arena
10.02.2023​	20:00​	Norway	vs	Germany	Idda Arena
11.02.2023​	13:00​	Germany	vs	France	Idda Arena

According to the DEB website the games of U19, U18 and U17 will be streamed for free on Eishockey Deutschland Livestreams und Daten | DEB LIVE
EDIT: Apparently no free streams. You'll have to pay to watch, at least for the U19, maybe one of the other tournaments will be free.

 

[Maverick41]

Roster updates for the upcoming tournaments:

U16:

Pos.	Nachname	Vorname	Geb.-Dat.	Verein 2022/23
GK	Saffran	Kimi	16.07.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
GK	Stuhrmann	Lukas	04.04.2007	Kölner EC
GK	Pfab	Noah	14.06.2007	ESC Dresden
DF	Bleicher	Max	14.02.2007	EV Füssen
DF	Hempel	Niclas	20.08.2007	EHC Freiburg
DF	Warnecke	Moritz	07.10.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
DF	Krüger	Felix	21.08.2007	ESC Dresden
DF	Bicker	Albert	30.05.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	Wijacki	Cedrik	02.02.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
DF	Kose	Fabio	03.01.2007	EHC Straubing
DF	Stock	Philipp	02.06.2007	Kölner EC
FW	Kose	Timo	03.01.2007	EHC Straubing
FW	Schneider	Elias	08.07.2007	Starbulls Rosenheim
FW	Schroth	Matteo	14.03.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Ziergiebel	Max	03.05.2007	Kölner EC
FW	Kessler	Nikita	13.01.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Zwickl	Sebastian	27.03.2007	Starbulls Rosenheim
FW	Griva	Rihards	08.06.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Willhöft	Dustin	09.01.2007	Rögle BK
FW	Späth Mariscal	Mateu	20.02.2007	EC Bad Tölz
FW	Griva	Gustavs	08.06.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Lewandowski	David	20.02.2007	Düsseldorfer EG
FW	Arzt	Jason	07.02.2007	Jungadler Mannheim

• Change(s): Matteo Schroth replaces Justus Kaufmann

U18:

Pos.	Nachname	Vorname	Geb.-Dat.	Verein 2022/23
GK	Willerscheid	Leon	10.04.2005	Kölner EC
GK	Pertuch	Nico	29.07.2005	EV Landshut
GK	Ankirchner	Valentin	10.08.2005	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
DF	Tropmann	Edwin	05.10.2005	Kölner EC
DF	Homann	Henry	12.12.2005	EV Landshut
DF	Burghard	Jonas	12.02.2005	ERC Ingolstadt
DF	Niehus	Lua	26.03.2005	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	Bosecker	Lars Lion	18.09.2005	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
DF	Müller	Jonas	18.01.2005	SC Rapperswil-Jona
DF	Panocha	Norwin	24.02.2005	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
DF	Mayer	Paul	25.09.2005	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Münzenberger	Marco	02.09.2005	Kölner EC
FW	Brandl	Linus	01.04.2005	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Tripcke	Hannu	16.09.2005	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
FW	Salhi	Björn	23.02.2005	EV Landshut
FW	Sumpf	Julius	11.01.2005	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Jakovlev	Raphael	21.12.2005	EV Landshut
FW	Vinzens	Paul	21.09.2005	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Bicker	Kevin	29.01.2005	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Tschwanow	Nikita	19.10.2005	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	Ruckdäschel	Timo	01.04.2005	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Schreiner	Vadim	25.08.2005	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	Hildebrand	Maurice	16.07.2005	Jungadler Mannheim

• Change(s): On defense Kilian Künhauser and Moritz Kukuk were removed and Jonas Burghard was added. Among forwards Jonas Fischer was removed.

U19:

Pos.	Nachname	Vorname	Geb.-Datum	Verein 2022/23
GK	Bittner	Matthias	13.02.2004	Krefelder Pinguine / Krefelder EV 81
GK	Dietl	Philipp	02.07.2004	Straubing Tigers / EV Landshut
GK	Wolf	Simon	23.07.2004	Red Bull Hockey Juniors
GK	Braun	Marlon	09.02.2004	Eisbären Juniors Berlin / Lausitzer Füchse
DF	Bettahar	Rayan	22.02.2004	Eisbären Berlin
DF	Nifosi	Fabian	10.03.2004	ESV Kaufbeuren / EV Füssen
DF	Reich	Michael	16.07.2004	EV Landshut / Passau Black Hawks
DF	Hafenrichter	Leo	29.07.2004	EC Bad Nauheim / Kölner Haie
DF	Hübner	Niklas	01.04.2004	ERC Ingolstadt / Ravensburg Tower Stars
DF	Jung	Lukas	11.09.2004	Iserlohn Roosters / Herner EV
FW	Junemann	Edmund	19.05.2004	Düsseldorfer EG / Krefelder Pinguine
FW	Rollinger	Ralf	05.06.2004	Jungadler Mannheim / Heilbronner Falken
FW	Pischoff	Matthias	02.08.2004	Kölner EC / Füchse Duisburg
FW	Nieleck	Lennard	10.03.2004	Iserlohner EC / Herner EV
FW	Krymskiy	Nikita	23.05.2004	Krefelder Pinguine / Krefelder EV 81
FW	Hördler	Eric	10.08.2004	Eisbären Berlin / Lausitzer Füchse
FW	Kechter	Roman	16.02.2004	Nürnberg Ice Tigers
FW	Niewollik	Marco	28.04.2004	Augsburger EV / EC Peiting
FW	Assavolyuk	Daniel	08.06.2004	Red Bull Hockey Juniors
FW	Oswald	Veit	31.08.2004	EHC Red Bull München / SC Riessersee
FW	Gaidel	Rik	07.01.2004	Kölner EC / Füchse Duisburg
FW	Elias	Moritz	10.03.2004	Adler Mannheim / Heilbronner Falken
FW	Schindler	Nicolas	28.12.2004	ERC Ingolstadt / ECDC Memmingen

• Change(s): Lukas Jung has replaced Vincent Grunewald on defense and Nicolas Schindler has replaced Maksim Anton among forwards.

 

[Maverick41]

I added the direct links to the live streams to the post with the schedule. I hope they work.

Apparently the streams are not for free as it was originally listed. I am still debating if I'll get a subscription or not. I am definitely not going to pay 6.90€ for a single game, when I don't even know how good the quality will be.

 

[pgfan66]

@Maverick41 (and anyone else who has an opinion): Curious to hear your thoughts regarding Pischoff and Gaidel. I always liked Pischoff more and he seemed to do better scoring-wise in past years, but now Gaidel is having a big breakout year as one of the top scorers in the DNL while Pischoff’s PPG rate is actually dropping. Any idea why that is? Who did you prefer in the past? Who do you like more now? Where do you see them ending up long-term as pros? Thanks!

 

[Maverick41]

@Maverick41 (and anyone else who has an opinion): Curious to hear your thoughts regarding Pischoff and Gaidel. I always liked Pischoff more and he seemed to do better scoring-wise in past years, but now Gaidel is having a big breakout year as one of the top scorers in the DNL while Pischoff’s PPG rate is actually dropping. Any idea why that is? Who did you prefer in the past? Who do you like more now? Where do you see them ending up long-term as pros? Thanks!

I was always higher on Pischoff, who I noticed more than a year before Gaidel even registered on my radar, but his development curve seems rather flat over the last couple of years. I have not seen him as much recently (I was more focused on the 06s and 07s as I had somewhat given up on the 04s).

I have to go back and watch a few more league games of his to confirm this, but I think he has turned more into an energy guy who's playing with a bit of an edge than a pure scorer.

I mean, I never had Pischoff pegged as one of the top prospects of the 04s, more like a depth guy who would routinely be selected to the junior national teams and be useful in a lesser role.

I thought and still think he will maybe get a few DEL games with very little ice time, as so many young players do these days, but if he makes it as a pro, I always expected he would have to work his way from the Oberliga and DEL2 up to the DEL, but that's a tough road, and right now, I am not expecting him to play a significant number of DEL games. As of now he seems more like a DEL2 player or an Oberliga "star".

As for Gaidel, I don't really know why, but he has completely avoided my attention for the most part of his development. Sure, I was aware of his existence and I watched games he played him, but I never paid special attention to him and he never grabbed my attention with his play. He was usually just there and did not stand out to me.

I don't want to speculate too much about him, because I have not paid enough attention to his game to form a well founded opinion, but it looks like he has found a different level.

Based purely on his stats, comparisons with prospects from the last few years and his recent upward trajectory, my best guess for his pro career would be that he tops out as good DEL2 player who will have a few stints and maybe a couple of full seasons in the DEL.

We have had players score at a high level in the DNL before who then failed to make a real impact at the pro level. I like that Gaidel is already scoring in the Oberliga in the few games he has played so far. That makes me optimistic that he might be able to play at least a significant part of next season in the DEL2 and if he can contribute there he may beat my prediction.

But I will have to catch some more recent games of his to really make an assessment. So take everything I wrote with a big grain of salt. (Hey, I am getting pretty good at this "speaking/writing a lot without saying anything" stuff, maybe I could have a career in politics).
If I get a chance to watch him some more (I should have some games available on VOD) and really focus on him, I may revise this post later.

 

[Maverick41]

Liveticker for the U16 game vs. Austria

Time	Score	Scorer
03:45	1-0	G. Griva (R. Griva, P. Stock)
10:10	2-0	G. Griva (M. Bleicher, D. Lewandowski)
25:22	3-0	M. Ziergiebel (C. Wijacki, M. Bleicher)
29:55	4-0	M. Bleicher (M. Ziergiebel, C. Wijacki)
50:57	5-0	G. Griva (R. Griva, D. Lewandowski - PP2
51:44	6-0	D. Willhöft (F. Kose, T. Kose) - PP1
54:03	6-1	L. Kolarik (K. Hutzinger)
55:31	7-1	A. Bicker (D. Lewandowski, R. Griva)

The U18 team is currently playing abysmal hockey vs. Japan (Livestream can be found here: Statistics | 2023 U18 Vlado Dzurilla Tournament | Germany U18 vs. Japan U18 | HockeySlovakia.sk - Official web of slovak hockey) and on youtube.

It's 0-0 after the first period and credit to the Japanese team for a well played period, but watching this I cannot believe that I once had high hopes for at least some of these players.
Seriously, every time I watch the '05 group they seem to get worse.

After the second period Japan has a 1-0 lead, on a successful penalty shot.
So far, this game easily makes my top 3 of the worst games of hockey I have ever seen. Not a single forward line or D-pairing seems to have any chemistry. They all play without any urgency and the Japanese kids make them look so slow it's painful to watch. For the most part the appear to "control" the game, but Japan has absolutely no problem disrupting the Germans' play and then they are so quick in transition and make our defensemen look all kinds of stupid off the rush.
This has to be the lowest IQ team Germany has assembled at any level in a long time. At least today. Maybe they will get their shit together in the other games, but today they look absolutely clueless out there. There are occasional glimpses from some of the player of what could be, but that's about all the positive I can find so far. Well, maybe the third period gets better. It can't really get any worse.

So, the third period actually was better, a lot better, but still kind of bad. Anyway they managed to tie the game up. Now I am waiting for OT/SO.
Later today or tomorrow I will post a few impressions of specific players, that were notable in some way. I usually like to focus on the positives for these things, because I don't like to write negatively about these kids, and thanks to the third period I have at least some positives stuff to share.

They lost in OT with 14 seconds or something like that to go, after a terrible giveaway by Ruckdäschel I think. More later.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

We lost to Japan? Wow.

 

[Maverick41]

We lost to Japan? Wow.

If you want to check out the "masterpiece" for yourself here you go. Although I feel I should add some disclaimer about health risk before posting this link.

 

[kudla]

If you want to check out the "masterpiece" for yourself here you go. Although I feel I should add some disclaimer about health risk before posting this link.

Oh wow. Yikes. Yeah, for medical reasons, do not watch the OT goal if you are german.

 

[Maverick41]

Oh wow. Yikes. Yeah, for medical reasons, do not watch the OT goal if you are german.

Normally, I would say nobody who is a fan from one of the other nations involved in this tournament should laugh until they have played their own game against Japan, but not in this case.
Laughing is really the only thing you can do, no matter where you are from. For different reasons obviously.

But I am honestly happy for Japan, too. They were so happy, and they worked their asses off to win this game.
I hope they don't get blown out too badly by the teams that can actually play hockey, and maybe even give them a scare.

 

[kudla]

Normally, I would say nobody who is a fan from one of the other nations involved in this tournament should laugh until they have played their own game against Japan, but not in this case.
Laughing is really the only thing you can do, no matter where you are from. For different reasons obviously.

But I am honestly happy for Japan, too. They were so happy, and they worked their asses off to win this game.
I hope they don't get blown out too badly by the teams that can actually play hockey, and maybe even give them a scare.

This win is good for two reasons:
1. This is probably like first ever win for Japan in junior category against a top division team.
2. We have Germany in group for the WC

Just kidding, lets just give it to Japan, I am really happy for them. It is their second tournament in Slovakia in less than a year - first one was the lower division WJC in Piestany and they fought they asses off in every match.

 

[pgfan66]

I was always higher on Pischoff, who I noticed more than a year before Gaidel even registered on my radar, but his development curve seems rather flat over the last couple of years. I have not seen him as much recently (I was more focused on the 06s and 07s as I had somewhat given up on the 04s).

I have to go back and watch a few more league games of his to confirm this, but I think he has turned more into an energy guy who's playing with a bit of an edge than a pure scorer.

I mean, I never had Pischoff pegged as one of the top prospects of the 04s, more like a depth guy who would routinely be selected to the junior national teams and be useful in a lesser role.

I thought and still think he will maybe get a few DEL games with very little ice time, as so many young players do these days, but if he makes it as a pro, I always expected he would have to work his way from the Oberliga and DEL2 up to the DEL, but that's a tough road, and right now, I am not expecting him to play a significant number of DEL games. As of now he seems more like a DEL2 player or an Oberliga "star".

As for Gaidel, I don't really know why, but he has completely avoided my attention for the most part of his development. Sure, I was aware of his existence and I watched games he played him, but I never paid special attention to him and he never grabbed my attention with his play. He was usually just there and did not stand out to me.

I don't want to speculate too much about him, because I have not paid enough attention to his game to form a well founded opinion, but it looks like he has found a different level.

Based purely on his stats, comparisons with prospects from the last few years and his recent upward trajectory, my best guess for his pro career would be that he tops out as good DEL2 player who will have a few stints and maybe a couple of full seasons in the DEL.

We have had players score at a high level in the DNL before who then failed to make a real impact at the pro level. I like that Gaidel is already scoring in the Oberliga in the few games he has played so far. That makes me optimistic that he might be able to play at least a significant part of next season in the DEL2 and if he can contribute there he may beat my prediction.

But I will have to catch some more recent games of his to really make an assessment. So take everything I wrote with a big grain of salt. (Hey, I am getting pretty good at this "speaking/writing a lot without saying anything" stuff, maybe I could have a career in politics).
If I get a chance to watch him some more (I should have some games available on VOD) and really focus on him, I may revise this post later.

Sorry I took so long to respond. Thank you, interesting to hear your thoughts! It's really hard for me to project if a player will be a DEL, DEL2 or Oberliga player. Anyone who's good enough to be in the draft conversation, even just as a seventh-rounder, or who plays in the CHL or NCAA, is usually good enough for the DEL. But with guys like Pischoff and Gaidel I have no idea. I always thought Pischoff was quite smart around the net while Gaidel was a very one-dimensional north-south player. I still think that holds true, but Pischoff's skillset really hasn't come along the way that Gaidel's has.

That said, I never would've thought guys like Julian Chrobot or Luis Üffing would be DELers and yet they are. (Although we'll have to see if it stays that way once they don't count as U23 anymore...)

One small thing to point out: It may appear like Gaidel "is already scoring in the Oberliga", but in reality he scored 4 points in his first game and that was it. No idea how he did it and why he didn't at least add another in the games that followed, but it seems like him and Pischoff were pretty much on par after that first game. Haven't been able to see any Oberliga games though.

 

[Maverick41]

Ok, about the loss of the U18 team to Japan let's begin with what may sound like an excuse, but I just want to add this for context, because I was not aware of this when I watched the game and commented yesterday.

On the way to Poprad the team bus of the Germans was involved in a minor collision which lead to a long delay and that meant that they had to do without the scheduled training session that evening. That might explain why there was almost no chemistry.

But as far as the game is concerned I'll just focus on some of the more noteworthy players. If anybody wants to know what I thought of a specific player, just let me know.

Let's start with the only 3 players I would consider having an ok game, which by comparison made them look downright spectacular. I'll rank them as the "3 Stars of the Game".

3rd Star: Paul Mayer
Really the only defender who made almost no major mistakes. It was far from a perfect game, but he broke up a few Japanese rushes with good stick checks or by rubbing an opponent out against the boards. His transition game and overall offensive impact was kind of meh, but he did well keeping the play alive in the offensive zone by poking the puck to Vinzens, on the game tying goal.

2nd Star: Paul Vinzens
Really the only forward that showed any life before the third period. He was pretty much as bad as everyone else in the 1st period, but then started to get going once he figured out it was probably better not to share the puck too much with his linemates. Several time he skated the puck into the offensive zone all by himself stickhandling through several defenders, before he started to look to set up his teammates or get a chance for himself. On the only goal he was also heavily involved. Along with Tschwanow he won the puck in the offensive zone, then when Mayer poked the puck to Vinzens he spun around and shot the puck towards the net, where Tschwanow deflected the puck into the net.

1st Star: Nico Pertuch
With all due respect to Japan, but your goalie should not be your best player in a loss to that team.
I'll keep this short, on the first goal I cannot fault him too much. That was a beautifully executed penalty shot by the Japanese forward. The second goal against was the result of an egregiously bad turnover and overall terrible coverage in the dzone by the entire team. Other than that he did not face that many shots, but several of them were high danger scoring chances and he made some really good stops on those.


- Other notables good and bad (well, mostly bad or disappointing) -

Defense:
The only defenders that did not look horrible aside from Mayer were Edwin Tropmann (though I expected much more from him) and Norwin Panocha.

Lua Niehus had some good moments, but he also made some incredibly bad decisions that led to turnovers and great chances for Japan. Lars Bosecker had a couple bad plays as well. One that stood out was him getting beat in a footrace by a Japanese player, who was able to negate an icing call, although Bosecker had a huge head start. He stabelized his play a bit in the third, but was still pretty bad overall, compared to my expectations.

I did not really notice Jonas Burghard much (I guess that's a good thing in this game), which finally brings me to the worst pairing of Jonas Müller and Henry Homann. I don't know if I can really assess them individually, because they were really struggling to play together and did several times go after the same, usually puck carrying, forward leaving others wide open, not that they got much help from their own forwards.
I can remember one of them, I want to say it was Homann, but I am not entirely sure, executing a good pinch along the boards, keeping the play alive, but then the forward could not hold on to the puck and the guy who should have covered for the defenseman did not exactly do that, which ultimately resulted in a scoring chance for Japan.

Forwards:
For the first two periods almost everybody not named Vinzens sucked or was completely invisible.

Kevin Bicker and Linus Brandl are supposed to be the top forwards in this group but for two periods they were so bad it was pure comedy. In the third period it seemed like they suddenly realised "hey, aren't we supposed to be good at this hockey thing". They started to show some of the skill and speed I had seen from them before. They seem to be doing better against opponents who control the game and they get chances on the counter attack off the rush. Here they really struggled and they did not have good chemistry with their linemate.

That linemate was Marco Münzenberger, who was maybe the second best forward, but that is a very low bar. He showed some flashes here and there and was one of the few players out there who seemed to know where he was supposed to be, but he had real trouble keeping up with the speed of the play at times, not mentally, but physically. There were a few time where you could see that he knew what he had to do and where he had to go, but he just could not get there in time and execute that play. He was also one of the few who looked like he gave a shit.

Julius Sumpf was invisible for two periods (good for him I guess) but, like others, he showed some life in the third and at least tried to get his line going. It did not really work, but he had a couple of good rushes through the neutral zone. I guess that's a positive.

Timo Ruckdäschel was a pretty big disappointment in this game. Luckily I know he can be so much better, especially defensively. Obviously his mindboggling turnover in the dying seconds of OT stands out, but he had some other head scratchers as well, and on top of that he and his entire line failed to generate anything resembling offense.
Jakovlev was completely invisible and Schreiner had a few plays that you could file under "nice try", but nothing more.

I hope they can rebound from this and show better against Switzerland and Slovakia.

 

[Maverick41]

Sorry I took so long to respond. Thank you, interesting to hear your thoughts! It's really hard for me to project if a player will be a DEL, DEL2 or Oberliga player. Anyone who's good enough to be in the draft conversation, even just as a seventh-rounder, or who plays in the CHL or NCAA, is usually good enough for the DEL. But with guys like Pischoff and Gaidel I have no idea. I always thought Pischoff was quite smart around the net while Gaidel was a very one-dimensional north-south player. I still think that holds true, but Pischoff's skillset really hasn't come along the way that Gaidel's has.

That said, I never would've thought guys like Julian Chrobot or Luis Üffing would be DELers and yet they are. (Although we'll have to see if it stays that way once they don't count as U23 anymore...)

One small thing to point out: It may appear like Gaidel "is already scoring in the Oberliga", but in reality he scored 4 points in his first game and that was it. No idea how he did it and why he didn't at least add another in the games that followed, but it seems like him and Pischoff were pretty much on par after that first game. Haven't been able to see any Oberliga games though.

That is a very good point abouth Chrobot and Üffing, but as you say we will have to wait and see if they manage to stick around like say Eder, Soramies or Stachowiak, or if they end up in the lower leagues like Sternheimer, who looked very promising at some point as a U23 player.

Also thanks for pointing out the fact about Gaidel's production. It seems that he initially got to play on one of the top lines, like when he scored all those points in the first game, but a few games later he was demoted to the bottom six, where he had less success. Although I am not entirely sure if is opportunities in terms of ice time really decreased, because that information about 1st line, 2nd line and so on, is not exactly reliable, and they don't track ice time in the Oberliga.

Honestly, my guesses/projections are still a work in progress (I am wrong more often than I am right). I am still trying to figure out what to look for in these players that will let them succeed at the different pro levels.

 

[Maverick41]

Schedules and scores for the current tournaments (copy from the previous page):

U19:

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2	Location	Score	Stream
07.02.2023	18:00	Sweden	vs	Germany	Catena Arena	8-2 L	Link
08.02.2023	14:00	Germany	vs	Finland	Catena Arena	1-6 L	Link
09.02.2023	14:00	Germany	vs	Switzerland	Catena Arena	0-3 L	Link
10.02.2023	14:00	Czechia	vs	Germany	Catena Arena	1-5 L	Link

U18:

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2	Location	Score	Stream
09.02.2023	18:00	Germany	vs	Japan	Trainingshalle Poprad	1-2 OTL	Link
10.02.2023	12:30	Switzerland	vs	Germany	Trainingshalle Poprad	3-0 L	Link
11.02.2023	14:30	Slovakia	vs	Germany	Hockey Arena Poprad		Link

U17:

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2	Location	Score	Stream
09.02.2023	18:15	Germany Group 1	vs	Slovakia	Festung an der Trat	4-5 OTL	Link
10.02.2023	15:00	Slovakia	vs	Germany Group 2	Festung an der Trat	1-0 OTL	Link
11.02.2023	11:00	Germany Group 2	vs	Slovakia	Festung an der Trat		Link

U16:

Date	Time	Team 1		Team 2	Location	Score
09.02.2023	16:30	Germany	vs	Austria	Idda Arena	7-1 W
10.02.2023	20:00	Norway	vs	Germany	Idda Arena
11.02.2023	13:00	Germany	vs	France	Idda Arena

The games of U19, U18 and U17 will be streamed for 6.90€ per game on Eishockey Deutschland Livestreams und Daten | DEB LIVE

 

[PanniniClaus]

Since some of you follow the German Junior extremely closely, I would like to ask Tobias Abstreiter why he would line a winger up on the wall for d zone draws?... I can't find him on facebook or twitter... I am interested in this as most teams in the world of hockey these days line up with a D on the wall... (The only other place you regularly see it is the EA sports NHL series)

Would be interested to hear his take on this... Not sure if there is any medium out there to get in touch with him.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Since some of you follow the German Junior extremely closely, I would like to ask Tobias Abstreiter why he would line a winger up on the wall for d zone draws?... I can't find him on facebook or twitter... I am interested in this as most teams in the world of hockey these days line up with a D on the wall... (The only other place you regularly see it is the EA sports NHL series)

Would be interested to hear his take on this... Not sure if there is any medium out there to get in touch with him.

There's certainly no medium I know of by which you can contact a national team coach to chat about that coach's tactics.

Having read through your post, I'm not really understanding what you're getting at. Usually a defensive draw will see one Dman positioned somewhat behind the center while the other Dman is located in the slot to directly pick up one of the opposing team's forwards. The Dmen are almost never along the boards in the defensive zone.

Whether a forward is then along the boards or the team decides to have both forwards in the slot to rush out to the Dmen directly is a team-by-team, coach-by-coach choice, maybe dependent on which of the offensive team's forwards might be located along the boards during such a faceoff.

 

[PanniniClaus]

There's certainly no medium I know of by which you can contact a national team coach to chat about that coach's tactics.

Having read through your post, I'm not really understanding what you're getting at. Usually a defensive draw will see one Dman positioned somewhat behind the center while the other Dman is located in the slot to directly pick up one of the opposing team's forwards. The Dmen are almost never along the boards in the defensive zone.

Whether a forward is then along the boards or the team decides to have both forwards in the slot to rush out to the Dmen directly is a team-by-team, coach-by-coach choice, maybe dependent on which of the offensive team's forwards might be located along the boards during such a faceoff.

Perhaps that's a DEL thing. Watch any NHL game on any given night (or most high level hockey in Canada, period) there is a D on the wall. What they run after that varies from team to team and night to night

Abstreiter is the only coach at the U20's to put a winger on the wall and I was interested in understanding why..

 

[pgfan66]

Perhaps that's a DEL thing. Watch any NHL game on any given night (or most high level hockey in Canada, period) there is a D on the wall. What they run after that varies from team to team and night to night

Abstreiter is the only coach at the U20's to put a winger on the wall and I was interested in understanding why..

Can confirm. Haven’t noticed this with Germany U20, but in NA it’s certainly normal to have a D at the wall defending the outside forward who’ll usually move down low or straight to the net off the draw.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Perhaps that's a DEL thing. Watch any NHL game on any given night (or most high level hockey in Canada, period) there is a D on the wall. What they run after that varies from team to team and night to night

Abstreiter is the only coach at the U20's to put a winger on the wall and I was interested in understanding why..

Can confirm. Haven’t noticed this with Germany U20, but in NA it’s certainly normal to have a D at the wall defending the outside forward who’ll usually move down low or straight to the net off the draw.

Ok, interesting. Thanks, guys.

I'll have to watch more closely to get a read on that.

That kind of thing will involve a bit of a foot race between the Dman and opposition winger if the defensive center wins the draw by pulling the puck back into his own corner/goal line, but sure, before a winger just stands there completely alone.

Dunno what Abstreiter's reasoning was, but maybe it had something to do with thinking the respective winger would make it more quickly to the opposition Dman along the boards? Just guessing.

For the teams I coach, we just leave that guy open and plant the Dman behind our center so that he can quickly jump on the puck and start moving with it, usually behind his own net...

 

[PanniniClaus]

Ok, interesting. Thanks, guys.

I'll have to watch more closely to get a read on that.

That kind of thing will involve a bit of a foot race between the Dman and opposition winger if the defensive center wins the draw by pulling the puck back into his own corner/goal line, but sure, before a winger just stands there completely alone.

Dunno what Abstreiter's reasoning was, but maybe it had something to do with thinking the respective winger would make it more quickly to the opposition Dman along the boards? Just guessing.

For the teams I coach, we just leave that guy open and plant the Dman behind our center so that he can quickly jump on the puck and start moving with it, usually behind his own net...

Yep - there is a pro and con to every alignment. We put a d directly behind for PK faceoffs for a quick out. We still keep a D on the wall however even 5 on 4..This is for 50 50 pucks where we can battle for possession or tap a puck back to the d for that quick out.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Perhaps that's a DEL thing. Watch any NHL game on any given night (or most high level hockey in Canada, period) there is a D on the wall. What they run after that varies from team to team and night to night

Abstreiter is the only coach at the U20's to put a winger on the wall and I was interested in understanding why..

Can confirm. Haven’t noticed this with Germany U20, but in NA it’s certainly normal to have a D at the wall defending the outside forward who’ll usually move down low or straight to the net off the draw.

Yep - there is a pro and con to every alignment. We put a d directly behind for PK faceoffs for a quick out. We still keep a D on the wall however even 5 on 4..This is for 50 50 pucks where we can battle for possession or tap a puck back to the d for that quick out.

Just noticed this at the end of the NYI-BUF game...

It jumped out at me in light of our chat here.

Buffalo had pulled their goalie in the waning moments of the game. The faceoff was in the Islanders' zone.

This is how they lined up.

Interesting!

 

[PanniniClaus]

Just noticed this at the end of the NYI-BUF game...

It jumped out at me in light of our chat here.

Buffalo had pulled their goalie in the waning moments of the game. The faceoff was in the Islanders' zone.

This is how they lined up.

View attachment 665279

Interesting!

That is interesting ... I'd have my d on the wall but unless it is a kill i normally wouldn't put the d right behind... They may have had a plan though to win it and have everyone lock up. High lob out of the zone.. I find faceoffs fascinating...