Germany to the finals!

TheMoreYouKnow

Registered User
May 3, 2007
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Hockey in Germany is fighting with basketball and handball for that 2nd spot as team sports go..but all of them are like a million miles behind soccer. You can go through life in Germany just fine without ever paying attention to hockey, basketball or handball but soccer will infiltrate your life whether you like it or not.

The real problem of hockey in Germany though isn't lack of interest in terms of watching the games, it's lack of players and infrastructure to support players. There aren't many rinks, there aren't that many teams and yes there aren't that many parents sending their kids to those teams.
 

Frannel

Registered User
Dec 27, 2017
163
54
Berlin
Hockey in Germany is fighting with basketball and handball for that 2nd spot as team sports go..but all of them are like a million miles behind soccer. You can go through life in Germany just fine without ever paying attention to hockey, basketball or handball but soccer will infiltrate your life whether you like it or not.

The real problem of hockey in Germany though isn't lack of interest in terms of watching the games, it's lack of players and infrastructure to support players. There aren't many rinks, there aren't that many teams and yes there aren't that many parents sending their kids to those teams.

To the heart of it!
 
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Bure80

Registered User
Jun 27, 2011
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Hockey in Germany is fighting with basketball and handball for that 2nd spot as team sports go..but all of them are like a million miles behind soccer. You can go through life in Germany just fine without ever paying attention to hockey, basketball or handball but soccer will infiltrate your life whether you like it or not.

The real problem of hockey in Germany though isn't lack of interest in terms of watching the games, it's lack of players and infrastructure to support players. There aren't many rinks, there aren't that many teams and yes there aren't that many parents sending their kids to those teams.

You are right. My mother watched some parts of the game vs. Canada. The commentator called for mothers to send their children to hockey Clubs.
My mother told me I saw the teeth of those guys, would never send my children there. Think thats typically for hockey in Germany, beside some parts of Bavaria. Parents rather let their children do other sports.
 
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Frannel

Registered User
Dec 27, 2017
163
54
Berlin
You are right. My mother watched some parts of the game vs. Canada. The commentator called for mothers to send their children to hockey Clubs.
My mother told me I saw the teeth of those guys, would never send my children there. Think thats typically for hockey in Germany, beside some parts of Bavaria. Parents rather let their children do other sports.

This one right here is a proud mini-hockey-player mum! He started this year and loves the sport. If he sticks with it - perfect. If he doesn't: I can't make him!
 

adsfan

#164303
May 31, 2008
12,683
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Milwaukee
Congrats to Germany and their fans! I never would have picked them to play in the Gold Medal game. Good luck!

I expected Russia and Canada to be in the medals, along with Sweden.
 
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IamNotADancer

Registered User
Feb 16, 2017
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I can't be the only one getting a kick out of certain media outlets and casual fans calling this "bigger than the Miracle on Ice"....

I'm just trying to figure out who the equivalent of Tretiak on this Canadian team is.
Vladislav Scrivens has a good ring to it!
 

hage

Registered User
Mar 9, 2011
106
7
EA and Amazon are allready benefitting from Team Germany's success. Sales of NHL 18 on Xbox One went up by 680% on the day of the semifinal :laugh:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWx5oH7WAAAEqVI.jpg
DWx5oH7WAAAEqVI.jpg
 
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Firsov99

Registered User
Feb 17, 2006
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Big kudos to the German team for making this far in the tournament. This gritty team will certainly put Russia to the test. But I am still wondering why Germany hasn't produced a lot of NHL-caliber players. It's a very rich country with a tremendous history of success in different sporting disciplines, but hockey development has hit a plateau.
 

IamNotADancer

Registered User
Feb 16, 2017
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Big kudos to the German team for making this far in the tournament. This gritty team will certainly put Russia to the test. But I am still wondering why Germany hasn't produced a lot of NHL-caliber players. It's a very rich country with a tremendous history of success in different sporting disciplines, but hockey development has hit a plateau.

Youth development is atrocious. Young players who are dead serious on making it into the NHL have to uproot their life and move to Canada or the States. Germany is a bandwagon nation that only supports successful teams/people and so if there isn't anything to cheer for, nobody cares. Nobody cares = nobody wants to watch it on TV, nobody wants to watch it on TV mean less TV money = less TV revenue. Less TV exposure, less sponsors, less sponsors = less money overall.

Sure, I'm exaggerating a bit when I say "nobody cares" , but in simplistic terms this is the problem. When you are competing with a sport like Handball and a pastime like Darts, you know you aren't exactly laid on a bed of roses.
 

Firsov99

Registered User
Feb 17, 2006
4,753
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Youth development is atrocious. Young players who are dead serious on making it into the NHL have to uproot their life and move to Canada or the States. Germany is a bandwagon nation that only supports successful teams/people and so if there isn't anything to cheer for, nobody cares. Nobody cares = nobody wants to watch it on TV, nobody wants to watch it on TV mean less TV money = less TV revenue. Less TV exposure, less sponsors, less sponsors = less money overall.

Sure, I'm exaggerating a bit when I say "nobody cares" , but in simplistic terms this is the problem. When you are competing with a sport like Handball and a pastime like Darts, you know you aren't exactly laid on a bed of roses.

It's kind of sad. I think that Germany could have become a hockey powerhouse if it wanted to.
 

IamNotADancer

Registered User
Feb 16, 2017
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It's kind of sad. I think that Germany could have become a hockey powerhouse if it wanted to.

Absolutely agree. I've said it somewhere else on the board, if Germany figured out a way to pump in some serious money into youth development AND coaching clinics they would easily rival Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic, I have no doubt about that. But on a broader basis the problem here is soccer's popularity. It has a stranglehold on pretty much every other sport in the country, so much so that every other sport is a fringe sport.
 

Sher-Wood

Registered User
May 12, 2003
413
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Sweden
Underdog? Then you must support Russia! ;) ;) ;)!
Let's not go over our heads here.;) But I'm impressed by the German team, and as Germany is one of my favorite countries outside Sweden I'm also happy for them. Hope they can build on this for the future.
 

Albatros

Registered User
Aug 19, 2017
12,477
7,908
Ostsee
Bitter to lose a game that was theirs to win, but then already that's more than anyone could expect or even really believe in. Hopefully there will be another chance some day, maybe after that experience it won't be decided by poor discipline. A great tournament and a fantastic silver regardless.
 

Atas2000

Registered User
Jan 18, 2011
13,601
3,269
Congrats, Germany and Marco Sturm! This was a good team there. If Sturm gets Drai for the WHC watch out.
 

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