By Boris Rousson
bo@prohockey.de

Hamburg, Germany - We are now one month into the season, and a few things are clear already in the DEL: There are a lot of very good new players, and the league is balanced like never before. After a very sluggish start in Köln, we have played better every game, and are now sitting in 5th place, amongst the leading group in the league. Today, I want to share with you what caught my attention the most so far:

Balance

More than ever before, any team can beat any team, anywhere, anytime. Home ice advantage does not mean as much as it did the years before. Because of the way most teams play defensively, it is more important now to score the first goal than to play at home. We have not been great in that category, only scoring the first goal twice in seven games. But we managed to come back and win two of the games in which we allowed the first goal, and that is a good sign that we can overcome a little adversity in a game. Special teams are also a big part of a team’s success, for example Nürnberg and Mannheim with their deadly power-plays.

Top of the class

Ingolstadt and Mannheim were the most impressive teams I have seen so far, but we have only played seven games... We will play Nürnberg this weekend, and they sure have put up some impressive numbers as well. But the defensive-first (last season anyway!) Ingolstadt have added three key players in Sturm, McDonald and Armstrong. They beat us 2-0 in Hamburg on a lucky deflected goal late in the game, but they did not show too many weaknesses. Mannheim also added some impact players like Steve Kelly (who was the best player on the ice last Sunday when they beat us in Mannheim), Andy Delmore and Cristobal Huet in goal. Another team with very few weak spots. Köln is strong and steady as usual. In the next couple of weeks, we should have a better idea of where we fit in, but I think we should be in the top third of the league once again.

New Freezer

We finally found a replacement for Mark Greig, who was let go after training camp. Jim Dowd comes from the Montreal Canadiens to play for us. I remember playing against him in the minor leagues before I came to Europe a few years ago ( I don’t want to say the actual number, it would make my hair turn even more gray...). He is a very smart player, very good passer (a perfect fit for Houser I think) and plays good defensively. Plus he gained some valuable experience in the last few years in Minnesota, even acting as captain for some time. A good addition that will give us a third scoring line, and hopefully improve also our power-play.

First coaching casualty

This season again, a team has fired their coach early in the season. Michael Komma from DEG has earned this dubious award this year, after their disappointing September. We played them last Friday in Hamburg, and jumped on them early, leading 2-0 after 6 minutes only. They never really reacted to it, showing only a little spark and we finally won 3-0. They were a little undisciplined, and had our power play had a little more bite, we could have put that game away in the second period. In any case, the season is still young and they are not far behind, they should be back into playoff contention soon. A coaching change often gives an impulse to a team.

Upcoming games

We have a “Bayern” weekend, as we travel to Augsburg on Friday, before hosting Nürnberg in Color Line Arena on Sunday. Augsburg is in last place at the moment, but they will be looking to get their second win of the season. Their new goalie Jean-Francois Labbé is for sure one of the most exciting newcomers in the league, a goalie who can steal a game on his own. And Nürnberg also comes into Hamburg with a lot of new faces, most notably league-leading scorer Pascal Trépanier, who quarterbacks the most lethal power-play in the league with 15 goals already (we only have 4, just to compare)...