Germany’s young hope
JJ Peterka (right) from the Buffalo Sabers is supposed to wear Germany at the World Cup
What: AP
Germany starts in the Ice Hockey World Championship. A beacon of hope and the biggest climber is a 21-year-old. JJ Peterka joins the national team despite a long NHL season. It’s a matter of honor, he says.
Es was just a point away from the Buffalo Sabers making the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs. For John-Jason Peterka it would have been the culmination of a strong season in the best ice hockey league in the world. But despite the failure, the 21-year-old left a lasting impression in his first season.
The sorrow of the Sabers is the joy of the national coach. Because Peterka has promised Harold Kreis his participation in the World Cup, which begins for the Germans next Friday with the game against Sweden. The young NHL pro is the forward hope for the tournament in Finland and Latvia, where reaching the quarterfinals is likely to be more difficult than in previous years.
“I can be proud of myself. But I also had bad phases in the season. There were ups and downs, but all in all I’m satisfied,” says Peterka in an interview with WELT AM SONNTAG. Alongside Niko Sturm from the San Jose Sharks, the winger is the only NHL professional on the German team who still has the World Championship to go after an exhausting season with 82 games in the main round.
Forward Lukas Reichel from the Chicago Blackhawks and Tim Stützle from the Ottawa Senator as well as top defender Moritz Seider from the Detroit Red Wings have withdrawn from the tournament, which will be played in Tampere and Riga. Germany’s best ice hockey player, Leon Draisaitl, is fighting for the Stanley Cup with his Edmonton Oilers, as is goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer with the Seattle Kraken. It is extremely unlikely that they will travel to the World Cup if they are eliminated in the NHL play-off.
32 scorer points in 79 games
So a lot of the offensive load will rest on Peterka’s shoulders. The native of Munich proved last season that he has what it takes. In 79 games he scored 12 goals and provided 20 assists – with 32 points he ended up in the top ten of the best newcomers in the league. “I’ve always had fun with the national team and it’s a great honor to play for the team. That’s why it was clear that there was no question that I would go to the World Cup. Also because I feel good physically,” says Peterka.
If the national team under Toni Söderholm had blossomed into a permanent fixture in world ice hockey, it will not be easy to confirm this in Tampere this year. At the past three World Cups, the team has always reached at least the quarter-finals, and in 2021 Germany just missed out on the first World Cup medal since 1953 with fourth place. Söderholm shocked the German Ice Hockey Federation when he quit as national coach last November and signed a probably more lucrative contract with the Swiss top club SC Bern. The Finn, who will train the German champions Munich in the coming season, failed there.
Söderholm’s successor Kreis has had a difficult start with the national team. The 64-year-old, who has also been on the gang at the Schwenniger Wild Wings in the German ice hockey league in recent months, has to cope with more than a dozen cancellations. In addition to the NHL pros mentioned, Kreis is missing established national players such as defense chief Korbinian Holzer, the Sweden pros Tobias Rieder and Tom Kühnhackl as well as Munich’s master captain Patrick Hager and Mannheim’s top striker Matthias Plachta. On the day of departure for the World Cup this Wednesday, the number of cancellations rose again, to a total of 15. Striker Andreas Eder from German champions EHC Red Bull Munich had to sit out with a lower body injury and was unable to take the flight to Finland. Kreis nominated former AHL attacker Manuel Wiederer. The striker had surprisingly missed the play-offs in the German Ice Hockey League with the Eisbären Berlin and is now expected in Tampere on Thursday.
Nine players in the squad are under 25
In addition, Kreis has only had its entire squad together since last Wednesday. Like Peterka, the players from Munich and final opponents Ingolstadt joined the team late. “We are now looking forward to the players, most of whom have been with their clubs for a long time and who are now coming to us with great motivation. Together we want to take the next development steps with regard to the upcoming World Cup,” says Kreis.
National coach Harold Kreis
Source: dpa/Sven Hoppe
Kreis is forced to bet on youth. Nine players in the squad are under the age of 25, for many of them, such as Maksymilian Szuber, Filip Varejka or Justin Schütz, it is the first World Cup. “I’m looking forward to Varejka and Schütz the most. We always had a good time together in Salzburg and Munich. We will also have that at the World Cup,” says Peterka.
His team-mates will have to prove their international class in the group stage against Sweden, Finland, USA, Austria, France, Hungary and Denmark, who are likely to be their main rivals for fourth place in the group. Peterka did enough of that in Buffalo last season.
