SYou don’t really like hearing that in the Rhineland. But if you take a closer look, the Kölner Haie and the Düsseldorfer EG resemble each other far more than they would like. This happened again at the weekend. On Friday, DEG captain Alexander Barta stood glassy-eyed at Magentasport’s TV microphone and had to explain his team’s play-off end. That was the case for Haie captain Moritz Müller on Sunday. He also had red eyes, he also commented on the end of the season.
And they sounded similar too: “We played a great series,” said Barta. “We had a good thing going this year,” said Müller. Although the end was bitter, they could be satisfied with the season in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), after some meager previous years, a place in the upper midfield and the leap into the quarterfinals were progress.
Some dramatic defeats
And yet both clubs felt that more could have been done. Which must also be the claim when you have eight championships on your letterhead. If you’ve been waiting for the ninth for more than two decades, but you’re still one of the greats of German ice hockey.
But club names don’t score goals. That’s what players do, and the best only occasionally earn their money on the Rhine. So Düsseldorf lost out in the quarter-finals against Ingolstadt with a 4-1 win, while Cologne lost 4-2 against Mannheim. Because they – another parallel – sometimes lost their games dramatically. On Friday they led by three goals each before conceding crucial goals in the final seconds.
What sets the old rivals apart: their approach. The DEG tends to rely on young players who were trained in Germany. A whole dozen under-25s were in the squad. The KEC, on the other hand, featured 14 experienced men who learned to skate in North America. But that went down well with the audience: 14,286 fans greeted the sharks on average. Record.
“The KEC is back”
The quarter-final series over six games against Mannheim was also the best attended in DEL history with 92,430 spectators. And like in the main round, they were offered offensive and physical ice hockey. “The KEC is back,” said managing director Philipp Walter on Sunday, after hard Corona years with existential fears, the sharks had recently “turned quite well in many places”.
In Düsseldorf they had to fight more to fill the hall again. 7622 visitors still mean the fourth best average in the league. However, with different ice hockey than Cologne, less body play, but a lot of structure and speed. And with an outstanding Henrik Haukeland in goal, the Norwegian was voted DEL goalkeeper of the year.
The Cologne team also had an exceptional player: Nick Bailen was honored as the best defender. Because he scored 20 goals and prepared another 30. Also because of Haukeland and Bailen the championship was sung in the grandstands. Which was meant in a tongue-in-cheek way, but slowly a title could return to the region that had dominated German ice hockey in large parts of the 1980s and 1990s.
“We have to get quality”
In Cologne they talk about it openly. Everything is bigger there than in Düsseldorf: city, hall, average attendance, budget, demands. “We have formulated a goal, we want to be German champions,” confirmed Managing Director Walter, but called it “a long-term goal”. The people of Düsseldorf are not that bold. Although they were traded as secret favorites at the beginning of the year because they were the team with the most points in the league at times, their elimination in the quarter-finals is aptly reflecting their level.
Which is why captain Alexander Barta now demanded: “We have to get quality.” But not only his strike partner Philip Gogulla knows: “A certain quality costs money. If your budget isn’t the highest, you won’t get the best players.” Nevertheless, he hopes “that we’ll take the next step and find a solution in Düsseldorf.”
That will depend above all on Managing Director Harald Wirtz. He has to convince Düsseldorf’s economy, which is traditionally not exactly sports-savvy, to put money into their ice hockey club. Only then can DEG achieve its goal of “establishing itself in the top six over the next few years”. Wirtz sees his club on the right track: “I’m very happy with this season and I’m looking forward to the next one. I hope that we can take the next step again.” It will be necessary to keep the audience happy. That applies in Düsseldorf as well as in Cologne.