26th edition with the premiere in Augsburg / Germany with four titles
The Deutschland Cup has a new home. The traditional tournament is taking place for the 26th time this year, for the first time in the Curt Frenzel Stadium in Augsburg. The next three editions of the tournament will now take place in Swabia, after having previously been a guest in Munich since 2009.
The history of the cup began in 1987: Stuttgart was the first home of the Deutschland Cups, eight of the first nine events took place there in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle (1993 and 1994 together with Neu-Ulm and Pforzheim, 1993 also with Bietigheim), only in 1991 did the event have to be moved to Frankfurt due to problems with the ice facility.
As the Deutschland Cup When it was held for the first time in Stuttgart in 1987, the world was a completely different place. Germany was still divided and Czechoslovakia, which also won the first edition of the new competition, took part in the three-way tournament alongside Poland - long before the “Iron Curtain” fell and the two countries separated.
"A tournament would do German ice hockey good," said the national coach at the time, Xaver Unsinn, referring to the traditional tournaments abroad at the turn of the year, such as the Izvestia Cup. And so the first two editions took place in December in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart. The response was great, and the game between Czechoslovakia and Germany was even sold out. Nevertheless, improvisation was still necessary: the game was played on the artificial ice of the ice show "Holiday on Ice," and the boards were borrowed from the World Cup organizer Austria.
There were also strange things at the second edition: Before the last day, the ice rink broke down due to a defective pump. A replacement had to be found and a game had to be postponed. The second game of the day was therefore played at short notice in the Waldau ice rink in Stuttgart. The Swiss national coach Simon Schenk also caused a stir when he took his goalie off the ice shortly before the end of the game against Germany when the score was 7:7 and promptly had to accept the 7:8. The press later quoted him as saying, "We're not playing here for statistics, we're playing for prize money." And that was impressive: in 1990 (there was no tournament in 1989 due to scheduling reasons), 250.000 marks in prize money were made available and the field of participants, with guests from Finland, Sweden and Czechoslovakia, was truly impressive.
In 1997 they changed Deutschland Cup then to Munich and Füssen after the number of spectators in Stuttgart had declined. Then the search for a suitable venue was initially unsuccessful and so it wasn't until 2000 that a new edition took place in Hanover in what was then the new arena in the run-up to the 2001 home World Cup. Until 2007, the tournament was held eight times in a row in Hanover, and in 2004 and 2005 with “outside games” in Kreuzlingen (Switzerland) and Hamburg as well as Zurich and Mannheim. Before the Cup found its new home in Munich in 2009, the longest after Stuttgart, the Mannheim/Frankfurt duo played an interlude in 2008. The tournament was last played three times in a row in the Olympic Ice Hall in Munich's Olympic Park. Before that, the tournament was played in the larger Olympic Hall.
After the last event, the contract between Olympiapark GmbH and the DEB and both sides were unable to agree on an extension for financial reasons. So they moved a little further west to Augsburg. “We see the award as a reward for the hard work that we have been investing in the Augsburg ice hockey location for many years. With the Curt Frenzel Stadium, we also have a very special and completely modernized ice rink that fits this tournament perfectly,” says Lothar Sigl, main shareholder Augsburger Panther, who described his emotional state after winning the contract as “very proud”.
“With its great audience, the new Curt Frenzel Stadium with perfect infrastructure and the long-standing, great performance of the Panthers and the AEV for the sport of ice hockey, Augsburg offers the best conditions for the internationally renowned Deutschland Cup", like that DEB-President Franz Reindl. "The Deutschland Cup “It is an important tournament for us in many ways – economically, sportingly and also because the German ice hockey family traditionally meets there.”
Since 2008, four teams have always taken part in the tournament: Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, Canada and the USA, alternating between them.
The USA, which is replacing Canada again this year, secured its third tournament victory in total during its last participation in 2013 and impressed with a strong, incredibly fast selection of players from the top European leagues.
Switzerland only parted ways with national coach Glen Hanlon in October. Interim coach Felix Hollenstein is not available for family reasons. The team will be looked after at the Cup by previous assistant John Fust. Last year Switzerland came second. The last tournament victory was eight years ago (2007).
The performances of the three-time winner Slovakia are varied. Although they secured victory in the tournament in 2012, they have finished last in five of the last eight years. Last year they came third. With Zdeno Ciger, the Slovaks have a new coach on their team. But Slovak ice hockey is being rocked by a power struggle. Several players are refusing to play in the national team under association president Igor Nemecek, who was re-elected in the summer.
Record participant Deutschland Cup is of course that DEB-Selection that took part in all years. Switzerland and Canada took part 19 and 17 times respectively. Other participants were Slovakia (16), USA (8), Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic (7), Finland (4), Sweden (4), USSR/Russia (4), Japan (2), Poland (2), Denmark (1), Latvia (1), Italy (1). A DEL All Star team also took part once on the occasion of the DEL's founding in 1994.
The record winner is Germany with six titles (most recently in 2014), ahead of Canada and USSR/Russia (4 each). USSR/Russia is also the only country to have won three times in a row (1991 to 1993).
Michael Wolf is the record player. The attacker from Munich took part ten times. However, there will be no further participation because after the 2015 World Cup, Wolf ended his career in the national jersey. Tobias Welck