National coach Marco Sturm has changed his squad before today's game against Slovakia
With new formations on the offensive, the German national ice hockey team wants to achieve its first victory of the World Cup tournament today (from 15 p.m., live on SPORT1) at the IIHF 2016 Ice Hockey World Championship against Slovakia. National coach Marco Sturm is relying on new attack lines, which he tested for the first time in yesterday's training.
Accordingly, Leon Draisaitl will not only play with new teammates. The center trained with Marcel Noebels and Brooks Macek. Patrick Hager also joined Philip Gogulla and Felix Schütz. Dominik Kahun, who scored a point in his World Cup debut in the 1:5 loss against Finland, will play attack with Patrick Reimer and Tobias Rieder. Sturm hopes that the changes will provide new impetus.
"Above all, we have to be ready from the start," said Christian Ehrhoff, regardless of the changed formations. After all, the Chicago Blackhawks defender is expecting a strong opponent: "The Slovakians are a team with good running and technical skills. We've seen that in the tournament so far."
The defender is referring to the opponent's two previous successes. Slovakia managed a 4-1 win against Hungary, followed later by a 5-1 win against France. With a clean slate and two wins, the Slovaks are currently in third place in the table. However, Ehrhoff doesn’t want to know anything about a “final.” “It remains the case that we look from game to game. A lot can happen in such a long tournament and in the end there will be a reckoning.”