It's not just the Bern defender who sweats in the crucial preparation phase
Loud announcements, high speed and a lot of sweat: Right at the beginning of the last week of preparation for the 2017 IIHF Home World Championship (May 5th - 21.5st) in Cologne, national coach Marco Sturm left no doubt that it was important for his players before the two games on Sunday and Monday against Latvia (April 30.4th/May 1.5st; both live on SPORT1) now gets down to business. “We want to improve again to get into the World Cup rhythm,” said Sturm.
Dennis Seidenberg and Thomas Greiss also completed the first session without any problems. The New York Islanders duo had only traveled to Bietigheim from the USA via Munich in the morning. However, with separate flights. Neither of them had much jet lag. “The flight from New York took about seven hours and was very comfortable,” Seidenberg said. “It’s nice to be here again,” said Greiss.
Justin Krueger was also warmly welcomed by his teammates - and of course asked about the Swiss championship with SC Bern. The big topic was Krueger's amusing video, which was published by the newspaper "Blick" the morning after the championship celebration. Krueger and two team members had pulled through the night and showed up at the local radio station in the morning. Krueger was still wearing some of his equipment and, very tired, read out the weather.
“It was a very successful evening and a great night,” laughed the Bernese defender mischievously. The days that followed were also quite strenuous, grinned Krueger, who particularly raved about the championship team's motorcade through downtown Bern. "That was incredible. I don’t know if the numbers are correct, but there must have been around 30.000 people there, absolutely crazy.”
The national team trained twice on Friday. While “off ice” sessions were on the program in the morning, we went on the ice in the afternoon. Sturm had outnumbered and undernumbered people trained and also “garnished” the units with a video study. This means that the system will be gradually internalized in the coming days. “We have to keep the focus,” said the national coach.