Korbinian Holzer was happy to accept the sometimes arctic temperatures in the Russian winter for the prospect of being on the ice with one of the greatest players in ice hockey today. “It's really an honor for me to be able to play with him,” says the national player about Pavel Datsyuk, the highly decorated Russian star at Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, who, even at the age of 42, “is still a difference player. He has a charisma on the ice that his opponents have brutal respect for.” On the currently extremely frosty border between Europe and Asia, not far from the Ural Mountains, Holzer is currently “having a very good and exciting experience” because of Datsyuk. “
After ten years in North America with a lot of ups and downs between the NHL and AHL, the experienced defender is particularly happy to be able to play regularly in the heavily Russian-influenced Continental Hockey League (KHL). “I have a lot of fun, I have a lot of ice time and an important role in the team,” says the Munich native, who is therefore not particularly wistful about going overseas: “On the whole, I don’t miss the NHL. I don't want to miss a second, the fight for a place in the NHL was a lot of fun, but now the time has come when I really want to have an influence and maybe even win a title."
The 33-year-old has been playing for the KHL team in Russia's fourth-largest city since December, after previously playing the Deutschland Cup with the national team. Holzer has settled in well, likes the helpfulness of the people and the selection of good restaurants. But going for long walks is not such a good idea at the moment, with temperatures sometimes around minus 30 degrees Celsius. "Spending a lot of time outside is not recommended at the moment, it is bitterly cold," says Holzer, "it was extreme at the beginning, but you get used to it now, but you still have to be careful."
With his team, 211-time NHL players are in the middle of the fight for the play-off places, qualification has already been achieved, and in the few remaining main round games from Tuesday it's all about the starting position. “It's brutally close from fifth to eighth place,” reports Holzer, whose good personal performances were recently recognized by the league when the German was named best defender of the week in January. For Holzer, ever the team player, it’s a nice side effect: “It’s nice, of course, but of secondary importance to me. What’s important to me is team success.”
And this team has a lot of quality to offer. There is not only Datsyuk, a member of the so-called triple gold club as a world champion, Stanley Cup champion and Olympic champion, but also the towering defender Nikita Tryamkin, the Czech goalkeeper Jakub Kovar and the Canadian attacker Peter Holland, with the Holzer in his Time in Toronto have a lot to offer - and not least Olympic silver hero Brooks Macek, who has been playing in Yekaterinburg since 2019 and won the 2016 World Cup with Holzer DEB denied. “It’s always easier when there’s someone you know there,” says Holzer, “but in general we have a really good team.”
So good that Holzer doesn't rule out staying longer than this one season, which ends in April. But it's not just purely sporting factors that come into play; proximity to family will also play a decisive role in the decision. “I'm not averse to staying here, we'll see. It's difficult for me to make a forecast," he says, and this also has to do with the current difficult circumstances in the corona pandemic: "Whether things will get easier again in the future and you can at least fly home, that also plays a role." Holzer can't imagine going to the NHL again, but he can imagine many more appearances for the national team. “It’s always an honor for me when I’m invited,” he says. The World Cup in Riga would be the next opportunity.