About a month before the start of the 35th Deutschland Cup In 2024, the Deutscher Eishockey-Bund (DEB) held a press conference in Landshut on Monday. There were insights into the current planning status of the joint tournament of the women's and men's national teams, which will take place from 6 to 10 November 2024 in the Fanatec Arena. Participants in the press conference were Landshut’s mayor Alexander Putz, DEB-Sports director Christian Künast as well as the two national coaches Jeff MacLeod (women) and Harold Kreis (men).
First, Mayor Alexander Putz and highlighted the importance of Deutschland Cup for the city and the EV Landshut The city and EVL have received a lot of praise and recognition from home and abroad for organizing the tournaments for four women's and four men's teams each, which were held in parallel at a single location for the first time in the world, especially from the participating teams and also from the world association IIHF.
At the same time, he pointed out the organizational effort involved in a tournament with eight participating nations.
DEB-Sports director Christian Künast emphasized the association's satisfaction with last year's tournament, which is why they decided to host it in Landshut again in 2024. For the men's national team, the traditional tournament is the most important assessment of their position on the way to the World Cup, and for the women with a view to qualifying for the Olympics next February. The sports director also expressed his joy that it had once again been possible to hold the tournament with both women's and men's teams.
For Women's national coach Jeff MacLeod was the Deutschland Cup was already a valuable component of the World Cup preparation last year. This year, the tournament is particularly important in terms of Olympic qualification in order to consolidate game systems and team processes. MacLeod will travel to Landshut with a mixture of experienced and young players. Every player should be able to get her ice time and gain experience - nevertheless, the goal is to win the tournament.
men's national coach Harold Kreis is convinced that it will be able to bring a strong team onto the ice in Landshut again this year. The relevant discussions with the relevant players will take place in the next few days. Kreis and his coaching team will also use the tournament to gain insights for the 2025 World Championship and the 2026 Olympic Games.
In this context, Kreis appointed the coaching staff for the Deutschland Cup 2024: In addition to DEB-Assistant coach Alexander Sulzer, André Rankel (assistant coach), Dennis Endras (goalie coach), Florian Kainz (video coach) and Hendrik Kolbert (athletics coach) form the team behind the bench.