It's been a few days now but I still can't believe Germany got relegated. Looking at the other teams, individual quality absolutely cannot be the issue, it's 100% coaching.
Look at Latvia's roster for example. Bulans and Mateiko are decent CHL players, I'd say they're at a similar level as Panocha and Bicker. Livics and Uljanskis also aren't bad but that's it. Valdis Dommers played 4 games for Latvia after scoring 6 points in 26 games with Schwenningen in the DNL. It's an awful team – an awful team that was able to beat Norway. Norway has some individual talent too, with Solberg, Granath, Vatne, Haugen, Moldal – but that's it. They're no better than Panocha, Bicker, Sumpf, Brandl etc. Yet, Germany didn't stand a chance against them.
It's honestly infuriating and people should be making a much bigger fuss about it. Sure, the 05s aren't great, but they aren't worse than Latvia or Norway.
Should there be a desirable candidate available, I think Dück will be replaced in the coming weeks/months.
I do think we'd hear more GMs and coaches from pro teams commenting on this relegation, much less the federation itself, if it were Finland or Czechia, etc. Heck, I remember it being seen as a bit of a national emergency in Slovakia when they went down before the pandemic. The soul searching around the country's hockey scene was pretty vocal.
Now, I won't comment too much on the individuals playing for Latvia and Norway, but Germany has traditionally had serious problems defeating Latvia at this level and as we saw, Norway was just downright better than Germany. In both games. Their coach is a rising star in that scene and will be taking over a pro outfit in Finland next year. Those kids looked VERY prepared for this task. Line for line, there seemed to be more rhyme and reason to what they were doing and what their job was.
I also get this feeling that the smaller countries that nonetheless love ice hockey seem to go about their business at these tournaments with more desperation, for a lack of a better word. There's a determination there that helps them overcome the possible lack of skill and depth. And it's something we don't always see from Germany (or an Austria) at these tournaments.
Unfortunately for Germany - and I'll be very open about this - both Czechia and Slovakia have seen a rise in their financial support the past decade and several programs, whether it be a club like Litvinov or a program like the one in Poprad, are churning out talents of international class successfully. Meanwhile, the Norways, Denmarks, and even Latvias of the world always have a handful of kids playing their junior hockey primarily in Sweden, but sometimes also Finland or North America. What's being done in the Mannheims, Colognes, and Berlins of the world as well as at the Red Bull Akademie just isn't churning out the same level of talents.
I watched those relegation games and thought Granath and Vatne were already playing in a manner superior to what any German forward was doing. I saw Solberg and Lafton and didn't think the German blueliners were playing at the same suffocating level.
I hope the DEB has been taking a lot of notes. I already thought Germany looked ripe for a relegation in Kaufbeuren and Landshut (there wasn't any) and it looked even worse this year.
