| 09 February 2010
Depending on your hockey knowledge, when I ask you who is on the men's German Olympic Hockey roster, you may tell me Marco Sturm or Thomas Greiss. If you were to do that, it would actually blow my mind because most people would just shrug their shoulders and tell me they don't know. Well what I plan on doing is changing that for you.
Ranked 13th in the world, Team Germany will be overlooked by many as a squad that has very little talent to compete on the international level, especially with the more known countries like USA and Canada being able to fortify their rosters with NHL superstars. Unlike those clubs, the German team is comprised mostly of players from the DEL (15) with a sprinkling of NHL talent (6) and one AHL player.Along with unknown talent comes a poor Olympic record as Germany has only finished an Olympics with a medal once (1932) and has not finished better than sixth place since 1936. This does not include the two times that Germany did not participate as a whole country and instead as two seperate East and West German teams.
Many of those who are in tune with the Germas are surprised that both Jochen Hecht of the Buffalo Sabres and Christoph Schubert of the Atlanta Thrashers were left off of the roster, but coach Uwe Krupp did make them reserves in case a plyer on the team could not make the trip.
With the 2010 World Hockey Championships being hosted in Germany this year, the pressure on the team is building. Could this be the year that Germany finally earns a medal and end a 78 year medal-less drought? No, it's not, but I have a feeling that this young and vibrant roster will make some noise in Vancouver.
Greg Ezell writes about the Boston Bruins at Something's Bruin in addition to his work on Bloguin's Olympic Hockey Blog.
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