| 07 January 2010
To the America hockey fan, the names from Team Germany will mostly be unknown. Guys like John Trip (Hamburg Freezers - DEL) and Jason Holland (DEG Metro Stars - DEG) will grace the lips or the mind of a North American fan who doesn't follow the DEL. To be fair, NHLers like Alexander Sulzer (Nashville Predators) and Thomas Greiss (San Jose Sharks) aren't well know either, unless you follow the specific team. There is, however, a player on the 2010 German Olympic roster that is known throughout the NHL; Marco Sturm.
Sturm was drafted by the San Jose Sharks (21st overall) in 1996 and eventually traded to the Boston Bruins in a deal that saw Bruins superstar Joe Thornton headed west. Internationally Sturm has played in the World Juniors Championship (1995, 1996), European Junior Championship (1995, 1996), Ice Hockey World Championship (1997, 2001, 2006, 2008), World Cup (1998) and the Olympics (1998, 2006, 2009).
Marco has had his ups and downs with the Bruins, but currently leads the team in goals (14) and is 6th overall in points (22). Sturm's stat line looks like this:
| GP | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | |
| Marco Sturm | 42 | 14 | 8 | 22 | +9 | 18 | 1 | 1 |
Marco has logged some significant minutes for the Bruins as well, especially on the power play. Sturm is currently ranked 7th in power play minutes for the Bruins with 106:36 minutes logged. He is also used on the penalty kill with 56:02 minutes logged, which ranks him 9th on the team.
The German team has never been competitive in Olympic play with their best placing being 3rd (bronze medal) in 1932. Since then the German team hasn't finished above 5th place. Sturm won't deliver the German team a gold medal, in fact, with the US, Canada and Slovakian rosters, the team may not place, but a guy like Sturm should help Germany be competitive.
SB Nation's quick scouting report has this to say for Sturm:
| Strengths | Has excellent speed and puck handling skills. Possess good hockey sense and sees the ice very well. His speed makes him a special teams weapon. Plays well in all three zones. |
| Flaws | Isn't overly big and can get pushed around. Hasn't put up the numbers expected of him in his career. Doesn't show a lot of offensive consistency. |
Like I said before, Sturm won't drive the German team to a gold medal, but he will score more goals for them and they could upset a team or two.
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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