Monday, September 20, 2021
One DEL debacle after another
The penguins are completely desperate
Three bankruptcies, 18 goals conceded – after the horror season last year, the Krefeld Penguins are already last in the DEL. And that can have very bitter consequences. Because this time there is a threat of relegation. The problems are huge and there is no hope of recovery.
After the capital failure of his Krefeld Penguins, Sergey Saveljev wanted to talk. With the coach, with the players. “Such a start can not be true,” said the head of the traditional club after three bankruptcies at the start of the German ice hockey league of the “Rheinische Post” emphatically: “Something has to change.”
He left it open in which function the 25-year-old Latvian will have which conversations with whom. With the increasingly perplexed coach Clark Donatelli perhaps as managing director, with the immensely disappointing players as the sporting director, with the terrifyingly weak goalies as goalkeeping coach – his posts in Krefeld give it all, because Saveljev is practically responsible for everything at the German champions from 2003 – and thus the main problem for many observers.
When the Swiss Stefano Ansaldi took over 80 percent of the shares in the DEL club a year and a half ago, the impending bankruptcy seemed to have been averted after the endless dispute with the Russian financier Mikhail Ponomarew, and the way to a better future seemed open. But the penguins are evidently waddled from the rain into the eaves. The manager fled, the players went on strike, the coach disappeared before the first game. Saveljev, whose wife is a shareholder in a pharmaceutical company in Latvia, took over as managing director and “led” Krefeld in the Corona season with a mixed team with a huge deficit to last place. Ansaldi has never appeared in public.
Glimmer of hope? Not in sight
The ice hockey scene laughed at the Chaos Club, which, according to the press release, wanted to “get away from EC Hollywood”. Everything should get better for the new season, because this time the consequences are catastrophic: For the first time in 15 years you can get down from the DEL. 4: 6, 3: 6, 0: 6 – the alleged three-set defeat in tennis are the previous Krefeld results. Eighteen goals conceded after three games also caused panic among the players. “We all know in the locker room that it is shortly before twelve,” said defender Dominik Tiffels after the 6-0 draw against his former club Kölner Haie.
The team does not work at all, a system cannot be recognized – which may also be due to the fact that the US-American Donatelli was assigned the long-time assistant coach of the Russian national team, Igor Sacharkin. Ex-national player Boris Blank apparently translates on the bench, now and then Saveljev personally.
The goalkeeper Sergej Below, who was the worst goalie in the league last season, and the overburdened 18-year-old Nikita Quapp are not to blame, according to Saveljev, who coaches them: “The defense must not allow as many shots.” The Latvian rejected the criticism of many fans that he only caused hectic on the bench. After he had “spoken to sponsors” in the VIP box against Cologne, he will return behind the gang: “I have good communication with the players and can motivate them.” Maybe he also wants to be head coach.