Spring has been a long time coming around Tampere this year. Last week, temperatures in the former industrial city were sometimes close to freezing, and there was even sleet again. Only now do you get an idea of why Finns have been coming to the region for recreation for generations. The days are getting longer and longer, the lakes are blue, the forests are slowly turning green, the birds are chirping – it all looks like a new start at temperatures of up to 20 degrees Celsius.
And that somehow fits in with the situation of the German national ice hockey team, which landed in Tampere on Wednesday and starts the 86th World Championship there this Friday. Now the mood of Germany's most important ice hockey team was not really cool, but after numerous cancellations and meager test match results, it could use a mood enhancer. And when it came, the words could hardly be big enough: "Of course, that was the news for us at all," said Captain Moritz Müller. Striker Dominik Kahun also spoke of "incredible news for us".
What it was about: Moritz Seider had joined the team after all. Originally, the 22-year-old from the Detroit Red Wings was one of the more than a dozen professionals who had canceled the new national coach Harold Kreis for the World Cup. Like so many others, the exceptional defenseman was ailing after the long club season, the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) announced in mid-April. But at the beginning of this week, the U-turn, Seider had signaled to the federation "that he has fully healed his injuries in time and feels one hundred percent ready to go to the World Cup," said DEB sports director Christian Künast.
It is still unclear whether Seider will be on the ice against Sweden right from the start this Friday (19:20 CET on Magentasport and Sport1). But its presence alone has made the lakes a little bluer and the forests a little greener. "He's one of the best defenders in the world now. All the guys are happy when he's there," Kahun said. Even the circle, which is rarely prone to superlatives, called the playfully and physically outstanding defender "world class".
Seider wins trophy after trophy
This is by no means an exaggeration. At the 2021 World Cup, the then 20-year-old was voted the best defender of the tournament. By no means the only individual award of his still young career: Whether in the German DEL, in the Swedish SHL or in the North American elite league NHL - Seider wins trophy after trophy.
This is likely to have a financial impact soon. In the coming months, he will sign a new contract worth tens of millions of dollars in Detroit, Seider will then be one of the highest-paid defenders in the world. It is all the more remarkable that he comes to a World Cup beforehand, others then forego it so as not to risk injury. "You know what's coming up for him in Detroit. To still say 'I'll do it' – that's really a strong achievement from him. We really appreciate that," Müller said.
Seider himself is as relaxed as ever. "It should be a very cool World Cup," said the 22-year-old, who is not the only North American defender to strengthen the German team shortly before the start of the tournament. Kai Wissmann and Leon Gawanke from the AHL development league will also be in Finland. Suddenly, the problem area of the German team has become their showpiece.
The situation is different in the attack, after the recent absences of the Munich champion players Yasin Ehliz and Andreas Eder, only two of the ten best German DEL goal scorers are there. But this is not only due to injuries, Kreis also renounced some of them himself. In addition, there is a lack of foreign professionals such as Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stützle, Lukas Reichel, Marc Michaelis, Tobias Rieder and Tom Kühnhackl.
However, Kreis is not worried that his team will be able to score too few goals because of this. What he did, on the other hand, was very busy with: the tough opening program. The first four days of the tournament will take on all the top teams from Group A: Finland, Sweden and the United States. So he had a mental coach with him, Kreis told the German Press Agency. "Of course, it's also about how we deal with it if we don't have a point after three games."
This may well happen. And then the team would be under a lot of pressure to win the remaining four group games against Denmark, Austria, Hungary and France. Otherwise, it won't be anything with the quarter-finals and the Olympic qualification. And they should be. No one has come to Tampere to go on holiday. As beautiful as spring may be here.