The German Olympic Hockey team shocked the world twice this tournament, first by beating Canada 4-3 in the semi-final and then taking the Olympic Athletes of Russia to task in the final, eventually losing in overtime.
It’s time for us to acknowledge that hockey is no longer “just” Canada’s game, it’s a global game. Yes, Canadian-born players were on other national teams but only on South Korea (6), Germany (2) and Switzerland (1) and not enough to make an actual difference. Even with their help, South Korea wouldn’t have made it into the tournament if they were not hosting.
Some people can make an argument that the lack of NHL players lowered the chance of Canada winning the gold medal and they are completely right. But only three players on the roster have not played at least one NHL game and two players (Chris Kelly and Cody Goloubef) have (as of Feb. 25) signed contracts with teams in the world’s best hockey league.
However, we shouldn’t be looking at this defeat with sour grapes and wallow about Sidney Crosby and Conor McDavid not playing for Canada. We should be turning our eyes to the rising quality of European leagues and European teams that are becoming powerhouses under our noses and come to terms with it.
Just look at Germany for example. The success of Marco Sturm, Christian Ehrhoff and Marcel Goc in their NHL careers have inspired a generation of hockey players from the European country to pick up hockey sticks instead of soccer balls.
Right now, there are seven German players active in the NHL, including Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers. Of those seven, only three are born before 1990. In total, only 36 players from the country have played at least one game in the NHL.
With the involvement and success of head coach Sturm, Ehrhoff and Goc (combined they have played 2,363 NHL games) and the rest of the team in this year’s Olympic tournament, a new generation of German players will surely be encouraged to harass their parents for some euro to buy a pair of skates.
Slovenia is another team to look out for. Despite not winning a single game in regulation time, they managed to beat two traditionally strong hockey nations in the United States and Slovakia in overtime. Only three Slovenes have made it the NHL, but only one (Anze Kopitar of the LA Kings) have passed the 50 games played mark, so it should be interesting to follow if any teams take note of the players after their showing in the Olympics.