Kölner Haie lose coach, fans and 2 derbys
12 Oct 2014 | Markus Nisius
The city of Köln is known both for being a hockey town and a media city, a combination that sometimes does not come to the advantage of the involved people. One of these stories unfolded on Friday morning.
Friday
morning. The world of most Kölner Haie fans is still ok. Sure, there have been
a couple of defeats in the first games (6 losses in 8 DEL games), but the
confidence in the team, that also played well in the CHL despite some tough
injuries, is still present. And as the weekend offers two derbys against Krefeld
and Düsseldorf everybody is looking forward to make up for the bad start.
In the
course of the morning news starts spreading that the Sharks’ management has
allegedly fired head coach Uwe Krupp. At this point most fans reading this at
home or at their work places are still in denial and checking their calendars
if it is April 1st. But it isn’t. So it’s got to be a bad joke
spread by the yellow press.
But the
reality hits the fans. The management of the Kölner Haie confirms the change of
its whole coaching staff around 10.30am on the Sharks’ homepage. Uwe Krupp is
not just a fan favourite in Köln, he will later on be called the “face of the
DEL” by Krefeld’s coach Rick Adduono. The CEO Peter Schönberger says the
dismissal was the answer to a development observed over a longer time. Krupp
indeed failed to win the championship twice in the past seasons, losing the DEL
finals to Berlin in 2013 and Ingolstadt in 2014. And this is the problem. In
Köln championships seem to be the only thing that counts. At least for
managements and media, because the fans answered in their own way all day long
on Friday.
The
Facebook page of the Sharks had to accumulate 1304 posts under the official
statement regarding this decision. And – quite rare in the internet world nowadays
– they all had the same to say: Nobody could understand the decision as Uwe
Krupp never really hit a rough spot on his road in the last years, be it as
coach of the German national team, which he led into the Semi-Finals of the
World Championships, or as the Kölner Haie coach, which he took over
financially broke and out of the Play-Offs and led them as already mentioned into
the Finals twice (last year just 25 minutes away from the title). A lot of fans
wanted to hand in their season tickets and condemned the management to be ungrateful
and cold hearted.
However you
want to think about the reasons and whether they were justified or not, the
decision at this given point drove a wedge into the relationship between
management and fans. The news that Niklas Sundblad, who won the championship
last year against Köln, is the new coach did not help the cause as it left a
bitter aftertaste. The decision must have been made some time ago.
Friday
evening. The game against Krefeld Penguins is starting and during the team
presentation the fans chant Uwe Krupp’s name. The day did not leave a lot of
room to think about hockey. And it seems to have affected the team as well.
Krefeld shuts out Köln and wins 1-0 by a late second period goal through Adam
Courchaine.
A loss in
the “small Rhine Derby” can still be made up for in the “big Rhine Derby”,
which happened to be today. And this game has the next shock for the fans
handy: 126 seconds have been played when Anders Martinsen converts a Powerplay
for Düsseldorf. But Köln fights back: Evan Rankin with the equalizer 14 minutes
later. The game now proves to be a nail biter that goes back and forth. Another
early period PowerPlay goal by Tim Conboy gives Düsseldorf the edge again. The
Sharks need more time to strike back now. But they do eventually. 2:08 minutes
into the last frame Marcel Ohmann is there for the next equalizer. Hope raises
that this weekend might have a little happy end. And hope gets shot down 4
minutes later by Nicki Mondt and Travis Turnbull, who give DEG the 4-2 lead.
After Nick Latta manages to add the third goal for Köln, it is again Anders
Martinsen on the PowerPlay, who seals the deal and makes it a completely black
weekend for the Kölner Haie organisation. Philip Riefers’ last goal of the game
will only correct the score a bit to 5-4, but not change anything
significantly.
The bottom
line of the weekend: In just three days the club managed to put itself deeper into
a crisis, that it could have gotten out of instead by concentrated work. The
fans have to be won back now somehow and losing important games does not help
with that. The only winner might be the media market in Köln as they have a lot
to write about now.