Before CHL – Eurohockey presents the Vienna Capitals

The Caps are a rather young hockey club, founded in 2000, but have already established themselves as one of the top teams in Austria. The Capitals play their home-games in ‘Albert Schultz Halle’, which offers seats for 7022 fans. In average 4800 people attend the games of the 2005 Austrian champion, the highest attendance in EBEL.

Last season was quite a rollercoaster for the team captained by Jonathan Ferland. Hiring Tom Pokel, surprise EBEL champion of 2014 with HC Bolzano, meant expectations were high and, at the beginning of the season, the team even exceeded those, qualifying for the playoff round of Champions Hockey League and being the team to beat in EBEL.

Though, as the season passed by the Caps began to lose their consistency, falling down to the fifth place. With 6 games to go in the regular season, Tom Pokel was replaced by Jim Boni. It looked like the new coach could also not really turn the momentum around, until everything changed in Game 3 of the quarterfinal series against Sapa Fehervar. The Caps were down 0:2i the series, but the team came back from behind to win the series and even beating Linz in the semifinal series. In the finals, they were rather chanceless as Red Bull Salzburg swept Vienna in 4 games.

This season, the management group around GM Franz Kalla has once again built a contender for the EBEL title. Jim Boni has been confirmed as the head coach and he will have Nathan Lawson on disposal as the team’s new number one goalkeeper. On the blue line Jamie Fraser, a PP-specialist, and Philippe Lakos should be one the leaders of the team . Klemen Pretnar and Troy Milam have been added to make sure the team does not lack depth on defence.

Offensively the team possesses a lot of dangerous weapons, even though it will not be easy to compensate the loss of topscorer Kris Foucalt. Andreas Nödl and fan favourite Rafael Rotter are hardworking players, who can make every opponent’s life tough. A key acquisition could be MacGregor Sharp, a leader from Bolzano’s championship winning team in 2014. Players such as Derek Whithmore, Kurtis McLean or captain Jonathan Ferland are also expected to be important leaders on the team.

The Capitals might be underdogs against Karpät Oulu, who kicked the Caps out last season, but the games against Krefeld should be hard battles for a spot in the playoff round. Though, the Caps proved already last season that they should better not be underestimated.

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