So far, there has been little, if anything, to criticize the German national ice hockey team. National coach Tony Soderholm’s team made a solid and successful start to the tournament at the World Cup in Latvia – including an impressive 3: 1 success against world number one Canada. The mood in and around the team is great – and yet the “ice hockey excitement” announced by the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) president Franz Rindle increased slightly on Tuesday evening. DEB announced that Dominic Kahun would strengthen the German team in Riga. The Edmonton Oilers attacker boarded a plane on Tuesday and arrived at the German team hotel on Wednesday afternoon. There he went into personal isolation, the first training possible with the team after three negative PCR tests. DEB hopes the 25-year-old will be able to play the final group game against host Latvia on 1 June. National coach Tony Soderholm said, Kahun wanted to “come to the World Cup”.
Kahun came alone, his Oilers teammate Leon Drisatal could not leave so soon
Cahun traveled to Riga alone – and not, as many expected, with his Oilers teammate Leon Dressital, Germany’s Athlete of the Year 2020. Dresserholm said, while Drechtil’s “circumstances” were different, an immediate departure was not possible. The national coach previously indicated that insurance aspects may also play a role. Dracital and Kahun were surprisingly eliminated from the NHL playoffs on Tuesday night after only four games with the Oilers.
The tech-savvy Kahun brings a plus in creativity, intelligence and speed to the German team. Chief of Defense Korbinian Holzner said that having such an “individual class” with you is already a number. According to Söderholm, Kahun “can give our game another special element”. Kahun came in his first Oilers season in which he played 15 points (nine goals) in 48 main-round games for Drysal and for Canadian key player Connor McDevid. After his first two NHL playoff appearances at the beginning of the series against the Winnipeg Jets, he was no longer used in the final two games. He was happy with his first Oilers season, he said during the playoffs. “I had to get used to everything first, but then I got my game.” In January, he created a sensation when he scored 1–0 against the Ottawa Senators in Germany’s NHL climber Tim Stützle after eight seconds in Edmonton’s stunning 8-5 win, which had been held since 1983 by ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky There is a record for Fastest Oilers goal in NHL history.
Kahun had already followed the first German World Cup games in Canada. “It’s very important to me,” he said. And he knows what it is like to be part of a success-starved national team: In 2018 he won a silver medal with the DEB team at the Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. This is one reason Soderholm is convinced that the successor conspiracy integration into the DEB team will not be a problem. He said, ‘Every player wants to play in the best team. From next week, Kahun can help make his forecast come true on ice. Recently, while he was in Canada, he insisted that Germany had good chances in the World Cup because there were not as many NHL players as usual. Kahun said that anything is possible for Germany even against big teams.
