German Ice hockey

With the NHL playoffs fast approaching, I decided to research German hockey, to see if it is as popular in Germany as it is in the US and Canada. Obviously, any sport is going to take a back seat to soccer in terms of popularity in Germany, but ice hockey is still popular in its own right, and multiple leagues and teams are active within Germany.

The largest hockey league in Germany is the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, or DEL, which was founded in 1994 to replace the older Ice Hockey Bundesliga, which suffered from logistical problems left over from the Cold War and the German division. There are currently fourteen teams in the league, from familiar places such as Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Munich, and Augsburg. Teams from Bundesliga, which is still an active league, may join the DEL at a rate of one team per season, though they need to undergo an application process to do so. The DEL is home to the largest number of American and Canadian hockey players outside of North America, surpassing even the large KHL, or Kontinental Hockey League, of Russia.



-The logo of the Eisbären Berlin, the Berlin Polar Bears

Still, the league is less competitive than the modern American NHL, where preseason expectations and calculations are usually proven sorely wrong once the season begins. For instance, Berlin’s team, the Eisbären Berlin (coached by Don Jackson, and ex-NHL player from Minnesota), or the Berlin Polar Bears, has won five of the last seven seasons. In addition, it won back-to-back championships in ’05 and ’06, and in ’08 and ’09. In the past two decades in the NHL, only two teams have accomplished back-to-back championships, the Detroit Red Wings in ‘97-‘98, and the Pittsburgh Penguins in ’91-‘92. Some minor league American players will spend time in the German league before moving to the NHL, and during the season lockout in ’05, almost thirty players migrated to the DEL for a season.
Attending a hockey game in Germany would be a real treat for me, and I hope that one day I get the chance to do so.