If there is one German player in the National Hockey League who is not afraid to express pride in his heritage, it is Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stützle.
The 21-year-old athlete closely followed the Junior Ice Hockey World Championships and thoroughly enjoyed his country's 4-3 win against the Finns on Wednesday morning. This victory for the German team is the first in their history at the expense of their rivals at the time. In fact, she had escaped her 25 previous confrontations against the blue and white team in this competition.
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Stützle, who already took part in the tournament in 2020 and 2021, naturally hopes that his compatriots will achieve further successes of this kind.
“They fought well and it was a good game from their side,” he said in an interview with the TSN network. Three years ago, when I was there, only about ten players played against them [durant la pandémie] and we lost 5 to 3. Like back then, Finland was scary, but Germany played better.”
Furthermore, he and his Senators teammates could take inspiration from this unexpected German success to restart their season. Before they took on the Maple Leafs in Toronto that evening, they were in last place in the Atlantic Division.
“I hope it shows tonight,” admitted head coach Jacques Martin with a smile, knowing that the World Juniors will be keenly followed by several of his players.
“Germany is starting to develop into a team that performs well, be it at the Junior World Championships or the Men's Ice Hockey World Championships,” he added.
The Senators-Leafs game will be broadcast on TVA Sports.