DEL review of the season so far

DEL review

There are 14 teams competing for DEL title. They all played between 16 and 18 games so far.  In other words: 120 out of 365 games were already played. Adler Mannheim is the best team so far. They won 11 (three points for win) out of their 18 games played, added a single point twice (once for loosing in overtime and once for loosing after penalty shots) and are on top of DEL with 35 points. Hamburg Freezers are on the second position, having played 16 games. They won 9 times straight, added two points for one penalty shots win and added twice a point for being defeated both in overtime and penalty shots. They have 31 points on account, but they played two games less than Adler Mannheim. ERC Ingolstadt also has 31 points on third place. They played 18 games, won 8 times and added 2 points for 1 overtime win, 2 points for one penalty shots win, a single point for overtime loose and a single point twice for two games lost after penalty shots.

Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers from Nuremberg are the greatest disappointment in DEL so far. They are on bottom of the league, having won only three(!) out of 17 games played. They added 2 points for single overtime win and one point for being defeated at penalty shooting. They have only 12 points to their account and are trailing second worst in the league (Straubing Tigers) by nine points.

Standings

Stats

Krefeld Pinguine are leading team when it comes to penalty killing. They successfully killed 92,31% of their penalties. They are followed by Straubing Tigers (91,18%) and DEG Metro Stars (90,79%). ERC Ingolstadt are worst penalty killers in the league. They killed 78,08% of such situations. Krefeld Pinguine and Straubing Tigers both conceded 6 goals playing shorthanded. EHC München and Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers let their opponents score 17 times having more skaters on ice.

Iserlohn Rosters and ERC Ingolstadt scored 4 shorthanded goals each to lead in that category. Eisbären Berlin and Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg did not score any shorthanded goals so far.

Iserlohn Roosters are on top of power play efficiency category. They scored on 20,93% of their power plays. EHC München are second with 20,31% and Adler Mannheim are third with 19,75%. Krefeld Pinguine are worst in DEL regarding power play efficiency; they managed to score on 11,94% of their power play situations.

Kölner Haie and EHC München managed not to concede any goal playing power play. Krefeld Pinguine conceded 5 goals as the worst team in this particular category.

Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg is the least penalized team in DEL. They are penalized on average 11,18 minutes per game. EHC München are second best with 13,56 minutes average. Krefeld Pinguine are following with 14.06 minutes average. On the other side Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers  are most undisciplined team in DEL this season so far. They are penalized on average 18,41minutes per game. There is however special Robert Müller Fair Play Trophy. One point is added to every average minute rate when a team is/was penalized with game misconduct. As much as 11 teams out of 14 are still without any game misconduct penalty. ERC Ingolstadt was given two game misconducts, Eisbären Berlin 4 game misconducts and Hannover Scorpions as much as 8 game misconducts. Therefore, Wolfsburg, München and Krefeld are on top of fair Play Trophy as well, with as much points as their average penalty rate per game is. On the other side, combination between average rate of penalty minutes per game and points added for game misconduct makes Eisbären Berlin the most unfair team in the league.

Adler Mannheim are most successful home team to date. They won seven of their nine home games, winning 21 points for that. Kölner Haie are the most generous home team. They only managed to win on two occasions, playing seven home games so far. Adler Mannheim are also leading away success category. They won four of their seven away games, and added two more points for two defeats (one in overtime and one after penalty shots). Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers are on the other side absolutely horrible playing away: they lost all of their eight games played away.

Adam Mitchell of Mannheim and Robert Hock of Iserlohn Roosters are on top of player’s statistics, they both have 18 points. Mitchell scored six goals and added 12 assists, Hock scored three times and added 15 assists. They are followed by seven players with 17 points and six players with 16 points each, so nobody really differs so far.

Barry Tallackson of Eisbären Berlin scored most goals so far: 10. He is followed by six players with 8 goals so far and another nine players with seven goals on their account. Robert Hock earlier mentioned is the best assistant so long with 15 assists. Daniel Kreutzer of DEG Metro Stars and Serge Aubin of Hamburg Freezers are next with 13 assists.

Timothy Hambly of Ingolstadt is the best regarding +/- statistics with 11+ points. He is followed by his team mates Jakub Ficenec and Luciano Aquino along with John Laliberte of Wolfsburg with 10+ points. Dusan Frosch of Nuremberg is on the bottom of this stats with 12- points.

Danny a.d. Birken (Kölner Haie) is the best goal keeper so far. He saved as much as 93,9% of shots towards his net. Robert Goepfert (DEG) follows with 93,8%. Tyler Wyman from Augsburg is also close with 93,7% and there are another two goalies with more than 93% of saved shots. Daniar Dshunussow (Wolfsburg) managed to keep his net clear in three games so far. Danny a.d.Birken, Robert Goepfert and Scott Langkow (Krefeld) managed to gather two shut-outs so far this season.

Eisbären Berlin have by far the highest average visitors on their games (14.100). Kölner Haie are second on that list with 9728 fans average on their games. Adler Mannheim are third with 8442 average. Last season’s finalists Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg are on bottom of this category with average attendance of 2105 fans on their games.

Comments about teams:

Adler Mannheim are where they planned to be. Eleven wins in eighteen games is really good achievement. They were close in another two games, but lost once after penalty shots and once in overtime. They have Adam Mitchell as the top-scorer in DEL at the moment with 18 points. He is in good company of Christoph Ullman and Christopher Lee (17 points). There are another two Mannheim players with 16 points – their attacking side is really good! In fact Adler Mannheim are the most scoring team in DEL. There’s probably space for improvements in their defence as they concede many goals. Both goalies are over 90%; Fredrick Braithwaite (90,3%) and Felix Brückmann (92,1%), so their “problem” is somewhere else. Keeping their attacking performances on high level and improving in defence sure presents Mannheim as first favourites for DEL title.

Hamburg Freezers are second in the league so far. Many appetites are on a rise based on their performances so far. Amount of money has been spent on team. There’s a space for improvements in both attack and defence, although defence is between the best in league. John Curry is quite good in front of their net (92,3%) and they need to built on that. More than 8000 fans are gathering on average Freezers game, so they also have nice support and that is another positive thing to built on.

ERC Ingolstadt on the other hand has 3525 fans on average game night. That is not such a big number, but then Ingolstadt is not such a big place after all. They don’t have any big names in their team, although Jared Ross and Tyler Bouck are close to the top of point scoring list. Their most positive side is good effort of Timothy Hambly, Jakub Ficenec and Luciano Aquino. They lead +/- list in DEL and there are Ross and Tyler close to their numbers. Team effort is therefore really important for them. As long as they manage to keep good chemistry inside the team they’ll continue to do the good job.

Eisbären Berlin are of course reigning champions of the league. Their defence is really solid so far. They managed to win in seven straight games and decided another two games in overtime, plus two games after penalty shooting. They actually entered in four overtime periods. Therefore it is fair to say that they are very confident. They have by far the biggest attendance on their games (14.100 average). Richard Regehr is their best point gatherer so far (15), Barry Tallackson, Darin Olver and Florian Busch are close (14), so they are quite dangerous from many players. Robert Zepp (93,5%) and Kevin Nastiuk (90,2%) are both in good form in front of the net; they give confidence to their team. Eisbären will probably play an important role during seasons’ proceedings.

Iserlohn Roosters are having marvellous goalie in Sebastien Caron. He defended his net more time than any goalie in the league and he holds his percentage on 92,1. The rest of defence is not so convincing as they conceded as much as 58 goals in 18 games. They need to improve on that. Seven straight wins plus two wins after penalty shots is quite what one would expected from this team. There are reserves in defending and if they can improve on that they might play really important role this season.

Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg are somehow disappointment so far. Last season’s finalists of DEL play-offs played with various success so far. They defend quite well; Daniar Dshunussow managed to keep his sheets clean in three games. They could probably improve on their away performances. Team is very disciplined, they are penalized less than any other team in the league. They are expected tobe strong contenders for high places until the end of season.

DEG Metro Stars are not as high as their management and fans would expect them to. They are hovewer not so far from top, everything is still open in DEL for them. They are not too convincing so far at home games and there’s a lot of space to improve on their away performances, too. Robert Goepfert, their goalie,  is supporting the team well (93,8% so far,2 shut-outs as well). Daniel Kreutzer and Adam Courchaine are close to the best scoring leaders. If they manage to join another player or two to those two they’ll be very dangerous in the seasons’ proceedings.

Augsburger Panther is a bit of a disappointment so far. Six straight wins out of 18 games is not what they wanted before the season. All of those were achieved in Augsburg, so they really need to improve on away performances. Good thing is: their defence is really strong and solid. They do not let many pucks into their net. Attacking side can and must be improved if they plan to do any significant stuff this season.

EHC München is doing quite good. Not that fans wouldn’t want more, but it is fair to say that players, management and fans are still learning. They do their best of course. Team is surprisingly good on away games and not that good at home. Improvement on that would push EHC München up on league standings and give fans something to cheer about. They won in five games playing 60 minutes, plus entered in seven (!) overtime periods with various outcomes. It is fair to say that they are close to the best teams. Season could go up or down depending on confidence developed. Sometimes luck also plays an important role.

Krefeld Pinguine as usual don’t have any big stars in their team. They are nevertheless great fighting team with good team spirit. Their weakness is in poor attacking performances, defence is quite good. Improvements in attack or some new player there could help Krefeld a lot. Many players changed on Pinguine’s rooster before start of the season and it all took time to start working. Their plans are not too high this season; realizing what is good and what is not in their team is probably one of their biggest goals of this season’s DEL.

Their neighbours and rivals Kölner Haie are also contending with mixed emotions. Team is working hard, fighting on the ice. Goalies are great; Youri Ziffzer (94,9%, 5 games played) and Danny Aus den Birken (93,9%, 11 games played) are good support for the rest of the team. There are no particular good point-gatherers so far in the team, but as a unit they are doing god. Plus they have really supportive fans. Keeping their good work alive and on high level might lift them up the league standings. They are the best defensive side in DEL and they are quite good in away games. A little bit of misfortune on home games cost them few points; following months could actually bring many smiles to their faces.

Hannover Scorpions are leading in one sad category: they were penalized as much as eight times with game misconduct. They are in fact quite disciplined, but with weak nerves. Missing of important players on many occasions (due to game misconducts) of course cost them. They are disappointed with season so far. They are particularly weak in away games. Scoring is not so good so far and they need to improve on that. Defence is on the other hand their best part of the team. Prediction: two outcomes are possible – if they manage to keep their temper inside reasonable limits and if they improve their goal scoring performances – things could go better. On the other hand – not building on that could cause even worse scenario.

Straubing Tigers are quite convincing on home ice. They lose winning sense on away games and that is one thing to work on. Their defence is second best in the league, but unfortunately for them their attacking side is amongst the weakest. Barry Brust performs miracles in front of their net, letting 2,06 pucks enter his net on an average game (92,5%). It is questionable of how long he’ll manage to do that. Building on team spirit, helping each other and improving in attack could mean more points, but nobody expects miracles from Tigers this season.

Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers are the biggest disappointment of the season so far. They are not the worst team in DEL on home ice, but they act like totally lot in space when playing away games. They lost all of their 8 away games. They scored only 28 goals in 17 games and let the opponents 58 pucks into their net. They are also the most penalized team in DEL average although no game misconducts wer whistled against them. There is really a lot to do if they want to avoid the last place in the league, although this looks like science fiction from mid-November perspective.

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