Eisbären Berlin Vs. HC Plzen 1929

 

Who or what was HC Plzen 1929? I have to admit that coming into the game, I had no idea who would actually show up. The only name that rang a bell was Martin Straka. You don´t remember his name? No problem. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992, yes 1992. Straka was their first pick for the 1992 season and a solid addition to the roster. He even made it to an NHL All Star Game in 1999 not too bad of a resume right?

Back to HC Plzen! Its quite an important club in the  Czech Republic due to being a founding member of the "Extraliga". Since its founding in 1929 the club has held 12 different names and has fluctuated greatly also partly reasoned by the period before and after the cold war. Their most successful season dates back to the 1999/2000 season and they have only made the playoffs four times in almost 10 years. I had greater expectation especially because I like to think that eastern European teams normally play very attractive hockey. By the way, did you think about their Front logo, the blue Indian? I had no idea where that came from but I recognized the Indian ... anybody else? Yes its the mascot of the still existing 2nd infantry division of the U.S. Army. Somebody must have inspired somebody there as I looked through some of the Czech republics history and the second Infantry division never made and appearance anywhere.

Lets talk about the actual game a little bit. As mentioned, I had great expectations, but then again I am not a big fan of the European Trophy. I just do not think that its a competitive format, good to increase the quality of Hockey throughout Europe. Why not have the games during the season, and not use them as preparation games for the actual seasons in the different countries? Sure thing, thats what the game looked like. I was quite surprised with how much hardship Plzen actually put into the game. Tomas Frolo ring a bell? Yes thats the guy who put up his stick against Daniel Weiß´s face and got a game ending penalty early in the game. 

This sort of stuff continued. I actually liked the hard playing style and in a way thats what I want from a European Trophy game but still they just looked out of place. A 3-0 lead after the first period? Boring anybody? And at that point I knew that they would not come back unless we would help them, which we sort of did in the end, but anyway. The quality of the game was not as high as I thought. Still it was nice to see Vincent Schlenker make the first goal, one of the young guns I am quite excited  to see what he can do during the regular season. Frank Hördler and Julian Talbot did the rest during the first period. The goalie switch really seemed to help the guys from Plzen, but it just didn´t do enough. Sure they came on to 2 goals but I had the impression that the game was never in danger for the Eisbären Berlin. Rob Zepp looked good during a couple of scenes, the goals he got were all one on ones were the defense was simply outplayed in part due to the fact that the Eisbären knew that they had a commanding lead. Mid second period the whole thing seemed like a friendly to me, a couple of scrums penalty´s, but hey, its hockey. Overall a 6-4 was not what I expected, but after reading a little bit more about Plzen and their overall performance over the last couple of years, the Eisbären should have won the game in any circumstance. 7000 fans came to watch, thats about the size of the arena Plzen normally plays in. It was a friendly game right? Or is this really about winning a trophy in the end?