The head of Germany’s skilled hockey league is publicly criticizing the NHL for asserting regular-season video games in Düsseldorf this December with out first consulting the German golf equipment, the German Ice Hockey Federation, or the league he runs.
“They announced their games in isolation, without consulting with the clubs, with us or with the federation,” Gernot Tripcke, Managing Director of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, mentioned Sunday. “This conflicts with the schedules of the 28 professional clubs here in Germany. This is something you can handle better.”
The NHL introduced in March that the Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks will play two video games on the PSD Bank Dome in Düsseldorf on December 18 and 20 as a part of the 2026 Global Series, the league’s annual slate of regular-season video games in Europe. The league framed the announcement because the centerpiece of a long-term marketing campaign to develop hockey in Germany, with Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly calling it “a critical next chapter for the NHL.”
The December dates fall in what is usually the height pre-Christmas stretch for DEL golf equipment, when German groups depend upon robust house attendance. The PSD Bank Dome is itself the house enviornment of Düsseldorfer EG, a membership in Germany’s second division.
For German followers, the matchup carries real enchantment: Ottawa heart Tim Stützle, a local of Viersen, Germany, is likely one of the rising stars within the sport and offers the collection a neighborhood face. Stützle has spoken enthusiastically in regards to the video games. “The NHL is the best league in the world,” he mentioned when the collection was introduced. “As a kid, that’s what you dream of.”
But Tripcke’s grievance cuts on the hole between the NHL’s said mission and its execution. Describing the league’s deliberate grassroots applications, youth clinics, and fan zones across the video games, Tripcke mentioned merely: “I don’t know what they’re doing around the games.”
The NHL has despatched groups to Europe for regular-season video games since 2007, taking part in in Sweden, Finland, and the Czech Republic amongst different international locations. Germany final hosted a regular-season sport in 2011, when the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Los Angeles Kings in Berlin. No related public grievance by a host-country skilled league seems to have been recorded within the historical past of the collection.
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