Create Account

Interview with S49 Gold Medal WJC DACH Managers
#1
(This post was last modified: 10-06-2019, 01:17 AM by CementHands.)

Good evening. Field reporter Jason Staples with the Halifax Gazette bringing you an exclusive taped interview with recent the WJC Gold winning Management team of DACH GM Marsh Arner and his Co-GM for the tournament, Hans Hammersmith. The Gazette was lucky enough to be able to get this sit down from our show sponsors "Canada Airlines - When you have a connection to make, use someone else!" and also an unfortunate (or fortunate for us) completely unavoidable 'weather delay'. I was able to sit down with the GM duo for about an hour and without further ado we present you Marsh Arner and Hans Hammersmith:

"You recently Managed the team to Gold, tell me what is going through your heads right now?"

[Marsh Arner]  Honestly, I'm on cloud nine right now. I knew we had a great team and great players to select from the three countries we represent but I also wasn't sure how good we would really be. We went into this tournament with the goal of making it to the medal round and we not only achieved our goal but were fortunate enough to play for a gold medal and win against a very talented Great Britain team.

[Hans Hammersmith] The feeling is wonderful. In a tournament like this all it takes is one bounce and you're out. You really need to have a lot of luck on your side to make it through and we were able to take it all the way. I'm feeling extremely happy and proud of the team, on top of the world right now.

"Both of you are relatively inexperienced managing international level hockey. What were some qualities that you think made you stand out as choices for this edition of the team?"

[Marsh Arner] I think the biggest thing for us was a complete lack of ego. Like you said, both Hans and I were newcomers to managing an international hockey team, and we knew we didn't know everything so we learned a lot from each other and from the players. Hans brought a lot of aggressiveness to our style of play and I brought a lot of game-planning focus and together we made a great team.

[Hans Hammersmith] Yes, this has been my first experience with the WJC and also my first time managing a national tournament team. I believe that the dynasty I have created with the Berlin Polar Bears Jr. team put me into the spotlight -

(The Polar Bears - Hans' club team has won 4 of the last 7 league titles and appeared in 2 losing finals since he took over manager-ship of the team 9 seasons ago)

- for the position this season and I am happy and honored to get experience as the Co-GM of this championship team. It has been an excellent experience and a great foray into international competition.

"DACH finished 3rd place in the Round Robin and had a lackluster exhibition. What changed between the start of the tournament and the medal round to give you guys that extra oomph?"

[Marsh Arner] Actually we were third in our Group and probably 5th or 6th overall in the seeding. I don't know if there was any big difference between our play in the exhibition and round robin play. We just didn't have the puck go our way like we did going into the quarterfinals and the medal rounds. If anything explains our improvement it would have to be two things: luck and the veterans of the DACH team taking more ownership and making adjustments on the fly.

[Hans Hammersmith] We definitely had an underwhelming exhibition and round robin performance. I'm not sure if there was really one definitive change between the end of the round robin and start of the medal round as we were constantly making changes and tweaks. We had 2 very strong lines so we wanted to roll those very hard and we ended up splitting their time fairly evenly. This allowed our top line to be in better condition for late game power plays.

"The British Isles Defense and Goaltender Elizabeth Doyle @Evok were able to stonewall an offensive favorite in Canada in the Semi-Finals game. What were you able to change up in your play in order to avoid the same fate."

[Marsh Arner] This may sound trite but, honestly, we really didn't change up our style of play. By that point Hans had really driven it into the forwards that we were going to be aggressive at all times and that the best defense we would have would be a high-octane offense. We knew if we could keep the puck in the offensive zone and consistently get shots on net that sooner or later they would go in. We were extremely fortunate that we scored early and often and I think it caught Elizabeth Doyle and the rest of Team GB off guard with how aggressive we were.

[Hans Hammersmith] We knew going into that game that we were going to need to score quickly into the opening of the game and hopefully gain a 2 or 3 goal lead. We put all of our emphasis into offense off the bat, took a calculated risk with it and it ended up working out for us. As the puck luck played out we were able to pull off this plan exactly, got up by a few goals and we were able to shut it down for the rest of the game. I know the 2nd and 3rd periods weren't the most entertaining, but our goal is to win and we did that.

"You have a WJC Championship under your belt now, what are your aspirations moving forward with your career?"

[Marsh Arner] I don't know if I will ever be able to top managing such a great group of players and having such a great co-manager, especially with him being German, I never would have expected us to hit it off so quickly and realize how similar we were philosophy wise. Moving forward I'd love to continue to GM in the WJC again and mentor our young players, especially if it gives me the opportunity to work with Hans again. This time I will be his co-GM though <chuckles>.

[Hans Hammersmith] I wish to continue the reign of excellence that the Jr. Polar Bears have been showing over the last several years. Ideally I would be able to bring my talents up the the major leagues, but if I want to make it in North America it is a similar approach to the players who come over. I'll need to start off in the Jr. level. We'll see when the time and circumstances are right before making that jump.

"How did you approach building the roster. What kind of players were you wanting to build the team around?"

[Marsh Arner] I knew going into it that we were going to be an odd mix of veterans and rookies. I think about half of our roster were rookies to WJC play but those young guys really showed something. They pushed the veterans to be better and made the entire team better. When building the roster Hans and I really looked at building the strongest team offensively that we could. We even moved one of our offensive players to defense just to bring some added offensive mindset to the blue liners. Beyond that, we really just looked for players that were willing to buy in to our philosophy and were willing to adjust their game to fit our system.

[Hans Hammersmith] It was interesting when we were drafting this team. We basically sent the coaches, scouts and both of the managers a task of doing their own draft and then we looked at the results and did a final revision as a group. There were a lot of similarities for players who we wanted on the team, but there were a few differences that caused discussions. Bringing players together from 3 different countries in a short time span is difficult, there were a lot of stressful and frantic nights and early morning phone calls, but in the end I think we iced an extremely competitive team with strong representation from each of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany and we were also able to play some very high energy rookies who make up for any unrefined traits with pure energy. I think they were the ignition spark we needed to get the ball rolling.

"What was the hardest decision you were faced with in regards to the roster? Is there anyone you regret not having on the team?"

[Marsh Arner] I can't speak for Hans but the most difficult decision for me was leaving Marcus Tegernako @KlusteR off the roster. He's a great, young, Swiss goalie and I knew he would be valuable to the team but I deferred to Colt Beckett because he was a little more experienced and, I know I shouldn't admit this, because he was German. I really took a lot of time to try and ensure that we were as balanced nationality wise as we could be. Colt played great for us and was a calming influence in net but if I'm being honest, I really regret not bringing in Tegernako.

[Hans Hammersmith] <Sigh> this was the most difficult decision I had to face and I know the entire team felt the same way. In all reality Marcus Tegernako did absolutely everything you could ask of him to make the team and I'm still upset with the decision we had to make to leave him off the roster. We ended up going with pure experience in this matter and in the end the group decided to go with Beckett over Marcus for backup. I can say he would 100% be making the team if I'm in position to make the decision next year and he's going to be starting meaningful minutes on the international stage before you know it.

"DACH is going to be losing quite a bit of experience for the tournament next year. What impact will the loss of players like Selman, Muller, and Finn-Rhys have on the roster and locker room next year?"

[Marsh Arner] Muller @esilverm and Selman @BDonini will absolutely be moving up to IIHF play but I'm still hopeful that Finn-Rhys will be back for one more WJC if he's eligible.

[Hans Hammersmith] Yea, who said anything about Finn-Rhys not being available next season? As far as I know he still has another year of eligibility and as long as he doesn't get called up to the SHL full time next season I know that he is going to be counted on being one of the leaders for DACH next season.

[Marsh Arner] Ultimately, though, we have a great young core of players to build around in WJC play. Karl Krashwagen made a great debut as well as some of our other youngsters like Ursin Zimmerman @UrsinZ and Luca Veccelli @Symmetrik. We have a very bright future as those younger players continue to develop and gain SMJHL experience.

[Hans Hammersmith] Muller and Selman were excellent leaders, both in the locker room and on the ice. They got the players riled up and ready and a big reason we were able to capture the gold this season was because of their presence in the locker room. I know they are both used to being the top go to guy, but they were able to embrace our play style without hesitation and I tip my hat to them for their true professionalism.

"What are your predictions for the tournament next year?"

[Marsh Arner] I don't believe in making grandiose predictions. What I would expect, however, is for next season's DACH team to continue their development and continue playing a high-octane offensive style of play. If DACH can make it to the medal round again I think it bodes well but even if they don't I have no doubt next season's DACH team will do their very best to represent their countries proudly.

[Hans Hammersmith] I predict that next tournament is going to be excellent as well as this one was. The organizers did a great job pulling everything together in such short notice and I think the overall product on the ice was top notch. I think on ice every team has a legitimate shot at winning this, the parity between teams is on point right now.

"Who would you have rooted for if DACH was eliminated early in the medal round?"

[Marsh Arner] That is impossible to answer. I really don't know if I would have rooted for anyone else. I'd probably just root for some good hockey.

[Hans Hammersmith] I really liked British Isles. They were kind of punky, don't tell me what I can't do attitude team. I think they were a bit of an underdog and they absolutely embraced that into their team identity.

"Alright guys, thank you both very much for your time. We will wrap it up here. Once again congratulations on this achievement. I'm sure we will be seing much more of both of you in the near future.

-2238 Words. This was a joint effort with @FinnRhys Please split 50/50-

[Image: krash.gif]


[Image: kLRJavo.png][Image: ZjgHcNL.png]

[Image: s9JOf1N.png][Image: wW0VNnL.png]
Reply
#2

Switzerland Austria Germany!!! Great interview!

WolfpackBlizzardRaptors  raiders Switzerland  FINN RHYS  Switzerland raiders Raptors Blizzard Wolfpack


[Image: hockey__27674.1518661372.1000.1200.jpg?c=2]

[Image: iOjAcRd.gif]
Reply
#3

Very CHAD boys Cheers GermanyAustriaSwitzerland

Pass Forfeit (D) ● Player Profile
Kraken Rage Panthers

[Image: esilverm.gif]
Special thanks to Blitz, jhockey, and Ragnarr for the gorgeous sigs <3



[Image: DG0jZcS.png]
Reply




Users browsing this thread:
1 Guest(s)




Navigation

 

Extra Menu

 

About us

The Simulation Hockey League is a free online forums based sim league where you create your own fantasy hockey player. Join today and create your player, become a GM, get drafted, sign contracts, make trades and compete against hundreds of players from around the world.