The polar bears wrestle with a strange series

As such, the polar bears are doing everything right this season on the way to defending their championship title. At home, the Berliners have so far lost four times in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), and have now won five times away after the 4: 2 on Sunday in Bietigheim.

If this strange series lasts, then the polar bears could strike in the play-offs – if they place themselves as far back as possible in the table and thus always have the away advantage in a decisive game against the better-placed team. But it will be difficult, because in the pre-play-offs they might have the disadvantage at home.

That is of course a bitter joke, especially since the Berliners do not like a home series and should surely add a few points in their own hall before the play-offs. So early in the season, her best attacker Marcel Noebels said, for example, that he did not want to be “admonished at home weakness”.

They don’t like to discuss this with the Berliners outwardly, as their team psychologist Markus Flemming tells the Tagesspiegel. It goes without saying that he conducts one-on-one discussions with the professionals under the seal of confidentiality. Because: “External pressure doesn’t help, we only see the positive things here.”

The away record in the league is a blast

On the positive side, the polar bears are a force away from home and can slow down their game with a lot of patience. As soon as the opponent has let off steam in front of their own fans, the Berliners strike, as they do on Sunday in Swabia. The away record in the league is a blast: 22: 7 goals, 15 points from five games. At home, on the other hand, waiting was seldom the first player obligation, the initial urge to move forward was often the end of the victorious game: Like on Friday against Düsseldorf, when the Berliners immediately fell behind, could not recover and lost 3-1.

Flemming also sees the recent home defeat as detached rather than part of a chain reaction. If the players went on the ice, they would have their minds free and would not think about what happened in the home game before. “They’re professionals! An artist who hovers ten meters above the ground doesn’t even think about what he’s doing, otherwise he would get nervous. “

Flemming believes that the fans are one factor in the fact that the Berliners could switch the switch to a home win in the home game of the Champions League against HC Lugano (7 p.m., Mercedes-Benz-Arena) on Tuesday. “Because they are unique among the polar bears, they stick to their team and the players feel that.”

At Hertha BSC, the mood changes in the stands

That is not a matter of course in team sports. In Berlin you only need to look from the arena location in Friedrichshain to the Olympic Stadium in Charlottenburg: At Hertha BSC, for example, the mood in the stands is already changing. Most recently, the Berlin Bundesliga club had to experience this on Saturday in a 2-1 draw against Freiburg. There were plenty of whistles and middle fingers stretched out against their own team.

Something like that will probably not happen to the polar bears after the game against Lausanne, even if there is the biggest home debacle in recent history of ice hockey. The Berliners – as the only one of four DEL clubs – would have been eliminated from the Champions League with their third home defeat in this competition. Attacker Sebastian Streu says: “I don’t know the team very well, but we just focus on ourselves. We want to win at home too. Of course, we want to gain self-confidence. If we lose that one, it will feel like we didn’t win on Sunday. ”

Team psychologist Flemming thinks that the “D-word” should be left out. As I said, the players should think more of the artist who hovers ten meters above the ground. As for HC Lugano, Sebastian Streu is excused by the way.

The team from Ticino actually has no overlaps with the DEL, primarily Swiss play in it and they have already scored seven points with their team in four CHL games – six more than the polar bears. So the Berliners can at least say that they will compete as outsiders on Tuesday. Perhaps this role will help the Berliners to finally overcome their home curse.