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WalzFanForever
Senior Member
Posts: 550
Joined: Feb 2004
Wednesday October 06, 2004 1:01 PM (NEW!)
Article from Sports Hockey yesterday:
Wild defenceman Nick Schultz having a blast playing for Kassel in Germany
Pierre Lebrun
Canadian Press
October 5, 2004
(CP) - One game into his German league hockey career, Nick Schultz found out in a hurry things were a little different over there.
A home victory in Kassel means a traditional post-game ritual. Just imagine seeing this in the NHL. "We actually had to go down on our hands and knees, grab the guy's legs in front of us - I guess they call it the caterpillar - and we crawled across the ice as a team," Schultz says from Germany. "The fans just love it. A few of the guys before my first game told me I wouldn't believe what goes on."
The 22-year-old Minnesota Wild defenceman is among the 190 NHLers plying their trade in Europe, trying to stay in game shape during the lockout.
The native of Strasbourg, Sask., is no stranger to Europe. He played in the 2001 world junior championship in Moscow and in the IIHF men's world championship in Prague last spring.
But why Germany?
"I have a little bit of heritage in Germany, obviously Schultz is a German name," Schultz says. "My ancestry is from here, so it's nice to come and experience this culture. My grandparents lived here before moving to Canada."
The German league is also a good fit on the ice for Schultz, who last month signed a three-year, $3.4-million US deal with the Wild.
"It's a good league, there's 10 to 11 imports per team here so there's lots of guys that have played in the NHL or AHL over here," Schultz says. "So that definitely makes the league competitive and maybe a little more physical than some of the other European leagues.
"J.P. (Barry, his agent) figured with more North Americans here that it would be a good fit for me, it would be easier for me to adjust."
Players with NHL experience on the Kassel Huskies include Christian Laflamme, Brian Swanson, Daniel Corso and Ted Drury. Marco Sturm of the San Jose Sharks (Ingolstadt), Andy McDonald of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (Ingolstadt), Jochen Hecht of the Buffalo Sabres (Adler Mannheim), Mike York of the Edmonton Oilers (Iserlohn) and Jim Dowd of the Montreal Canadiens (Hamburg) are other NHLers in the German league waiting out the lockout.
"The biggest thing for me was wanting to keep playing and as a young player to keep improving," said Schultz, who has three points (1-2) in five games. "This is an opportunity to keep playing some pretty good hockey and stay in shape if the NHL season comes back on."
He's been there nearly two weeks and is beginning to adjust to his new surroundings. Kassel is a city of about 200,000 and, according to Schultz, is absolutely crazy about its hockey team.
"The fans show up two hours before the game in their jerseys and they're ready to go," he said.
"My first home game here, which we won, the fans were standing up cheering and singing for pretty much the whole game. It's totally different than an NHL game. After the game we go in the room and start undressing but then come back on the ice and sign autographs for fans hanging over the glass, give them high-fives, and wave to them as they chant to us."
Quelle: http://boards.wild.com/messageview.cfm?c...221&STARTPAGE=2
Mäh kann's je egal sinn, wie däh driwwer dengged,
ferleichde schimbed au disser un jener,
um wam'mäh einer sonsd was schengged:
Ich benn um bliewe Kasseläner!
Schießen, einfach schießen...!!!
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