Krefeld penguins: Landshut comes to the Kids Club game day

Even though many spectators will watch a game between Krefeld and Landshut for the first time on Friday from 7.30 p.m. in the Yayla Arena, this duel has a special attraction for them. After all, social media these days offers ample opportunity for a foray into the duels between the Cannibals and the KEV. Chris Lindberg’s goal of the year, for example, stands out. On November 19, 1995 in the home game against Landshut, he put the puck behind his back just behind his own blue line with his bat on the left of his body, rushed towards the goal alone and scored the goal to equalize 3:3. Even today, the video excerpt on YouTube gives older KEV fans goosebumps.

The members of the Penguin Kids Club are more interested in their current pets. For the youngest fans, the club has come up with something for the guest performance of Landshut. For example, you are standing at the face-off point when the cracks arrive.

On Thursday, some kids were guests at the weekly press conference and were allowed to ask questions. Marcel Müller, Alexander Weiß and Leon Niederberger were also present, and of course they also answered questions from the media representatives. Müller said that the coach made small changes to the blue line in the two majority situations. The power play was again a regular part of the training program this week.

Müller doesn’t only see potential for improvement when there are more players: “We have to work together much better and more effectively in forechecking and in the defensive zone.” For Leon Niederberger, these were also the reasons why we lost to Kassel and Freiburg: “We still have to make some adjustments . We have enough potential to get back on track.” He was impressed by the atmosphere in the dressing room: “The atmosphere is very good. It’s really fun again. That was missing in the previous season.” Niederberger does not believe that the players were mentally too confident after five wins in a row that they could easily get through the main round: “It was clear that a team like Kassel or Freiburg would show our deficits. No one takes this lightly with us. Everyone has a good character to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

After seven wins in a row, the Landshut team come to the Lower Rhine with a broad chest and concentrated offensive power and are currently considered one of the favorites for first place. However, they have not applied for promotion to the DEL. 35 goals have already been scored, but at 22 they have also conceded most of the teams from the top half of the table. Coach Leif Strömberg knows what awaits him and his team: “Landshut not only has a strong power play. They are a strong attacking team that has also demonstrated shutdown skills in defense. We’ve continued to work on our special teams this week and hope our power play picks up steam. I don’t want to say exactly where the focus is.” The Swede is satisfied with the reaction of his players after the two defeats: “The energy in training was very high and I’m confident that we are very well prepared for the game. We don’t have any injuries, which makes our planning easier and naturally boosts internal competition for positions.”