Hamburg Freezers

The Hamburg Freezers ( freezer engl = the freezer, the freezer; official abbreviation. HHF ) is a German ice hockey team from Hamburg, who plays in the German Ice Hockey League. The Freezers are a sports club in combination with an organized entertainment operation on the pattern of U.S. professional teams and direct successor to the Munich Barons who were relocated after the 2001/ 02 season in the Hanseatic city.

The biggest success of the club, of decisions which its home games in the 12,947 spectators O2 World Hamburg discharges ( until April 2010 Color Line Arena called ), was reaching the play-off semi-final in 2004. The club colors of the Hamburg Freezers are crystal blue and white.

• 2.1 cadres of the 2013/14 season

• 3.1 Internal club records
• 3.2 Significant former players
• 3.3 Participation of players on the All- Star Game

• 7.1 Fans and club structure
• 7.2 Social Commitment
• 7.3 mascots

History

Moving from Munich to Hamburg

The Hamburg Freezers were transferred in 2002 by its owner from Munich, where they had taken over the team of EV Landshut since 1999 and played as Munich Barons, to Hamburg. This is a professional ice hockey team was first established in Hamburg, who played in the top German league, even if it already existed in the 1930s and 1950s with the Altona SV and the Harvestehuder THC Hamburg clubs in the top flight. It was preceded by the stagnant audience of Munich Barons, as well as the local financial problems. Furthermore, were created by the construction of the Color Line Arena in Hamburg, the conditions for a lasting participation in the DEL. The proportions of the game -GmbH were from the beginning to 70 percent owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group, under the leadership of the American billionaire Philip Anschutz F., and 30 percent owned by the Finns Harkimo. In their first season in Hamburg, responsible projected an average attendance of 5,000 visitors per game.

2002-2005: The first years in the DEL and reaching the semi-finals

In their first season after moving from Munich, the 2002/03 season, which initially began with twelve away games in a row since the Color Line Arena could not be completed in time for start of the season, reached the Hamburg Freezers at the end of the main round in eighth place, which at the same time meant the playoff participation. There, they lost in the quarterfinals against the Polar Bears Berlin with 1:4 games. Despite their early exit could book the season as a success: The average attendance far surpassed all expectations and an unprecedented hockey euphoria was widespread in the Hanseatic city. On average, 10,713 spectators attended the 26 home games of the Freezers.

At the beginning of the second season has been committed with the Canadian Dave King an NHL experienced trainers. Also, the squad has been strengthened with numerous professionals from the North American professional leagues AHL / NHL. Subsequently, the team reached the main round after their best ever placing, the third place in the standings. In the ensuing playoffs, the club defeated in the quarter finals, first the then championship favorites Adler Mannheim in a best of seven series 4-2 victories. The semi-finals lost Freezers against the later German masters, the Frankfurt Lions. The audience could also be due to the short-term successes that could achieve the team, be further increased. So visited in the game 2003 /04 average of 12,055 fans a game the hamburger. Thus the Color Line Arena was fully utilized in almost every home game. On 2 February 2004 the club was awarded with the Sports Marketing Award in the category sports event.

The 2004/05 season was marked by the players strike in the NHL. Many players from the National Hockey League changed early in the season in the DEL in order to bridge the time the lockout. For example, while the polar bear Berlin committed with Olaf Kolzig, Erik Cole and Nathan Dempsey three professionals from North America, renounced the Freezers sure to take players from the NHL under contract. Four rounds before the end of the first round was the coach Dave King not to reach the play -offs for fear of leave from Hamburg in charge. As a seventh -placed the club had reduced the distance to the Ninth to six points. Interim coach was the former assistant coach Mike Schmidt. The Freezers finished the preliminary round as a table of eight, reached the play-offs and then eliminated in the quarter-finals again against the Frankfurt Lions after six games with 2:4 from. On 25 October 2005, Freezers documents in their former home with 1:4 against the successor club of the Barons, the EHC Munich. The second division threw the DEL club so from the DEB - Pokal.

2005-2008: Unsuccessful time and crash the audience

For the season 2005/ 06 were committed three players with Benoit Gratton, François Fortier and Marc Beaucage, which made up the parade of the Freezers series, the so-called "French Connection". With 132 points scored scorer had this number for a substantial portion again reached the play-offs. This season, the Freezers required by a total of seven goalkeeper injury crisis. Once in a week the three -budgetary goalkeeper Boris Rousson, Steffen Karg and Tobias Güttner injured in November, helped the Polar Bears Berlin and borrowed Youri Ziffzer for two games at Hamburg, as a backup Roland Schröder had been committed for a month. With novel Cechmanek those responsible were finally able to take a new first goalkeeper under contract. Again, this was injured shortly thereafter and was represented by Tobias Güttner. Since Güttner later also turned out for a long time and Hamburg with Roland Schröder again only had one goalie, helped Berlin again, this time Sebastian Stefaniszin came for four games. The Freezers finished the regular season in sixth and met in the playoff quarterfinals on the third-placed, the DEG Metro Stars. Like last year, resigned the club in the first playoff round of ( 2:4 ).

In the season 2006 /07, Freezers started with Mike Schmidt as a coach, for it was the second season, in which he starts at the Freezers as head coach, and with Bob Leslie as an assistant coach, Doug Bradley replaced and André Lebrun as Goalkeeper Coach. Due to the poor team performance and the placement of the Hamburg Freezers in eleventh place in the table on the 24th match day, the contractual relationship by Mike Schmidt on 25 November 2006, after the defeat of the day before at the Iserlohn Roosters dissolved. As the new head coach Bill Stewart was presented. Despite initial success under Stewart (Best DEL -Team 2007 ) Freezers playful on the final day at the Nuremberg Ice Tigers direct qualification to the play-offs and had to qualify then use the pre- play-offs for the final round. The team reached after victories against the Krefeld Penguins the play-off semi-final, but which was lost against the DEG Metro Stars. Was overshadowed the series against the DEG by a racist incident: Marc Beaucage said to have the colored players DEG, Jean -Luc Grand -Pierre, allegedly racially abused. The incident, however, was down a short time later shelved after both players have made to the debate.

Despite high-profile reinforcement was the season 2007/ 08 at all desired and criticism from fans and the media came up. As a result, structural changes were announced in January 2008: Boris Capla, his character Managing Director of Hamburg Freezers should focus exclusively on the administrative side of the club and retire from the sport. Bob Leslie, to date, assistant coach, was promoted to sports managers. For this purpose, the contract of head coach Bill Stewart was extended for another year. Sporty Hamburg could not convince again. Through a winning streak of eight consecutive victories at the end of the season, the Freezers were the main round in seventh place and finish and thus achieve the qualifying round of the playoffs. With two wins against ERC Ingolstadt in the pre- playoffs, the Freezers qualify for the final. There, the team defeated the Polar Bears Berlin. The audience were now no longer satisfactory and fallen far short of expectations. So only 8,834 spectators to the home matches of the Hamburg on average come. This was a decrease of 1,459 compared to the previous season.

Since 2008: investing in the future and sporting misery

The largest project of the association was to initiate a Third Arena in Hamburg. Located next to the main venue, the Color Line Arena was a center of excellence for the sport of ice hockey and ball sports. The People's Bank Arena to provide the public since November 1, 2008 after 18 months of construction opportunities for skating, Freezers, their youth teams and other clubs in Hamburg to train there. This was made possible by the Alexander Otto Sports Foundation the next club president Dr. Andreas Mattner belong to other members of the Board Freezers as curators.

Like the previous season was the 2008/ 09 not successful. On 13 December 2008, the management of Freezers finally separated after a 0-4 home defeat against Straubing by head coach Bill Stewart. As followers committed the club management Paul Gardner, with which the team reached the eighth place at the end of the main round and thus, qualified as in the two previous years, for the pre- playoffs. There, the team won the best of three series against the Frankfurt Lions and was thus qualified for the play-offs. In the quarterfinals, the Hamburg Freezers met the polar bears Berlin, where they lost in four straight games. After the sporty minimal goal was reached in the early season with eighth place in the main round, the club's management extended the contract with head coach Paul Gardner for another year. After the dismissal of sporting director Bob Leslie Boris Capla care back to the sport.

On 29 September 2009, the Hamburg Freezers gave an immediate leave of absence from CEO Boris Capla known. Capla was blamed for the plight of the sporting hamburger from six defeats in a row. The leadership of the club took over temporarily Detlev Cornet and Moritz Hillebrand (both Anschutz Entertainment Group ).

December 1, 2009 Michael took over path the work the Managing Director of the Hamburg Freezers. The 2009/10 season was a disappointing one for Freezers and was finished in second to last place in the table. For the first time in their history, they missed a place in the play-offs. After the season numerous players and coach Paul Gardner and assistant coach Daniel Naud had to leave the Freezers.

Team

Squad of the 2013/14 season

( As of January 30, 2013)

Player

Internal club records

(All statistics are on the level at the end of the season 2008 /09. )

Significant former players

( Team membership and position in brackets)

• Jean -Sébastien Giguère Canada (2004 - 2005, Tor)

• Czech Republic Roman Cechmanek (2005 - 2006, Tor)

• Boris Rousson (2002 - 2007, Tor)

• Germany Christian Künast (2002 - 2004, Tor)

• Canada Dan Lambert (2003 - 2004, defense)

• Shane Peacock (2003 - 2006, defense)

• Canada Darren Van Impe (2003 - 2006, defense)

• Germany Heiko Smazal (2002 - 2007, defense)

• Canada Cory Cross (2006 - 2007, defense)

• Rob Leask (2006 - 2009, defense)

• Canada Andy Delmore (2007 - 2009, defense)

• Finland Jere Karalahti (2008 - 2010, defense)

• Canada Dave Tomlinson (2003 - 2005, Forward )

• Canada Andrew Schneider (2002 - 2004, Forward )

• Canada Mike Stevens (2002 - 2003, Forward )

• Canada Jesse Bélanger (2002 - 2003, Forward )

• United States Ted Drury (2002 - 2003, Forward )

• Canada Bobby House (2002 - 2005, Forward )

• United States Jim Dowd (2004 - 2005, Forward )

• Germany Alexander Barta (2005 - 2011, Forward )

• United States Craig Johnson (2005 - 2006, Forward )

• Jacek Płachta (2002 - 2007, Forward )

• Canada François Fortier (2005 - 2010, Forward )

• Canada Brad Smyth (2006 - 2009, Forward )

• Wayne Hynes (2003 - 2005, Forward )

• Germany Jürgen Rumrich (2004 - 2005, Forward )

• Canada Clarke Wilm (2008 - 2010, Forward )

• John Tripp (2007 - 2010, Forward )

Participation of players in the All -Star Game

Some players of the Hamburg Freezers were nominated for the DEL All- Star game, a friendly match, which takes place every year since 1998 and compete in the most outstanding player of the German Ice Hockey League against each other.

Coach

The first coach of the Hamburg Freezers after moving from Munich was Canadian Sean Simpson, who was employed by the Munich Barons since 1999. Simpson reached with the Freezers in season 2002/ 03 after an eighth place after the main round immediately became the play-off quarter-finals. In the summer of 2003, he was after he returned to Switzerland to EV train, replaced by his compatriot Dave King, with the team in the season 2003/ 04 reached the play-off semi-finals. On 2 March 2005 King was released. His successor was the former assistant coach Mike Schmidt, who had until November 25, 2006 at the office. Schmidt, current assistant coach of the DEG Metro Stars, was initially only interim coach, but was later fitted with a contract as coach.

He was succeeded by the Italo -Canadian Bill Stewart, who qualified with the team in the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 for the first round of the play -offs, but there lost every time. His contract was extended by the 2007/ 08 season despite ongoing criticism from fans and the unfulfilled goals of the team. After poor team performance and an unsatisfactory situation in the table in the following season Stewart was suspended in December 2008 by his service as head coach. After then Bob Leslie for five days in charge of the training, required the club's management on December 18, 2008 Paul Gardner, whose contract was extended in the summer of 2009 until the end of the season 2009/10. In the season 2010/2011 Stéphane Richer was coach until he was replaced by Benoit Laporte.

Home club

The Freezers have a youth national team, the " Freezers Juniors ". These are recruited from various North German clubs. Furthermore, at present, an additional strand under the label established by a cooperation agreement with the HSV- Hockey "Young Freezers in HSV " and thus ensures the offspring of the Bambinis by all age groups. In addition a jointly operated with the HSV -country school.

The founding board members of the association counted, who died in August 2006 Publisher John year. The German -Canadian Boris Rousson, former goalkeeper of Freezers in the DEL, initiated due to an injury that forced him to take a break, but the field of youth work in the initial phase, 2007, he left the club. In 2009 he returned to Hamburg, where it is since then working as assistant coach of the first team. Professional youth coach is now the Swede Morgan Svensson. Further facilities include a Hansy Dreher, Thomas Mittner, Sven Julius and Ingo Römer on the coaching staff. The aim is to establish a team in the German Junior League, among other things in the near future.

Venue

The team play their home games at the O2 World Hamburg (until April 2010 Color Line Arena ) Identified in Hamburg. The arena was the most modern multifunctional arena in Europe at its opening in November 2002. With an average of 11,000 spectators per game, the Hamburg Freezers belonged initially to the best-attended ice hockey teams in Europe. Already, in its inaugural season in 2002/ 03 reached the Freezers with an average of over 10,000 visitors per home game in the Europa rating went straight to number three behind the SC Bern ( 12,359 visitors) and the Cologne Sharks ( 11,921 visitors). This third place in the Europe-wide audience favor defended the Freezers in the following seasons, slipped, however in the season 2005/ 06 in the rankings at number five from ( behind Berne, Cologne, Gothenburg, Mannheim), as for example in Mannheim the average attendance by the construction of the SAP - Arena rose.

In the 2007 /08 season of spectator interest also broke due sporty little more attractive performances of Freezers something: A total of 28 group matches on average were only just 8,800 visitors - with 9,500 spectators, the club's management calculated before the season. The cup game against Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg was even visited by only 2,500 spectators. For 2008/ 09 the management of the Hamburg Freezers calculated with an average of 9,500 spectators. However, the actual average attendance was just under 8,000 spectators. During the 2009/10 season, which was completed on the penultimate place in the table, were only average 6,993 spectators in the arena.

As a training facility, the People's Bank Arena, which is located in close proximity to the O2 World Hamburg Freezers use since November 4, 2008. In addition to the 2,600 -square-foot ice rink located there is also the new training complex of the club. Total found 300 spectators in the People's Bank Arena. The hall is not only used for the training sessions, but also for various preparation games. The construction of the arena in which to train the handball player of the HSV Hamburg, around 15 million euro cost and was largely financed by the Alexander Otto Sports Foundation.

( Indicated is the total utilization of each season Main Round )

Club culture

Fans and club structure

The Hamburg Freezers eV is organized as a members club with associated fan groups. Organs are the General Assembly and the Executive Board. On the board, there is one representative of the other two hamburgischen Hockey clubs, the HSV- hockey and the Crocodiles. The Freezers are members of the HERV (Hamburger ice hockey and roller sports federation) and HSB (Hamburger Sport Association ). The association takes various social tasks, taking care of the youth work, organizes events and trips through. The professional game farm is situated in a GmbH, which also largely performs all organizational tasks. This company is part of the AEG ( Anschutz Entertainment Group ) from the USA. GmbH and club are bracketed by a five-member Executive Committee, which is responsible in particular for marketing, fan and representation tasks. The members include the president of the long -time CEO of the association, Dr. Andreas Mattner and the directors of the company, Michael path as Vice President.

Social Commitment

The Hamburg Freezers involved in the promotion of youth sports, it was, among other things, the project "Freeze Style - We make school " was founded. This visit Player of the DEL clubs schools in the city of Hamburg in order to encourage the interest of young people in a sporting activity. In particular, the association takes care to children and young people from socially disadvantaged parts of the city. Furthermore collect Freezers donations and forward them to schools further, so as to promote the maintenance of sports equipment and sports halls. Also supports the club, which was founded by Freezers player John Tripp " Tripp Charity". It will be auctioned hockey stick before home games of the Hamburg various items such as jerseys, tickets or used by the pros. The proceeds will then Fördergemeinschaft Children's Cancer Center Hamburg donated eV. At the end of the 2008/ 09 John Tripp collected in this way more than 40,000 euros.

Mascot

The mascots were in the 2010/2011 season and Body Check, 2 Yetis. They were mostly in the stands, as they are run in their presentation on the ice against each other and lost one of them upside down. The old mascot, the Freezer, was abolished, since he brought no happiness.

Having had finally outstripped in the 2011/2012 season in the game of LA Kings Bailey, the mascot of the Kings and body check, body check and were mothballed. For the opening game of the season 2012/2013 Bailey then brought his "cousin" Stanley as the new mascot to Hamburg.