2 days ago
Patrice Bergeron and others believe Marco Sturm can do for the Bruins what he did seven years ago for Team Germany
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It was engineered by Marco Sturm.
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'He changed the culture,' recalled Christian Künast, one of Sturm's assistant coaches and now the director of the German Ice Hockey Federation. Describing Sturm as 'the best coach I've ever worked with,' Künast raved from his office in Germany.
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'Obviously we didn't have too many NHL players at that time. It's still new for us, something special when a German player makes it to the NHL,' Künast said. 'He had so much success, scored goals, everyone knew him in the hockey world in Germany. But his biggest influence was when he started as the national team coach.'
The coaching carousel spun Sturm in different directions since then, to being an NHL assistant with the Kings and then the head coach of Los Angeles's AHL affiliate for the past three seasons. It was what Sturm accomplished with Team Germany that feels so applicable to what he faces with these Bruins.
Just listen to Künast.
'I remember we lost in the quarterfinals in the 2017 World Championships to Canada at home,' he said. 'We lost, 2-1. The feeling in the dressing room was, 'OK, we made the quarters, everything is great. We lost to Canada, no big deal.' Marco changed that. He was bitter and sour about it. He let everyone know about it. 'It's not good enough. We want to have more. We've got to change our attitude.' '
By the Olympics, Sturm's impact was clear, though not right away. Germany opened by getting thrashed, 5-2, by Finland, surrendering three power-play goals. Matt McIlvane was the assistant coach in charge of the penalty kill, an Illinois native who'd been coaching club hockey in Germany and joined the Olympic staff mere days before they departed for South Korea after another coach had to pull out. Now the head coach of the AHL's San Diego Gulls, McIlvane remembered feeling 'like I couldn't find a corner big enough to climb into, I felt so bad.'
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Sturm stayed the course, trusting McIlvane, trusting his players. A win over Norway in the final group stage game soon followed, and then … a run for the ages. The ninth of 12 seeds in the medal round, Germany soared, beating Switzerland, 2-1, and Sweden, 4-3, both in overtime. Then the real shocker —
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Late in the third, Germany clung to a 3-2 lead.
'And we got a power play,' said McIlvane. 'I remember on the bench, talking, should we put two [defensemen] on the ice? We agreed on that … they ended up pulling their goalie, and with 20 seconds left, they scored a goal, tying the game. Then we took a penalty in overtime, they scored against us four on three.
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'You won a silver medal, but it feels like you lost the gold. It pains me to talk about it even to this day.'
But disappointment eventually wanes, dulled as they arrived home to a massive airport welcoming party, embraced by a jubilant nation. The enormity of what they'd accomplished began to sink in.
'I think in that moment we were just pumped about the medal, but after a few years you realize it,' said NHL veteran and Germany team captain Marcel Goc, now a coach with the club Adler Mannheim. 'You need those moments of success for a team or individuals, like [Edmonton star] Leon Draisaitl is having right now, you get more attention, and more attention brings more players, which is what we need.'
Goc, who played with Sturm on the Florida Panthers, laughed as he relayed a message for his former teammate, 'Tell him to continue, keep it going for German players.'
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For now, that comes second to the Bruins, a franchise in the throes of a necessary reset where the roster needs more firepower —
'I was 20 years old when he came from San Jose,' Bergeron said in a telephone call Friday. 'I was trying to learn from the older guys, he was one of them. He was friendly, took me under his wing in a way, helped me along, always extremely respectful. He was a really great teammate, always there for you.'
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Like the rest of the world, Bergeron later watched in awe as Sturm turned the Olympics on its head.
'I was impressed with their run, definitely, the way they came together and went above expectations,' Bergeron said. 'It was great fun for me to see him behind the bench. It was the first time for me to see his demeanor, the way he was acting, because obviously I don't know him as a coach at all, but going from teammate to friend to seeing him behind the bench was exciting.'
Next up, Boston.
'There's a picture, the two of us celebrating together on the bench at the Olympics,' McIlvane said, 'I sent it to Marco with a text saying, 'This is the feeling I get when I see you're the head coach of the Bruins.' '
Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
