Dominik Bittner: "The exit is very disappointing"

Created: 02/22/2022, 13:30

By: Roland Halmel

The only sense of achievement: In the duel against China, Dominik Bittner (in the yellow and black jersey) celebrated a close 3:2 win.

All other games were lost, so the dream of an Olympic medal was shattered.

© dpa

For Dominik Bittner, the Olympics were the most important tournament of his life.

In the end, however, the national ice hockey player from Peißenberg boarded the plane home, disappointed.

Peißenberg

– The expectations and our own standards were high.

The German ice hockey selection, which started with great hopes of a medal, had to pack their bags early at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

After losing 4-0 to Slovakia in qualifying for the quarter-finals, the tournament was over for Dominik Bittner from Peißenberg and his teammates.

The dream of another Olympic medal after silver four years ago in Pyeongchang was over.

It wasn't a good game from us, not at all.

Dominik Bittner on the duel against Slovakia

"The end is very disappointing," reported the 29-year-old defender of the Wolfsburg Grizzlies, for whom the games in Beijing were the most important tournament of his life.

"You have to say very clearly that the Slovaks deserved the victory in full," Bittner didn't want to sugarcoat afterwards.

"It wasn't a good game from us, not at all," added Bittner.

Not only in this game did the German team fall short of expectations.

In terms of quality, the German team could have absolutely kept up with their competitors, who all played without players from the North American NHL.

Only the men of national coach Toni Söderholm never really found their way around on the small playing field, which corresponded to North American dimensions and not to European ones.

In the first game against Canada, Bittner was not in the squad

The first game against Canada was disappointing for Bittner in two ways.

National coach Söderholm had not called Peißenberger into the squad.

The 29-year-old then had to watch from the stands as his team-mates received a lesson from the Canadians at 1:5.

In the subsequent game against hosts and outsiders China, Bittner finally celebrated his Olympic premiere.

However, that was not a reason for overflowing joy for the Peißenberger.

The performance of the German national team was not exactly the yellow of the egg, after a 3-0 lead they still struggled to achieve a shaky 3-2 win.

Bittner was on the ice for 11:59 minutes.

The third group game of the DEB selection against the USA, in which the Peißenberger had 12:26 minutes of ice time, was lost with the same result.

Bittner continues to believe in the quality of the German team

Bittner was called up again against Slovakia.

He was involved in the game for 10:09 minutes, which was ultimately lost and which sealed the end of the Olympics.

"Nevertheless, the belief and self-confidence in German ice hockey is still absolutely there," assured Bittner.

He is still convinced of the German team and their qualities.

At the World Championships in Finland, Bittner and the German team want to make people forget the Olympics

With the World Championships in Finland (May 13th to 29th), another major tournament is on the program for the DEB selection this year.

There, Bittner & Co. want to make the early Olympics end forgotten and build on more successful times again.

However, the Peißenberger didn't have much time to think about the disappointing tournament in Beijing.

For the defender, normal profile life in the DEL continued.

After the flight home last Thursday, he was back in the Wolfsburg squad a day later for their guest appearance with the Straubing Tigers.

However, this game could not offer consolation for Bittner: The duel in the Lower Bavarians was lost 1:5.

Next Friday, Bittner and his grizzlies will play at home against the Nürnberg Ice Tigers.