New signing with NHL past

Created: 12/02/2022, 10:00 am

By: Wolfgang Krzizok

They celebrated in the first leg, but nobody is there in the second leg: Erdinger (from left) Marc Barchmann - he has left the Gladiators - and the currently injured strikers Christoph Furtner and Elias Maier were happy about the 3-1 win against Kempten.

Archi © Christian Riedel

One goes, one comes with the Erding Gladiators.

Erding – Two important games with unpredictable opponents lie ahead for the Erding Gladiators this weekend.

Tonight (8 p.m.) we’re at home against EV Pegnitz and on Sunday (5:30 p.m.) against ESC Kempten.

But team boss Felix Schütz has serious personal problems due to injuries and illnesses.

In addition, a player has left the club.

Another came for that – with an NHL past: Tomas Plihal.

The transfer window in the ice hockey leagues opened again on December 1st and a lot has happened at the clubs.

The Erding Gladiators have also become active.

This is urgently needed because the shortage of staff has worsened.

Only Erik Modlmayr will come back today after recovering from his injury.

In addition to the long-term injured Leon Abstreiter and Christoph Furtner, Elias Maier will also be missing - and even longer.

The originally diagnosed tear in the tibia has now turned out to be a fracture.

The all-rounder therefore has to pause for a few more weeks.

Lukas Krämmer is also out due to illness, as are some of the Erdinger U20 players, most notably Tobi Cramer.

"It's good that we have licensed players from Landshut available again," says Schütz, who also has to do without Sebastian Busch tonight for work reasons.

"But Buschi will be back on Sunday," hopes the Gladiators coach.

Marc Barchmann is no longer in the squad.

The 35-year-old striker, who comes from near Augsburg, only had a contract that expired on November 30.

"It was all too stressful for him," explains Schütz.

With an upper body injury, Ryan Murphy recently dragged himself across the ice, says Erding's team manager, "and Ryan still gave everything".

The Canadian now has time to recover as a new player signed with the Gladiators last night and is expected to hit the ice today: Tomas Plihal.

The 39-year-old Czech, who comes from Liberec, played almost 100 NHL games for the San Jose Sharks between 2006 and 2009.

Later he was active in the first Finnish league for several years, then back in his Czech homeland and finally also with EV Landshut and the Eisbären Regensburg, among others.

"Let's hope that everything works out with the player pass and that I can use it at the weekend," says Schütz.

"And that we can get three blocks together."

The two weekend opponents are completely unknown to him.

Of course, the Erdinger team boss didn't escape the fact that Pegnitz was penultimate, but he also knows: "They beat leader Miesbach last time." This result alone should be warning enough not to underestimate this opponent.

He describes Kempten as an "extremely important game" because the Sharks are ahead of the Gladiators in the table, but within striking distance.

"I'm looking forward to Kempten," explains Schütz.

"Because I've never been to the stadium."