BERLIN — The fans, some wearing San Jose Sharks jerseys, crowded around while Nico Sturm and Steven Lorentz selected hockey sticks.
The Sharks centers tried out a couple, chose the best, and walked up to the testing grounds: the Hardest Shot competition at the 2022 NHL Global Fan Tour, held at Mercedes Platz outside Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin.
Three tries each later Sturm was the winner, his 89 mph shot besting Lorentz’s mere 86 mph.
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The pair fist-bumped and moved on to the next event.
“Those sticks were flexing pretty good,” Sturm said later.
Joked Lorentz, “It’s tough to lean on a stick when you’re 200 pounds and the stick bends like a noodle. But no, I’ve got no excuse. All in all, I wasn’t super impressed with my performance today.” the skills competition.”
The Sharks are in Berlin for the Global Series Challenge against Eisbaren Berlin of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga at Mercedes-Benz Arena on Tuesday (2 p.m. ET; NHLN, NBCSCA). After that, the Sharks will join the Nashville Predators in Prague to open the season at the 2022 NHL Global Series at the O2 Arena on Friday and Saturday.
The crowd at the Global Fan Tour was in high spirits Monday on German Unity Day, a national holiday in Germany, as it watched Sturm and Lorentz take part in the Hardest Shot, the Hat Trick Challenge — where hats are thrown ring-toss style. onto hockey sticks — and the Long Shot Competition, where the players send pucks down a long runway and into a net.
Sturm got two out of three on the Hat Trick Challenge and got to give himself a pat on the back.
“Especially for European fans, the game’s pretty far away sometimes,” Sturm said. “Certainly easier nowadays with the media and the internet and stuff. For me as a kid, it was a league that was not touchable in any way; every once in a while you’d maybe check out a highlight on YouTube, I know that’s a valuable experience for fans.”
Sturm, from Augsburg, Germany, was a particular draw and he acted as a translator for Lorentz during the autograph signing.
“This is my first time here and just seeing the whole turnout, hockey fans, sports fans in general, it’s great to see and it’s so fun to be a part of,” Lorentz said. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It was great to meet everybody there today. Obviously ‘Sturmy’s’ home country, so it helps that he speaks the language.”
He was thrilled to see all the Sharks gear there, including Joe Thornton and Brent Burns jerseys, items now personalized by the two players.
“I expected a lot of hockey jerseys, but the amount of Sharks fans that turned out was great to see,” Lorentz said. “Obviously hockey’s growing internationally so it’s great to see that in Germany there are so many hockey fans and especially Sharks fans.”
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