When you have Chris DiDomenico on your team, you get the whole package: the brilliant player who can decide a duel. The charismatic provocateur, who sometimes loses heart and ignores the trainer’s specifications about ice age and the system.
Who can sing a song about it is Heinz Ehlers. The Dane coached DiDomenico for three seasons in Langnau. Longer than any other bus in Switzerland. When asked about his former player, Ehlers has to smile at first. “No coach will say that DiDo is a bad person,” said the 57-year-old, “I like him a lot. But yes, it wasn’t always easy.”
The Danish national coach describes the Canadian as extremely ambitious and that he will do everything he can to win. What wouldn’t be a problem in itself becomes one with DiDomenico: “It becomes a challenge for him that he likes to stay on the ice longer because he believes he can win the game on his own.”
Ehlers also let DiDo stew
As in Bern, one of the consequences in Langnau was teammates complaining about the extended ice time of the striker. Ehlers tried to prevent this by sending a line onto the ice where none of the most famous players had to wait their turn. Ehlers asked DiDomenico about this mischievousness over and over, “as he showed he was insightful”. But this insight lasted only two or three games.
The ex-Tigers coach was not afraid to let DiDomenico stew in the stands as an extra foreigner, “he was angry every time”. So did he actually control the 34-year-old? “Yes, if we won and he scored. It was harder with him when things went bad and we lost.” That should also explain the differences in Bern.
For Ehlers, DiDomenico is a performer on skids when he runs. “If he is the best player in a team, you have to forgive him a few things. I did that from time to time.” But not always. The Dane regularly exhausted himself in discussions with his topper. “It’s true, it got on my nerves,” Ehlers said. But? “When I look back on those years, I still think positively because he won so many games for Langnau.”
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
