CHL founding member Eisbären Berlin have made a coaching change, relieving Jeff Tomlinson with former Kölner Haie bench boss Uwe Krupp.

Club News

BERLIN – On Tuesday, Eisbären Berlin announced that they were relieving Jeff Tomlinson of his head coaching duties after a year and a half on the job. At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Uwe Krupp was officially announced as the team's new head coach. Krupp previously spent three seasons as the head coach of Kölner Haie and five years as head coach of Germany’s national team.

Tomlinson spent the last three seasons of his active career with Eisbären before retiring in 2003. He then began a coaching career in Berlin and, after stints in Dusseldorf and Nuremburg, returned to Berlin in 2012. 

“Since 2000, he has been a part of the Eisbären franchise, with some breaks of course, but our mission statement ´Once an Eisbär, always an Eisbär` counts for him as well,” Berlin general manager Peter John Lee said of Tomlinson on Tuesday. “We talked a lot in the last couple of days and had to make a decision.” 

Last season, Berlin finished eighth in the 14-team DEL before being eliminated by eventual champion ERC Ingolstadt in the play-in round. So far this season they are tied for eighth after 28 games. In the Champions Hockey League, Berlin were a disappointment, claiming only three points and finishing last place in Group D. 

“He’s a good coach but, unfortunately, the team performance wasn’t were we had hoped it would be,” said director of sports Stefan Ustorf. “We are thankful for his hard work during the last year and a half, but we needed to make an impact with the team now.”

Krupp, of course, is no stranger to the DEL and is a familiar face in the international hockey world. After a playing career that spanned more than two decades and included a Stanley Cup championship with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996, Krupp became the face of German hockey at the head of its national team. After over three seasons at the helm of Köln, he was relieved of his duties there in early October after a slow start. Krupp's charges finished tied for third in Group A of the CHL.

"I am tremendously anticipating this job in Berlin," Krupp said at Wednesday's presser. "Everything's happened very quickly in the last few days. A lot of things here are new to me, but I'm looking forward to a new challenge."