Uwe Krupp - Coaching Career

Coaching Career

After announcing his retirement Krupp coached the TPHThunder AAA Bantam hockey team. This was short lived as he was quickly appointed as an Assistant Coach to the German Junior National team. Working up the ranks, he was appointed as an Assistant Coach to the Men's National team under Greg Poss in 2005. Then, shortly before the Torino Olympics, Krupp was made coach of the German national ice hockey team on December 15, 2005, replacing Poss who resigned under heavy fire from the German media. Krupp had strong feelings that the German media never gave Poss his fair chance, using the excuse that Poss was from North America to stonewall any chance Poss may have had of success.

However, Krupp had drastic lineup changes in store before the 2005 World Championship "B-Pool" tournament. Facing strong criticism from the German tabloid media, Krupp chose a team of young players, leaving behind seven veterans from the Torino team, in addition to the top goal scorer in the German league. Skewing the team towards youth, he chose players who had led the Junior National team out of the "B-Pool" to lead the Germans past Israel, Hungary, Great Britain, Japan and the home country France. With an unheard of average age of 22, the Germans outscored opponents 35–4 during their four game ascent into the "A" group.