The beer steins are bigger but the profile of ice hockey much smaller, lost in the shadow of soccer.
The setting might be foreign, yet it's still almost like Island old home week at the 2012 Deutschland Cup ice-hockey tournament taking place in Munich, Germany.
The Canadian team, which lost 3-2 to the host Germans on Friday and 5-2 to Slovakia on Saturday, plays Switzerland today and is led by Carsen Germyn of Campbell River and former NHLer Matt Pettinger of Victoria.
The Canadian head coach for the tournament is former Victoria Cougars WHL junior star Rich Chernomaz of Port Alberni.
Fans of the Victoria Salmon Kings will recall Canadian team forward Connor James as a lethal former ECHL opponent with the Bakersfield Condors.
Although Germany is the defending men's field-hockey gold-medallist from the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Summer Olympics, it is only considered a second-tier nation in ice hockey at the Winter Olympics. Yet its burgeoning top pro league - Deutsche Eishockey Liga - has proven a popular destination for Canadian pros looking for that European state of mind.
Pettinger plays for the Hamburg Freezers, former WHL junior Germyn for the Straubing Tigers and James for the Nuremberg Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers, while Chernomaz coaches ERC Ingolstadt.
Jamie Benn of Victoria is spending the NHL lockout as teammates with Pet-tinger on Hamburg - the Dallas Stars standout has six goals and 12 points in 11 games for the Freezers - but is not eligible to play for Canada in the Deutschland Cup.
The tournament began in 1987.
