The Spengler Cup is not only a definite highlight for Team Canada, but also for some of its players. For example, the forward from Langnau, Chris DiDomenico, will be travelling to Davos for the fifth time this week.

It is well known that in ice hockey not only physical but also verbal exchanges take place. Because the public cannot hear this in the noisy stadiums, the often not youth-appropriate content of the so-called “trash talk” usually remains amongst the players. But not so in the final game of the Spengler Cup 2015, where a TV microphone on the penalty bench recorded a rather hefty tirade that Lugano defender Lorenz Kienzle (now playing for Davos) made against Chris DiDomenico of Team Canada. It's a sequence that revealed to the audience, in an unflattering but rather impressive way, what strong emotions are involved in such a situation. 
"What happens in the game remains in the game," Chris DiDomenico says succinctly. The story is long forgotten. Nevertheless, it somehow suits the thoroughbred striker, whose game lives to a large extent from his emotions. Thanks to these emotions, on a good evening he can decide a game by his own doing, while on a not so good evening he can harm his team’s chances. He says he always wants to win when he goes on the ice. "Winning is everything - that's how I grew up, that's how I learned, that's how I made my way." 

In fact, the now 30-year-old Canadian has had a remarkable career. Although he embarked on his professional career as a successful junior (U-20 world champion with Canada in 2009) and NHL draft (2007, Toronto Maple Leafs), it just wouldn’t get off the ground in the North American farm team leagues. In 2012, he initiated a new start with Asagio in Italy, followed by a move to Langnau in the second highest Swiss league in Spring of 2014. There, he impressed the scouts to such an extent that he was called up by Team Canada for the Spengler Cup for the first time - as the only player from the NLB, of course. At the end of that season, he became the outstanding driving force in the ascension of the SCL Tigers to the National League, where he first manages to establish himself as a valuable B-foreigner and is then offered a contract with the Ottawa Senators. When it doesn't quite work out in the NHL, he returns to Langnau in 2018 after just one season. But with 27 games in the best league in the world, he has fulfilled his childhood dream. "You must never give up, because you never know what chance the next day will bring," says DiDomenico. "That's what my story has shown.

You can see that Chris DiDomenico is completely at peace with his career. Meanwhile, he also speaks of Langnau as his second home. He feels comfortable in the rural idyll of the Emmental. For that matter, this also includes the week between Christmas and New Year’s with Team Canada at the Spengler Cup in Davos - the traditional event – of which he can already look back on four participations (2014, 2015, 2016, 2018) and two tournament victories (2015, 2016). "It's always a special thing to play for your country," he says. That's why it's only logical for him to accept each invitation. Of course, the excellent atmosphere and the family visit - his parents will be coming for the second time this year, his aunt and uncle for the first time - are also good aspects. The most important thing for Chris DiDomenico, however, is another - the chance to win.

Text: SLAPSHOT/Matthias Müller
Photo: KEYSTONE/Melanie Duchene