"I HAD THE GOOSEBUMPS all over my body when I stepped into the rink."

As a former Olympian himself, and President of the German Ice Hockey Association, Franz Reindl felt the emotions stirring at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

For what seemed like the first time ever - and perhaps that's the harsh truth - all eyes in the hockey world were on his program, his nation's team.

Reindl has a long history in German hockey as a player, a coach, a general manager and so on. And he'd been in this spot before.

In 1976, Reindl earned an Olympic bronze medal with the West Germany team. It was a magnificent feat, one that the nation's hockey fans held dearly. As of February 2018, German hockey had reached new heights.

Bronze was no longer the ultimate achievement.

"We have ups and downs," Reindl explained. "We're like an elevator and we go up and down and so '76 was a highlight, but you cannot measure it with what they did now.

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"I'm really happy the '76 story is over now. I'm really happy that this new generation has taken a big step and they are the heroes. We have silver heroes now. The bronze heroes are getting older or not alive anymore and you need some new stories. PyeongChang was a big, big story and I'm so happy for the boys."

The nation of Germany, players, fans, and media were amused when the Germans entered their quarterfinal matchup with Sweden. They were even more intrigued when the Germans beat the Swedes 4-3 to advance to the semi against Canada. Their collective jaws dropped when the Germans beat the Canadians 4-3 for a shot at the gold medal.

Although the Olympic Athletes from Russia would end the Germans' run, there were a lot of smiles on the faces of those lifting silver medals. Kahun, a Czech born, German forward, remembers the scene vividly.

"When we lost the game in overtime, at first guys were sad, guys were crying," said Kahun, who scored two goals and recorded three assists in seven games during the tournament.

But the sadness the Germans felt quickly evolved into near euphoric levels of happiness. Those emotions came with the realization of what they had done.

"I would say not even five minutes later we were all smiling," Kahun said. "We knew already, before the final, we had did it. We did the most out of German hockey. The gold medal game was like we had nothing to lose. We could play free and that's what we did. We were happy at the end."

German hockey had declared itself on hockey's world stage. Sure, there was an absence of NHL players at the 2018 Winter Games, but that takes nothing away from the Germans. They earned the recognition and the sense of accomplishment.

"As a former player and getting beat up a lot of the times with the National Team, being in PyeongChang, and seeing the team getting together every day more and more, increasing the success, it was just a dream," said Reindl. "The sport was unbelievable. Every day was a day of glory for German hockey."

"I think it was the biggest thing in German hockey, ever," Kahun said. "Probably, we hope not, but the percentage is high that we will never do it again. It's because we're still a small hockey country. But it's getting better and better. I think we showed that we have good guys, we just need to play as a team. We had very good coaching. I just hope we can go on. It's getting better and better."

To this day, the Olympics are Kahun's greatest hockey memory.

"Obviously, I have more highlights," he said. "I won three championships with Munich. I'm in the NHL. It's a dream come true, but the Olympics are right now the best thing that's ever happened to me. I think it's every athlete's dream to be in the Olympics. I just enjoyed every day. We had so much fun every day with all the guys and all the athletes. It was a highlight that we had a tournament like that."

"I was very proud," said Helmut de Raaf, Kahun's Under-18 head coach in Mannheim. "Dominik was one of 10 players on the German team I coached in junior. For a coach to watch his players, how they made it to play pro, it is the best [thing] that can happen."

Since that gold-medal game on Feb. 25, 2018, Reindl has met with hockey fans around the globe and has seen a meteoric rise in interest German hockey, no matter where his travels take him.

"I am in Canada, I'm in the USA, China and Sweden, and Finland the last couple of weeks and everybody is talking about PyeongChang, the success of the German team and, of course, winning against the big hockey nation of Canada and being so close to the gold medal," Reindl said. "We, as German hockey, are much more respected now than it was before."

Not just more, but "a lot more."

"It's changing dramatically," Reindl confirmed.

Reindl, born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1954, has been a life-long hockey fan. A top player in his country, he skated in nearly 200 games for the national team. He went to nine IIHF World Championships, three Olympic Games and one Canada Cup. It's an international career that commands respect, even when his team didn't get much of that even from his own countrymen… until now.

"The respect is also coming from the media and Germany," he said. "In Germany, soccer is all over. It's another world. They are on another planet. But now, we are respected. We are known as a sport. Even now in the streets, they are talking about waking up at five o'clock in the morning and watching hockey [during the Olympics.] Even in a city like Munich, a lot of lights turned on in apartments and houses and people are so funny [talking about it.]"

"We heard stories from Germany while in Korea that millions of people were waking up at four in the morning to watch a hockey game," Kahun said. "That hadn't happened before. The whole country was with us. It was crazy."

When Kahun flew home after the Olympics were complete, the German team first flew into Frankfurt.

"When we arrived at the airport, there were so many people waiting and it was the biggest thing in Germany when we played the final."

And then he flew on home to Munich, where Kahun and a few of his teammates were greeted by another enthused mob of supporters, waving flags and cheering.

"It has changed dramatically," repeated Reindl. "We are respected, we are well-known, we now are really in the sports market."

The Swedes have their style, the Russians have theirs. Canadians, Americans, the Finns… they're all unique in some way. So, what defines a German hockey player?

"German hockey… We are hard workers," Reindl said. "Team players, hard workers. That's our biggest thing. We're based on good goalies, good defense and we are a strong opponent. That's German hockey... It's close to North American hockey."

Now with the silver medal in hand and rise of young players in the NHL like Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl and Chicago's Dominik Kahun, you can perhaps add "here to stay" to those descriptions of German hockey.

"The silver medal was a great moment for German hockey," said de Raaf. "We all enjoyed it a lot, but it was just an incredible moment. We are not a top six nation in the hockey world, but the silver medal helps us to increase. More kids are playing hockey."