After the abrupt end at Fribourg-Gottéron, Christian Dubé fell into a deep hole. Now the 48-year-old has found his passion again in Biel and wants to lead the Seelanders into the play-in.
26.02.2026, 04:46
26.02.2026, 06:58
SDA
Anyone watching Christian Dubé on the sidelines will see him cheering on and directing his players, meticulously mapping out the next moves on the tactics board and patiently giving his players instructions. After a match, he gives them a motivating pat on the helmet or shoulder. Anyone who sees this can only come to the conclusion that Christian Dubé is passionate about coaching ice hockey.
But it wasn't so long ago that the 48-year-old was downright disgusted by his sport, which he had once fallen in love with in the Canadian province of Quebec. Ice hockey had been with Dubé his whole life. In Canadian junior leagues, in the junior ranks of HC Martigny, where he first laced up his skates in Switzerland as a 14-year-old, later when he became one of the most spectacular players on Swiss ice in Lugano, Bern and with Fribourg, and then after moving to the boards.
Stream instead of ice rink
But in May 2024, Dubé has had enough. Enough of ice hockey, enough of ice rinks, enough of everything that had shaped his life for so long. That's when he had to leave Fribourg-Gottéron. The club he had been a part of for over 14 years, first as a player, then as sports director and coach. It was a dismissal that hit Dubé hard. He finds it difficult to accept the decision taken by those responsible. After all, he had reached the playoff semi-finals several times with Gottéron and most recently finished second in the qualifiers.
"The first year without a job was very hard for me," says Dubé in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. He explains how he withdrew and spent most of his time at home. He doesn't even make the pilgrimage to the Fribourg Patinoire for the games of his two sons Sky and Liam, who are both involved in Gottéron's junior team. Instead, he makes do with a stream on his laptop.
In a way, says Dubé, he felt something like heartbreak after the end in Fribourg. After all, a long-term relationship had ended abruptly and unexpectedly for him. "I first had to find out where I was and where I wanted to be as a person," he says. When Dubé accompanied his sons, who had found shelter at Davos in the meantime, to a game in Graubünden last August, he felt that he was ready again. That he would like to work with a team again.
Two emotional bullheads
In the fall, he had loose contact with a few teams, but this did not result in a commitment. It was not until Martin Steinegger, an old acquaintance, was on the other side of the line in January that the situation quickly changed. And Dubé is "back in the business", as he puts it.
Steinegger is the sporting director of EHC Biel, and when he is looking for a successor to the Swede Martin Filander, he soon thinks of his old companion. The two celebrated two championship titles together at SC Bern, and even when Dubé held the role of sports director at Gottéron, they regularly exchanged ideas. It is therefore not surprising that Dubé was at the top of Steinegger's list of candidates.
"He trusts me and he knows how I work," says Dubé. "We see field hockey in a similar way, and we're both emotional and rather stubborn." Dubé laughs. It is obvious that he is enjoying being back in the field hockey business. Although the task he faces in Biel is not the easiest. Dubé is supposed to lead the Seelanders to the play-in places in the last five rounds of the National League qualifiers. The Canadian is well on his way to fulfilling this mission. The EHCB have collected ten points in the six games under Dubé and have scored in all but one game.
After Tuesday's 4:3 penalty shootout win in Lugano, the gap to cantonal rivals Bern (9th) and Langnau (10th) is now four and three points respectively. "I'm very happy with the boys," says Dubé, pointing out that he didn't really have time to communicate his ideas to the team and practise them in training until the three-week Olympic break.
"Age is not a factor"
Dubé wants to see a team that has a lot of puck possession and is creative offensively. "We have a lot of creative players and I want them to use their freedom and have fun on the ice." He envisions a playing philosophy similar to the one he installed at Fribourg. Accordingly, the development of young players is also a central concern for him. Niklas Blessing (19), Mark Sever (21) and Jonah Neuenschwander (16) are just three examples of the implementation of this plan. "Age is not a factor. If you're good, you'll get a lot of minutes," says Dubé.
He knows that voices have already been raised this season denouncing the productivity of foreign players. Harri Säteri, the Finnish Olympic champion in goal, has also been criticized for his catch rate. However, Dubé does not want to rehash discussions that took place before his time in Biel. "I know that in Switzerland you're always focused on the import players," he says. "But it's not just about them. The whole team has to be better for us to make it into the play-in."
Dubé has signed a contract in Biel until the end of the coming season. However, he can well imagine staying in Seeland for a long time. Much reminds him of his old love Fribourg. The bilingualism, the philosophy, the stadium, the fans. He says: "I feel at home."
