HCP 5/7 GAME OVER

I feel Ray Lewis' postgame locker room speech bears listening to after the defeat to HCP in Game 5. We should have won this, but HCP forced their way back into the game late in P3 and took over in OT. That they then got swept in the final by Graz muddies the waters a bit, but ZG assures me that they didn't play anything like they did against us. Perhaps that's a somewhat mucky feather in our cap, that after sleepwalking through the first 3 games, our games 4 and 5 really took it out of them? If only we'd woken up a game or two earlier...

I can't get this Aaron Rodgers clip out of my head - HCP still owns us, unfortunately, just as he owned the Bears. 

The OHB silence for most of this month has been twofold - a continued bad luck run of sickness/injury and a conscious letting things settle. 

What can we say about this season, before the Roundtable Boys End of Season Review/Awards? Well, a 3rd place podium finish is an undeniably fantastic start to the CC era. Our offense really popped throughout the season and in the quarter-finals in a way that is scarcely believable compared to the previous two years. Winning a series against HCB was truly amazing after our previous pre-playoff defeats.

On the business side of things, it was an unmitigated success. As ED pointed out, the club had 30 new sponsors this year, +1000 average attendance, double the attendance in 2-3 years, a sold out Hala Tivoli (with ticket prices up to 23e for the playoffs) for the first time in 10 years... All this bolsters the club tremendously and sets us up for future success as an organisation. Well done to Mr Ulčar, Mr Butara and the whole backroom team. It's easy to take this stuff for granted and focus on the hockey, but one doesn't exist without the other. 

What are the key areas we need to improve for next year?

• Team defence. We got better in the playoffs, but still had some calamitous breakdowns that fed the Bruneckian wolves. Our high-press, OZ possession style of play led to far too many rush chances being given up, which often left goalies who were not Lukaš Horak high and dry. I worry that this is a feature rather than a bug in the CC system, but perhaps AT can get a better handle on things in Y2 under CC.

• Youth development. OHB readers are well aware this is a sticking point for me. I want to see more of an effort to promote our young players as well as incorporate some flashy new signings. Injecting talent while developing greater sustainability will be, as the army of Ugandan Knuckles used to say on VR Chat, "de wey". I understand our No1 goal is an imminent title, but we must ensure we are simultaneously laying a good foundation for the future, once our older players are retired. A friend of mine I respect very much brought up the example of the Montreal Canadiens, who have their entire young core signed up long term. We can't mirror that easily, as we have no draft to dip into, but we can keep pushing the guys we do have to assume bigger roles (e.g. Beričič, Mehle, Ćosić, Bohinc, Bukovec, Sodja - even Kumanović deserves more of a shot).

• Team leadership. I think we can see that Sabla was too much of a fiery Jamie Benn type of captain and not enough of a statesmanlike Žiga Pavlin type of captain. Jan Urbas' return to the fold is a ready-made fix, as is Žiga Jeglić, a former Jesenice man who wasn't quite so flagrant as Sabla in his days in red. Jeglić's experience and technical wizardry will surely help the team significantly, even if he is getting on in age, like Urbas. 

• Curse-breaking. As VBT pointed out to me, we need to avoid signing another HCP player. The past three seasons we have signed one or more and then lost to them in the playoffs (Pavlin/Ege+Atwal/Petan). As he said, break the curse!

Signings

As already mentioned above, signing Žiga Jeglič and Jan Urbas from the same DEL team is a big boon to our chances next year. Skilled Slovene veterans with proven and lengthy track records, the latter of which must be the presumptive new Captain, should always be welcome. 

No one else has been announced yet, but the team already stated their intention was to bring in Reid McNeill for next season. Given that they already managed to sign him for the playoffs this year, alongside his injury dampening his market, I think it's a safe bet to say he'll be staying with us. 

I don't want to enter into rumours about other signings or people leaving, as that has got me into more trouble than I'd like. That kind of stuff is a bit of an empty social media hype mirage, anyway. Plus, I get the juiciest information when I agree to keep it to myself!

Re-signings (as of May 2nd)

• Brennan and Meyer. It's brilliant to get them both back, the MVP and most efficient player in the league, respectively. It wouldn't be CC hockey without them, as they were such huge drivers of our play this season.
• Boychuk. I think this is good for synergy and consistency. For me, I think we could do with more dazzling link play from a 1C, but he did score quite a few clutch goals, so you can't complain too much.
• Mahkovec. Really pleased to see he is staying with us. Out of any of the young guys, Marcel is the likeliest to be attracting attention from better leagues. I did get his Slovenia jersey in part to hedge against him leaving, so I am glad that has not happened just yet!

Who is left? Well, Tokarski is reportedly out already, as Horak's recovery is going well enough that he won't be needed to start in the new season. Whilst it would have been nice to have a Horak-Tokarski tandem, there's limited money to go around and Horak has already said he wants to start as much as possible. Pairing him with an improving Kolin makes sense. 

Jan Drozg would be someone else to re-sign, but he must have offers to consider. Perhaps his disjointed season will work in our favour; I would love to have him back. The status of Petan, Halbert, MacWilliam and others is up in the air. I'll discuss developments whenever they occur, officially. 

As Nintendo execs say, please look forward to the Roundtable Boys end of season review, which will be expanded beyond the usual suspects as I trial a decentralised version. 

HCP 4/7

OLL 5 - 4 HCP (OT)

BOYCHUK AND SIMŠIČ SAVE THE DAY

DRAGONS DEFY ERRORS TO RESURRECT THEIR CHANCES

We're not dead yet!

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/undertaker-coffin-just-woke-up-wwe-gif-5289384

https://giphy.com/gifs/jm4nsAWdCV4Lm

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/171305372/Soldier-protecting-sleeping-child

Sodja returns, McNeill on crutches 

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/168871916/Marie-Kondo-Spark-Joy Plus OLL site and Insta. 

Kapel under Karhula:

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/chevy-chase-vegas-vacation-cocktail-gif-25195805

Kapel under CC:

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/goggins-david-goggins-work-get-back-to-work-back-to-work-gif-27698662

Goals (I had to bring this section back because we finally scored!)

P1

HCP - Oh-oh. Ćosić backhands the puck right into an oncoming HCP attacker's path as he is retreating from the NZ into our DZ. The ensuing 1-on-0 rush goes in. Hey, at least we only conceded in the first 10 minutes of the game, instead of the first 5, as in the previous games! Perhaps this is the Ćosić CC has seen in practise that has caused 14's limited playing time this year. Still, young D will make mistakes - let's see how he responds. 

OLL - Kapel from Pance and Ćosić. Ćosić helps to redeem his previous error by finding Pance, but it's the latter who does most of the work here, with a beautiful delayed pass around the defender's stick. Kapel is there at the back post to gratefully receive it. A just reward for Kapel's hard work this season and transformation under CC into such a dogged, reliable player. Let's not forget, last season he drifted back without a care in the world on the backcheck; now, he wouldn't dream of doing that. Finally, a goal that wasn't reviewed! Finally, we get to hear a PRRRRRVVIIIII trill from Pečo.

HCP - An annoying fan with a whistle behind me made me initially think this goal had been blown dead. before going in. Sadly, it was a delayed penalty off another rush chance that was then put in from a very wide angle by HCP. 

P2

OLL - Sabla from Mehle and Gregorc. A signature slapshot blast from Sabla, with good traffic in front of the net to help disrupt Pasquale. 

OLL PPG - Brennan from Mahkovec and Meyer. Mahkovec hit the post but thankfully TJ scores a 'poacher's goal' as we say in Britain, jamming it in from the net-front chaos zone. 

P3

HCP - Tokarski makes a tremendous pad save off yet another rush chance for HCP, but they put the rebound in after Kirichenko fell over on a 2 on 2. Kiri has not looked up to game-speed this series after his injury layoff - perhaps they should have had him as 7th D until he was less rusty, as HCP have been violating him all series. 

HCP - With 1:44 to go, HCP take the lead and deflate the stadium. Is it another rush chance? You bet it is! Did Tokarski save the initial chance? Yes sir! Did he get knocked over by his own defender, making the rebound easy to put away? Yepppp!

OLL - But it's not over yet! 40s later, Boychuk responds! Hey, we responded instead of reacting, like George Mumford and I suggested! Drozg and Meyer find Boychuk in a low-slot position for an impressively smooth one-time swish through Pasquale's five-hole (between his legs). We're level at 4-4! I was getting ready for a depressing walk home, but we're still in it! More empty-net heroics against an Italian team in the playoffs!

OT 

OLL - With 59.6s remaining in the highly tense first OT period (and with OHB preparing to dash to the toilet as the period break struck), Simšič spins to win! Mehle took Pasquale's eyes away and 12 concealed his quick turn-shot to sink it past Pasquale's right pad. The young guy next to me was almost crying into my shoulder as we celebrated. A pretty beautiful sporting moment for everyone watching! This is life, isn't it? From the depths of misery to the heights of elation, you can't have one without the other. Pandora's box gave us all the bad stuff but hope as well - let's carry her hope into the rest of this series, now we can believe in ourselves to score on Pasquale. Meyer and Ćosić on the assist. 

Takeaways

• As NR and I agreed, HCP still looked really good tonight, even in defeat. They kept absorbing pressure just to hit us with lightning-fast counter-transitions, resulting in plentiful rushes. These were the basis for their 4 goals and we must not give them so many of these going forward. To use a tennis term, we made far too many unforced errors and those must be minimised if we want to continue to climb back into this series. 
• ED called it: he said since Sodja was back, we'd 100% win. We did! I do have to say, it was a delight to see Sodja back prowling on the PK. It's not been the same without him. It's a testament to Sodja and Beričič's abilities that they are absolute prime time viewing on the PK, hunting down attackers and making heroic blocks.
• Even if we lose tonight, we can go out with our heads held high. We finally showed the real Olimpija in this series - self-inflicted conceding, but greater self-directed scoring.
• Boychuk has had such a tantalising season. He hasn't been the panacea at 1C that we all hoped he'd be, but he has undeniably had a knack for scoring enormously important goals. Tonight was another feather in his cap.
• Fair play to Simšič - I had dissed him a bit pre-game by saying of all the players, he wasn't a great choice to tell the fans to be sensible at the game, given his frequent silly penalties in big moments. Yet, as I said to ED and LR post-game, perhaps this was karma coming back around and giving him a positive moment for a change. As ED said, though, there's probably a lot more positive karma needed to fully balance it out 😆
• I'm glad we scored a PPG because we really needed one. Our first tonight was back to the dark days of Karhula, where the short-handed team would get better chances than we did. They did indeed hit the post, whilst we barely got a shot off. Mercifully, we changed our ways back to the CC normality.
• Our passes were not crispy tonight, but we generated way more chances than in previous games. That proved the difference. HCP were fantastic at the aforementioned absorption of pressure and conversion of that into rush offense, but they were not as strong at creating offense ex nihilo. We were better in that regard and thus we deserved the win. We were certainly more active than HCP in OT, even if they had their chances, too. 
• Despite conceding 4 goals, Tokarski did truly help us paper over some of the cracks in our play and was a key part of this victory, especially in OT. 
• Ultimately, we overcame the unforced errors to tilt momentum in our favour at the very end and in OT. As French-Canadian eSports star xQc used to say, "WE GO AGANE" tonight. 

 

HCP 2-3/7

2/7: HCP 3 - 0 OLL

• The main pivot point of this game was as follows: TJ scored a goal, which was overturned for goalie interference. This was the softest of calls, especially considering what the NHL lets go now (significant contact, not Mehle going 1cm into the crease and lightly brushing the goalie). This goal being disallowed changed the entire game, sending it down a dark path of player and fan violence/rowdiness. The fact that it was a Smash Burger goal only catalysed everything.

 What do these three have in common?

https://www.dmagazine.com/sports/2024/07/jamie-benn-dallas-stars-birthday/ plus OLL photos on website,

• Two violent moments stand out in particular: 
• Sabla turning into Muhammad Sabli again, against a player unwilling to fight. He just did so anyway and received a major penalty and a trip to the locker room for the rest of the game. This was very Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars behaviour - another captain who put his team in a bad position with unprovoked violence. 
• Yet, Benn's vicious slash on Mark Stone's neck was more like what Alex Petan did to HCP's Bowlby, with a frankly horrendous attempt to seriously injure the defenceless forward. If anyone follows UFC/Boxing, you know hits to the back of the head are deadly serious. A 2 game ban followed; he was lucky it wasn't more. 
• Sabla's fight was fun but losing him for the rest of a key playoff game wasn't fun. Petan's 5+2 minutes was the first 7 min penalty I've seen at Tivoli and was fair enough, as he completely lost his head and tried to take someone else's off. I can see why HCP fans were so furious on social media after the game; we would be, too, if that kind of thing was happening to our players. 

OHB trying not to mention how players should be role models:

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/fart-gif-1464110557799179961

• Now, for the crowd stuff: people throwing stuff onto the ice, it's not about you. Sing and shout and gesticulate all you want, but don't delay the game over and over and over. I ended up leaving with 57s to go because it was a school night and the fights / launching of objects onto the ice seemed interminable. It's the first time I've ever left an OLL game early, which should tell you how bad it was.
• Security, a familiar bete noir for OHB, fed into this, too. As usual, their performance was almost comically bad. I can't believe I have to sit through hours of in-person fire safety presentations at school from Slovene organisations, yet the biggest game of the year in HT sees a complete lack of safety with aisles packed full of people without seats. How was this not cleared out / why were they not funnelled elsewhere? One or two people standing is fine, as in previous playoff games against HCB. Having an arena that is extremely difficult to get out from is pretty much how ever sporting horror story starts! Unfortunately, I know very well how little the security in HT actually care about fan safety. To quote the title of a wonderful debut book by Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho, the security team's care is "Less than Zero" (I would love to write about how the fans in the aisles are people afraid to merge in traffic, but I fear I would be the only one who enjoyed that reference to the book's opening page). 
• Were there any redeeming features to this game? Well, I thought Bukovec was very active and impressive on the forecheck, busting a gut to help set up his teammates. He also put himself in good positions to score. Drozg was also clearly trying his best, but nothing was going in for him. 

3/7: OLL 0 - 3 HCP

• In the most important game of the year thus far, we concede within 8 seconds, on the first action of the game. Kirichenko and Tokarski are asleep at the wheel and HCP walk in and score with breezy ease. Start as you mean to go on, eh, boys? :)
• You could fairly question the wisdom of starting Kirichenko here, who was out injured recently. However, Tokarski looked pretty lethargic on this sequence, too, so maybe it's just the whole squad being over-tired and not used to playing this late in the season? That's an area where HCP have more practise than us, certainly. Hopefully this series won't take the shine off our success in hitting our goal this season of auto-playoffs and going one further with a series win. 
• They scored another in the first 5 mins of the game, an easy one off the rush. 
• Gregorc did respond with an impressive goal from a wide angle, but of course it was reviewed. Of course, it was Simšič offside. No happiness allowed.
• We just couldn't execute anything on offense. I said to ED that our performance in the OZ tonight was like me talking to a girl I liked when I was at university: a complete fumble every single time 😆
• With 10 mins to go in P3, 0-2 down, we were in a 5 on 3. The usual Olimpija kind of scenarios. 
• They scored a well-worked goal as we were trying to get a 6-on-5 empty net going. Our defensive coverage was basically just standing and puck-watching, allowing HCP to find a soft spot within the three players closest to goal.

OVERALL TAKEAWAYS

My general reaction to the series so far:

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/laughing-with-eyes-open-gif-27258100

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/Pepperidge-Farm-Remembers

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/Member-Berries

When you realise Pasquale shutting us out 3 times in a row isn't a nightmare, it's reality:

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/spam-gif-3643884685273536140

• Here's a cool fact amidst the general misery: NU told me that Tokarski and Pasquale have previous; they fought each other in an AHL game. If we lose 3-0 again tonight in game 4, at least let's have a goalie fight to cheer us up. 
• CC and Olimpija are like some plucky Illyrians with their farming equipment trying to take on HCP's Roman general and his army of professional soldiers right now. I honestly look at their coach and can see a big-schnozzed, granite-faced Roman general about to commit a minor genocide on my tribe. He's doing a great job so far! 🙈
• Regarding Pustertal's diving for penalties - may I once more refer you to the Euro 2020 England-Italy final, where constant Italian gamesmanship brought down England, alongside their own melting under pressure. From the very foundation of Rome, rule-breaking was justified as long as you won. Romulus killing Remus, deliberately breaking Hellenistic gentlemanly rules of war against Hannibal and others, civil wars galore where the winner took it all... We shouldn't be surprised that they're simulating to get penalties is what I'm getting at, before I launch back into the past.
• What we also shouldn't do is to lose our cool and give them monster-sized power plays. Even though they largely frittered these away, there was no way we could realistically expect to properly compete when handing out those with regularity. 
• I like fights, don't get me wrong, but they are just kind of sad when we are getting beaten so comprehensively. You might say that with the two disallowed goals counting, we would have been more competitive. NR did say that 3/7 was more watchable. We have to hope we're trending in the right direction. 
• These games are a good lesson that sometimes in life, the worst scenario does actually happen. HCP are beating us in such a generational way, with Pasquale shattering the playoff record for time without conceding (albeit helped by disallowed goals). I feel like we should be getting ready to hand over our women and children to them, like rainforest tribes do when they lose this hard. 
• George Mumford, the mentality coach behind basketball's greatest stars, has a good quote for times like this: "Respond from the centre of the hurricane, rather than reacting from the chaos of the storm". All series we have been reacting, not responding. We must start by choosing effective responses tonight instead of getting cut down reacting to fleeting shadows of ephemeral wolves. Let's go from Sam Darnold's 'seeing ghosts' with the Jets to his assured control taking the Seahawks to victory this year. 
• Talking of other sports, in the NFL they say "Defence wins championships". The best illustration of this is the Seahawks' first Super Bowl win in 2013, when they came up against the record-breaking Denver Broncos offense under Peyton Manning. The Broncos were widely picked to crush Seattle, but it went the other way - Seattle destroyed them 43-8. Perhaps we need to adjust CC's system, as it feels like we are the former-offensive-hotshot Broncos right now getting demolished by HCP's crushing defensive mastery. 
• EDIT: I forgot to say, I sat in my actual season ticket seat for the first time ever, due to how busy it was. An older guy with a uni-age son turned round and looked at me a couple of times, but that's nothing unusual in Slavic lands. People like to stare. The older guy then came up to me with his phone and showed me a picture of myself with CC and said something along the lines of 'is this you?'. I said yes and was ready to have at least a brief, friendly chat - but he simply walked off 😅 Is this what being the most minor of celebrities feels like? Why are people weird like that? Have a chat with me, come on! 😂

Some choice quotes from friends of the blog:

• ED: I don't believe in God or destiny, but this series might change that.
• ED: When our stars don't shine, they quickly get an attitude problem.
• ED: Winning a series after not scoring a single goal in the first 3 games would probably be the biggest story in playoff history, as winning a series without a goal against would be.
• NR (mid-game): This is so Joever.

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/its-joever-gif-1522251353317462624

• NR (post-game): Game 3 was much more watchable than the last two. No unnecessary fouls (Brennan in P3 was a bollocks call), actually some offense, crappy PP, good PK, Tokarski was okay etc. If it wasn't for the first two early goals, this would have been a pretty open game. If we progress like that on Sunday, we might win or at least bring it close (score a goal). 

How every game is going for us this series: 

With thanks to ThatsGoodSports on YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WV4imSV85I

 

HCP 1/7

HCP 3 - 0 OLL

https://en.sportnews.bz/article/ice-Hockey/icehl/Bruneck%27s-star-goalie-a-natural-boy-with-a-clear-message plus https://swtorstrategies.com/2025/12/somehow-palpatine-returned.html

Well, we need to prove to ourselves that we're not in for just another soul-sapping series against HCP, as this first game had all the hallmarks of our previous convincing defeats at their hands. The best way to do that is to play better at home. Even if we lose, we need to score on Pasquale, simply to show it's possible in the rest of the series. 

In P1, it was pretty even, despite a shot differential in our favour. I also enjoyed the fact that one commentator, the usual Italian guy, was speaking Italian while the 'technical commentator', was speaking, naturlich, in German. Very Bruneck of them!

P2 saw a lot of pressure from HCP onto Tokarski's net, which he dealt with admirably. However, a classic Olimpija moment ensued, which continues to transcend coaching regimes here: a PPG from a too many men penalty. It just can't happen when there's this much on the line and we were duly punished for it. 

It took till the last 10 minutes of P3 for a juicy chance from a well-worked move to happen for us, off the back of a Mahkovec carry-in. We have to try that more instead of the endless dump-and-chase. Sadly, soon after this positive showing, who else but Rok Tičar (who even the Italian commentator identified as a Jesenice man) scored another PPG. To be fair, it was a wonderful assist from just behind the goal line across the to the other side, but I did get a sense that our retreating coverage was slightly casual after a solid early clear on the PK. 

With 6:59 remaining, Mahkovec took a careless penalty in the OZ, which is another unforgivable thing to be doing at this time of year. If I remember correctly, Ville Leskinen's OZ trip was what doomed us against Pusterstal two years ago in the pre-playoffs. We've got to be smarter than that this time around. 

2:44 we go empty net, 2:34 HCP with the ENG after an almost immediate loss of possession. No late 6-on-5 miracles to be had in this 1st game of the series against an Italian team. 

Overall, Tokarski played well, but we didn't generate consistent offense, didn't use PPs to our advantage and gave away too many penalties to properly compete with yet another sizeable and fearsome playoff team put out by HCP.  Let's hope that all changes tomorrow at home in front of a sellout crowd. 

PLAYOFFS HCB 5/7 - SERIES WIN!

SWEET,  SWEET VICTORY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9iYm9PEAHg Why hasn't this been played at the Super Bowl yet??

Bolzano's Foxes after losing the series 4-1:

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/dora-dora-the-explorer-boots-oh-man-oh-mannnn-gif-5485872 Did Dora the Explorer reach Slovenia back in the day?

OHB SEEING AN OLL SERIES VICTORY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS:

https://www.esquire.com/sports/a42219112/shaq-interview-kyrie-irving-germany-accident-documentary/

OHB SEEING A SERIES VICTORY WITH ĆOSIĆ ON THE FIRST PAIR: 

https://giphy.com/gifs/papajohns-pizza-shaq-papa-johns-MvZJtkjJN81Cgx2X9F Please appreciate that I managed to find Shaq in the same shirt for these. Or not, maybe he only has one shirt. 

Game 5 - HCB 1 - 4 OLL, OLL win the series 4-1!

I'll keep this brief, as it's been a bit of a nightmare past couple of weeks for me. Nothing too big/bad/serious, thankfully, but just the stuff that kind of ruins your days. At least the hockey was great!

2 goals each from Mahkovec and Boychuk sealed this one, alongside wonderful goaltending by Tokarski. What a statement to burn the foxes in their own stadium for the series victory!

Series in Review

• Looking back, that Game 1 comeback set us up so well for the rest of the series. It went hand in hand with the mentality and belief that CC has instilled in this squad. As we say in the eSports world (yep, I used to be in the content team of a world champion eSports org! Good times! (I had to keep myself occupied in Montenegro somehow lol)), there was a clear 'coach diff' in our favour and HCB were clearly suffering from 'mental boom' / 'tilt' by the end of Game 4, where they really lost their heads. This didn't make Game 5 a done deal, but CC's coaching and the team's self-belief came up huge over this series. Very, very different to the lifeless Coach Karhula performances in the pre-playoffs two years ago (AT was thrown in the deep end last year, I don't blame him). 
• Also, I wanted to draw attention to the HCB coach walking off at the end of the series without shaking hands, just like their team always walked off without waiting for the end of game awards in our home games. Bad leadership, bad role models, deservedly defeated. 
• Tokarski let a couple of easy ones in early on and then never looked back. If Tokarski has indeed been signed for next season, imagine a Horak-Tokarski goalie tandem when Hory is healthy... That would easily be the best in the league. 
• ZG was right about Tok's few DEL performances overly depressing his value and making him a great swoop for us.
• Reading this about Logan Thompson in The Athletic made me think it applies to Tokarski as well: 
• Thompson doesn’t fill the net with his natural stance. He stands extremely hunched over, compact and coiled, showing the shooter more net that most goalies, then springs into action. Thompson reads the shooter’s body language and stick positioning to anticipate their next move, which is a vital skill for that style. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7129537/2026/03/19/nhl-goalies-quality-start-vezina/

• I told you so - Ćosić was on the top pair for the entire of this series and we won convincingly 😎
• Well done to Mr Ulčar and his backroom staff - Reid McNeill and Dustin Tokarski have been two huge home run hits as injury replacement signings and surely must be staying with us next season.
• McNeill may not be right-shot, but he seems an upgrade on Kirichenko. I expected Clay to be out for much longer, but he's actually back in for this series. How will the defence, which is quite stacked now, line up?

• ZG argues for keeping the pairings the same, after the good performances vs HCB.
• Ćosić Brennan
• Halbert McNeill
• MacW Gregorc
• Kirichenko 7th D, as he was out for a while.
• When I told ED about this, he said Kirichenko on the 3rd pair or lower would be a crime 😆 He said he would mix and match Kirichenko, Brennan, McNeill and Halbert on the first two pairs. He would opt to place Ćosić and MacW together on the 3rd pair, to "teach them some manners and protect Tokarski". I also enjoyed his "Gregorc and Crnović on the 4th pair just for the domestic players quota".
• Let me know in the comments what you guys think! We'll find out tonight, I guess!

EDIT: They have released the pairings:

McNeill Brennan

Halbert Kirichenko

MacW Gregorc

Crnović 7th. 

Comment: Ayayay, no Ćosić. McNeill and Halbert looked great together, but I suppose the Halbert-Kiri synergy from the regular season won out. Clearly CC still does not fully trust Ćosić, even to be 7th D. Pretty disappointing, but at least Drozg is back and Mehle is 13th F.

Mr Ulčar and his team after signing McNeill and Tokarski as injury replacements:

https://giphy.com/gifs/mlb-baseball-l2SpUepuM4qgdzbeU

Dustin 'Ticker' Tokarski when he sees the other team:

https://www.redbubble.com/i/photographic-print/ITS-TIME-TO-STOP-FILTHY-FRANK-by-jenkii/24847051.6Q0TX https://www.hkolimpija.si/en/igralec/144125/ Filthy Frank, I miss you.

Oh-oh, it's HCP!

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/90566580/Thumbs-Up-Emoji

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/515850454/Shell-Shock

In all honesty, I think we will run HCP much closer than previously. With CC and our new, supercharged squad, I have confidence. The new coach and players have not had the shellshocking experiences with HCP; we even have Petan from them (although that didn't work one bit with Ege and Atwal last year, but the less said about them, the better). With the aforementioned upgraded mentality and belief that CC has injected into the team, we have as good a chance against them as we would have had against Graz (who we were going to play if KAC had gone through, as expected). 

Yet, HCP did just sweep RBS convincingly. I do not expect to get the away wins we got vs HCB, but then I didn't expect us to get those, either. I was wrong last time I predicted this, but I'll happily be wrong again if we win - I think it will be a Game 7 series with home wins and difficult away games. The beauty of sport, as I said before, is how unpredictable it is. Let's strap in for the ride! (Please let us solve Pasquale, I can't stand seeing him play like a rat and win LOL.)

Even if we don't get past HCP, it'll have been an extremely successful first season of this new 'project' under CC. Let's hope that gives them some freedom to play in a flowing fashion, instead of the fusty freezing up we have done against HCP in the past.

PLAYOFFS HCB 4/7

OLL 4 - 0 HCB, LEAD SERIES 3-1

• We got the home W - and didn't beat just HCB, but the refs, too! We did have PPs, it wasn't a complete farce, but there were some of the usual head-scratchers, to put it politely. We should never have been on a 5 on 3 penalty kill (PK), as Bradley sucker-punched Simšič and didn't get penalised. Now, there might have been a touch of embellishment from 12, admittedly, but I think you'd all agree that if an OLL player did that in the ICE League, there is no way he is escaping at least a minor penalty. Anyway, I suppose we should just be grateful that the multiple reviews on the goals all came back positive for us and accept that there will be obvious missed calls - but we can still keep transcending them with quasi-divine PK performances.
• Talking of that 5 on 3 PK, that was absolutely heroic. Surviving 1:43 of 5 on 3 was a clear turning point in the game and fuelled our momentum to close it out convincingly.
• Heroism wasn't confined to the PK, either - finally, Sabla had a Captain's moment. As I've grown older, I have tried to lean more on gratitude for something 'better late than never' than rueing and stewing over why it took so long to happen. This is one of those things. Sabla had an incredibly difficult act to follow after Pavlin's statesmanlike captaincy (I would follow him into battle). In my opinion, he hasn't outwardly shown himself to be a wonderful leader - but he might be great in the locker room. Tonight, though, he did show some serious leadership. HCB had started lashing out in the final few minutes of P3, just looking to hurt OLL players. A net-front mess saw Vallentine (a longstanding rat of a player) purposely target Mahkovec, who hadn't engaged in a fight, in brutal fashion. Sabla said enough is enough and knocked another HCB player down (HCB18, on second viewing) and gave him by far the most violent beating I've seen an OLL player inflict. If you start it, Foxes, the Dragons will finish it. 

https://www.simpsonstreetfreepress.org/history/Muhammad-Ali Plus HCB Wikipedia and OLL website

• How have I got this far without mentioning Tokarski? His first shutout was extremely timely and involved possibly the save of the season - yes, even beating out Horak's balletic goaltending. It was a blocker save for the ages that he had no right to make. Sadly, his 'Dus-tin, Tok-ar-ski' chants fall very far from the greatness of '(boom boom) Hor-ak! (boom boom) Hor-ak!'; his absent acknowledgement of the crowd and post-match celebration also made me miss Horak quite a bit. Get well soon, Hory! Hopefully Tick-Tok will continue to hold the fort well in your absence! (Surely we go 'boom boom Tick-Tok from now on?? 😆)
• Goals:
• Messy net-front PPG (Quince from Meyer)
• Rush drop-back from Meyer to a trailing Drozg
• Messy net-front - Kapel gets it out from under his feet and in from a tight angle (Quince A).
• Cherry on top ENG from Pance (Mahkovec and Beričič As)
• HCB again walked straight off without engaging in the post-match ceremony. As NR pointed out, spurning a free gift bag that often includes some expensive wine is just silly - as well as very poor manners. As a teacher, I thoroughly approve of our teaching these bad mannered foxes a lesson with a resounding 4-0 victory that ended with HCB visibly losing their heads. I know some people said it wouldn't be so bad to have the Saturday home game to properly celebrate a playoff series victory - I think I would actually prefer crushing their spirits with one more away win tonight. 

PLAYOFFS - HCB 3/7

Takeaways as OLL go 2-1 up in the series:

•  ...well that was absolute robbery! ED and I were discussing how playing Italian teams in particular for away game seems to have a peculiar draining effect on our hockey, whether against Pustertal in previous postseasons or Bolzano this time around. This happens in a way which doesn't for the Austrian teams, at least not as consistently. It may just be the time of year/style of playoff hockey, but as someone who sat through the England v Italy Euros final, I can say that Italians do turn on some kind of dogged Roman spirit in these situations. 
• A difference in this run compared to our previous Italian (mis)adventures is the thievery we are getting away with. Bolzano must be sick to their stomachs about losing both their home games thus far, but especially this one. They dominated and we looked entirely ineffectual for essentially 58/60 minutes (the last minute of P2 saw three good chances). One scarcely-believable minute in P3 offset all the Foxes' hard work, much to Olimpija's ecstasy.
• Finally, we made Harvey look mortal. Letting 3 goals in 38s from 12:39-12:01 in P3 was a kind of dreamlike experience for Olimpija fans (those who didn't time an awful toilet break, at least - my condolences to JT, for instance, who told me he left his TV at 2-0 and came back at 2-3 😆😭). 

Olimpija for 38s in P3: 

https://imageresizer.com/meme-generator/edit/Super-Saiyan

• The first was a simply gorgeous PPG, created by an exquisite pass from Halbert diagonally to a drifting Mahkovec, who launched a one-timer into a net that finally showed some emptiness amidst Harvey's supreme coverage.
• 24s later, Drozg controls the puck in the OZ and Gregorc slides the puck over to an encroaching MacWilliam, whose shot deflects beautifully/horrifyingly (depending on your fandom) over Harvey's shoulder and in. MacW was being referred to as Leon Draisaitl in the locker room speech video after, presumably for scoring the high-up goal. The deflection was pretty important in that, though!
• 14s later, Meyer strikes down the middle - cue even greater disbelief from the commentator and fans!
• Both away games we have gone 2-0 down and both we have won 2-3 (one OT, one regulation). It doesn't seem sustainable, yet we keep doing it!

• HCB's goals showed some concerning defensive coverage lapses from us. 
• Their first was just a gaping hole left down the 'royal road', with players standing everywhere but the most dangerous area of the ice. I am no expert, but I don't think you need to be one to say 'yeah, probably don't do that again'. It was good movement from HCB, but we can't be so easily manipulated into opening up like that.
• Their second was a lightning-fast transition behind us that led to another Bradley goal, 1-on-0. Horak is able to make those death-defying saves that magically keep us in games; Tokarski, while very solid, does not seem to match that ability. It made me think, if Tokarski has played NHL games in his career, surely Horak should have, too. Opportunities are not always equal!
• I don't mean to slag off Tokarski, though, as he did a good job tonight. For example, he squeezed his arms in very well with 1:12 to go in P3 and HCB at 6-on-5 to stop a shot, like a Sumo wrestler doing an ottsuke move to deny a hazuoshi (if you leave your armpits open in sumo, you are getting pushed out - much like leaving them open as a goalie will allow pucks in (sorry, I really want to get more sumo into OHB lol)). There was one heart-in-your-mouth moment with 16s left, though, where they found a wide open back post, but the HCB player couldn't corral the puck and marshal it in. ED and I agreed that we were in 99% stress mode:

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/151944550/99-Level-of-Stress Game is Detroit:Become Human, a brilliant game from Quantic Dream, who are sadly now employed by NetEase to make a sloppy multiplayer game. Go back to single player greatness!

• We firmly lost the penalty minute battle (8-14), although it was not fully our fault. One moment in particular is instructive, alongside the generally moving goalposts for what was considered a penalty (ED saw that Zrnić and Piragić (EDIT -I made a mistake originally and said Zgonc, the linesman) were refereeing earlier and immediately predicted some shenanigans. As usual, he was correct!):
• Alex Petan was slashed. He was, understandably, unhappy about this and dropped the gloves to fight the offending player, who also dropped his gloves. Somehow, instead of ending up as just nullifying the original slash, it was Bolzano who received a powerplay. I couldn't believe my eyes - ED told me the commentator said "they must be joking!" in Slovene. I checked on the ICE website and Petan was given two minors for roughing, even though barely anything happened in the fight. Extremely perplexing and decisions like that cannot happen when the games matter most. I hope those refs get demoted or sent elsewhere because I do not want them officiating our games again.
• For us to be 2-1 up in the series despite continued calamitous refereeing decisions like the above is a testament to the resilience of this team. 
• We have to keep trying our best to avoid their flaky discipline, though. TJ slashing a player off the puck in his nether region, punching another in the face and chucking the puck out for a delay of game all in one shift was not conducive to that goal. I hate us playing dirty, as, yes, I do see these guys as role models for young men (in a world where they really need positive ones). I won't have an especial go at TJ again, but this is a bad look - especially when we were getting severely outplayed. We ended up winning, but if you want to be as dirty as the Florida Panthers, you need to be as dominant as them, too. Otherwise, it's just the worst of both worlds - poor hockey and poor character.

• Overall, given how the game went, we have to be extremely happy to come away with a win. Hopefully the day off today lets the players reset so we can play more of our usual style of hockey at home on Tuesday. 
• Finally, happy birthday to Technical Manager Andrej Vidmar, who is a sprightly 70! I have heard wonderful things about him and am proud that we have someone in the team with such history and who, as CC said, "bleeds green and white".

P.S. Please enjoy ED's post-game messages:

PLAYOFFS - HCB 2/7

The game experience began with the ICE awards going to TJ for MVP of the entire league and Meyer for the 'most efficient player'. I know I've been on a generational run of veteran-bashing (see what I did there?), but you can't help but love those two. Also, my issue is not at all with the players themselves, it's with the philosophy of the import signing process, as I hope is fairly obvious.

Reid McNeill fully dumping a HCB player into their bench, head-over-heels:

https://makeameme.org/meme/this-is-sparta-l6e3mc / https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/45609/reid-mcneill

Takeaways? Well, apart from my Ragu di Bologna from Vito Maccheroni last night, here you go:

• It was probably the loudest I've experienced in Tivoli, at least without there being some aggravating factor (e.g. scummy opponent). 
• Tokarski had some big saves.
• Harvey, the HCB goalie, was like a brick wall. Shots were 44-23 in our favour and yet they seemed relatively comfortable with him between the pipes. HCB were more clinical with their chances than we were, which helped that comfortability.
• Our PP looked better than the last game and hit the post, but we really needed a goal on the man-advantage and we did not get one. If the refs are going to continue to make a show of themselves, making special teams count is going to be even more important than usual.
• Essentially this was the same game as the last, but we did not get our deus ex machina late goal. Both home teams thus far have probably deserved to win, but neither did. I assumed it would be a classic playoff series, with home wins standard and away wins very hard to come by. The beauty of sport (and the reason you should not gamble on it) is the kind of narrative unpredictability we are witnessing here.
• Looks like my original game 7 prediction might have been better than I thought after our stealing game 1 gave me extra hope. Maybe it's a home win that we need/will decide it?! 
• We are reset back to square one. It will take a Herculean effort to go back to Bolzano and come away with a win, but it has such big implications for the rest of the series. If we can get another and a home win after, it puts us firmly in the driving seat. If Bolzano find the home victory, suddenly we might be the New York Jets' Sam Darnold (current SB champion with the Seahawks 😝) 'seeing ghosts' of Italians knocking us straight out of the playoffs, like the past two years.
• JB put it succinctly when I saw him at the end of the game (which was nice, I hadn't seen him in a while!) - "They played well! 🤷". 
• ED - "We were better. PP was good/dangerous. Their goalie (and 2 posts?) made a difference, shots were 44:23. They scored on two good passing sequences on our only 2 bigger D mistakes. We are back to needing an away win."

 

Edit: I forgot to say, they also did a better job of defending Harvey's net front than we did defending Tokarski's. That was a big difference in goals going in for them and not for us.

 

PLAYOFFS - HCB 1/7

RAPID REACTION (at least by OHB's standards!)

HCB 2 - 3 OLL (OT)

• Was my prediction of a game 7 win too pessimistic? ED has instructed me not to jinx things, but we've already got the away win that I expected to be the main issue for us heading into this series. 
• That's 2 OT wins in 2 vs Bolzano - both seem fair representations of where the respective clubs stand. It's close, but we edge them. Let's hope we keep doing that.

https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/411925754/Shaq-I-owe-you-an-apology

• Reid McNeill - wow! The author of both our goals in regulation. This looks like a genius move from Mr Ulčar, if he really was targeting McNeill for next season, as the press release indicated. He seems slightly undersized in heftiness for a playoff D-man, but the man can play! For someone with the meagre point totals he has put up over his career, he chose a heck of a time to start scoring and setting up goals, for us at least! 
• Dustin Tokarski - he had a shocker on that first goal, which inexplicably went in with a low-power shot that he saw cleanly. Yet, he redeemed himself later in the game. Getting the win should give him confidence; I hope that is the last shocker we'll see from him this playoff run.

Seeing Mahkovec stick handling his way through two defenders in OT to set up Petan at the back post:

• I thought about using a certain South Park meme, featuring Randy, to describe my reaction to Mahkovec and Petan's OT winner, but thought better of it, since I am not really anonymous 😅 WHAT A GOAL, THOUGH! Mahkovec putting on his finest display in the biggest moment of the season thus far is just so gratifying. Also, clearly the OHB effect was in play, since I got his jersey in the break 😂😎 P.S. Wasn't it great that it also came so early in OT, given that it's a full period of 5 on 5 now!! After 11 parents' evening meetings and an 11-hour work day, I appreciated it! 
• We did well to survive the P1 onslaught (15-5 in shots to them) and come back to win this. Let's hold serve at home on Thursday and keep attacking when away. 

EDIT: I failed to mention the gorgeous tip off McNeill's shot by Polei, AKA Mr Renault. The fact that it was at 6-on-5 with the empty net and 30-odd seconds remaining made it an even sweeter equaliser!