GAME 28: KAC VS OLL

 Short summary - KAC 3 - 1 OLL

This was the first game I missed this season as I was flying home for Christmas. Here are some thoughts following a viewing of the highlights.

- First goal conceded looked like Bonino got tripped by the referee, losing possession and initiating a rush chance that was converted. Good skill by the KAC player but I would have liked to see more physicality there. If you can't match their stickhandling, you can just hit them...

- KAC hit the bar once and the post twice, so a 3-1 win was well-deserved.

- The game was almost exactly even, shots-wise. The difference, as usual, is in the quality of those shots.

- On the ICE League's fantastic tracker, you can see that KAC in yellow have more chances closer to the net than Olimpija in blue. It's simple stuff, but if you get closer it is usually easier to put the puck in the net. If you are kept to the outside and long-range, it's harder to do so. Žiga Mehle is one player who stands out to me as someone willing to do the dirty work of going to the front of the net and put his body on the line. Tomaževič and Pance also do this. We will need more players willing to drive to the net to create more offense.

- Lavoie got set up with a couple of high-danger chances, or 'good looks' in hockey parlance. Sadly the ketchup bottle dried up for him again. Looking forward to more saucy goals in the near future.

- Nice to see Blaž Gregorc score on a point shot screened by Beričič. I always like to see good work from the 4th line and we need more goals from our defenders.

- 2nd goal saw good effort from Atwal to close down on the shooting attacker, but sadly it was not enough. A great pass from KAC and excellent work finding a pocket of space (even if we should have made it harder on them). I feel we lose synergistic zone control very easily when other teams cycle quickly through us. Now, this is the entire point of high-speed offensive movement, but it's something we need to work on.

- 3rd goal was a big commit to an o-zone possession that got turned over and rushed the other way. Very tough on Horak but this is what leading late in the 3rd does to you - it opens you up.

Coach Karhula transcript:

"It was a pretty good game, from our side at least. Even game. We came back, like a 1-1 after 50 mins or so. It's just one small mistake and they capitalise (on) that and it sucks because it wasn't the first one goal game loss this year(?). So, just a little bit short but we have to keep working".

Glad to see that players were not being blamed, and the focus is on 'we'.  We have lost a lot of close games this year, but that's more than 'it sucks'. You have to searingly analyse why that is happening. Not everything is in our control, but we have 'deserved' to win too many games that we end up losing. Winners win even when they aren't playing well. Unfortunately, we don't even seem to win when we play well!