Teddy bears can't save a miserable weekend
Olimpija lose convincingly to the bottom two teams in the league
Coach, players, fans - nobody is enjoying themselves right now
Two summaries below. I have full notes for each game but didn't feel the performances deserved a full run-down. I'm not about to do a 'I've spent so much time and money on this team' rant just yet, but it's getting closer!
Game 26 Summary - OLL 2 - 3 PIV OT/SO
Highlights
- Luka Kolin played magnificently.
- Pance dropping the gloves. He got ganked (to use some League of Legends terminology (according to Google, it means to use underhand means to defeat an opponent)) by a snot-nosed PIV defender, who then seemed to inquire 'whatcha gonna do about it?' Pance firmly answered that question by throwing off his gloves and landing three big punches to his face, leaving him squirming on the ground. If you can't take the heat...
- Lavoie continuing to find the back of the net (and to work well with Bonino).
- Some more good work from the 4th line, with a goal from Beričič (assisted by Ege and Sodja).
Lowlights
- We played a dominant first 6 minutes and looked like we would be in for a blowout win. From that point on, we let PIV come back into the came and take control. While we had opportunities to win in OT, we did not manage to beat them in a shootout. It should not take that long to beat the bottom-ranked team in the league. We should not be losing to the bottom-ranked team in the league.
- A small moment, but I didn't like the call to send Bonino back out immediately for another penalty just after he scored one in sudden death. His first one was so smooth, his second was jittery. A minor but potentially key error. Use your other players! Kale and Sabla were ready and waiting!
Main takeaways
- Not good enough. Why is Coach Karhula talking about 'playing the full 60 minutes' when we can't even play a full 10 or 20? This can't just be the players, because earlier this season we looked dominant.
- We look quite disconnected. Players are doing good things in isolation but it's not fitting together.
- The powerplay is driving me crazy. The only idea we have is to cycle a bit and then find Sabla on the right circle for a one-timer. The most cursory study by the other team's goalie coach will find this out. The goalie is always ready for this, meaning it does not have a high chance of working. Yet it is all we end up doing, over and over and over. Hire a PP coach! Find someone who knows how to teach literally any other option to the players!
Game 27 Summary - OLL 2 - 6 INN
Highlights
- Sodja scoring the Teddy Bear Toss goal :)
- Lavoie finally scoring on one of his long range efforts. The ketchup bottle theory seems to apply to him - he's unstuck and now scoring freely!
Lowlights
- Conceding PPGs galore. This was not necessarily all our fault, as the refs where whistling like crazy, but our PK became very porous all of a sudden. We have the best PK in the league by 2.99%, per the ICE League website (a friend helped me discover this - how did I not know they had so many stats on there?!). It did not show up today.
- Conceding another SHG - such a gut punch. It just can't happen.
- Just getting dominated by a 2nd bottom team. We were kept to the outside almost the whole game, while they scored their goals in the danger zone. See the ICE League's shot chart below, available at: https://ice.hockey/zahlen-fakten/spielstats?gameId=2120ca11-a475-43ca-ad9b-7486cbce625b&divisionId=15864. In particular, look at the three blue goals on the right hand side - all right in front of the net. Our chances tend to be from much further away. Consequently, they are less dangerous.
Main takeaways
- I'm glad I was sat with some friends because this was a pretty soul-destroying watch. Where do we go from here? With KAC up next, it doesn't look good.
- Obviously Innsbruck played well, but we can't be making a bottom-two team look this good. Not with the squad we have now.
- See above for powerplay woes.
- On a personal note - the guy sitting behind me who refused to take his feet off the back of my seat. Who hurt you? Don't be so ***** to a fellow fan. It's actually less effort to be nice to other people :)
Final thoughts
Coach Karhula keeps exhorting the players to 'play the full 60 minutes' and 'play the game till the end'. He has also mentioned having "the smartness to do the little things - let's see if they learned" (this was the pre-game Pioneers interview on stream). With the greatest respect for a nice man and a good coach, who is responsible for teaching these guys to do these things? It's not really on the players' 'smartness', it's on the coach to explain things in a way that sticks. As a teacher, I obviously do not like when the coach/teacher is fully blamed for a player/student's performance. We do have a lot to do with it, though.
Something I have learned as an early career professional is to stop abrogating responsibility and start taking responsibility for everything within my control. No more excuses - what can I do better next time? Obviously we do not get a full insight into the team and its dynamics through the coach's clipped interviews, but where is the responsibility in Coach Karhula's output? It seems like he is consistently blaming the players, when the best coaches always take responsibility themselves - even when it's not really their fault. That kind of situation creates a virtuous cycle, where players want to do better not just for themselves, but for their coach. The one we are in now, where players are getting blamed, creates a vicious cycle. Team morale gets worse and worse, alongside performances. In this scenario, changing coach is the easiest lever to pull - whether that is right or wrong.
Unless we see a shift in performance and consequent team vibes / morale, I don't see how this can continue as we sink in the standings. It's now 10 losses in the past 12 games.
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