Slovene Cup Final 2 + Post-Game Party Rumblings

 OLIMPIJA 2 - 0 JESENICE

 Olimpija take care of business in low-event game 

Slovene shotstopper showcase as Us and Horak sparkle

 Captain Pavlin bows out

I won't dwell on this too long, as there's more interesting stuff going on below. To be completely honest, there was little to get excited about as OLL struggled to a 2-0 lead. They did at least keep the clean sheet, this time.

1st goal - Sodja opened the scoring on a nice pick play rotation. A pick play is where, when man-defence is identified, another skater intentionally skates into the path of the man following the puck-carrier. As long as it's not done too egregiously, this is legal - and it can open up an enormous amount of space in high-danger areas, as it did for Sodja. It's always nice to see him score, as he's such a hard worker for this team.

• Man defence = defenders follow players wherever they go in the D-zone.
• Zone defence = defenders stay in specific areas and pass attackers off to teammates when they move out of their assigned zone.

2nd goal - I will take credit for flaming Kapel so much that he actually did something this game, assisting on Mahkovec's goal. Kapel shot and Mahkovec tapped in the rebound. Trigger warning: I am going to mention his lack of effort at the end of game 1 once more. The fact that Horak had a shutout this game makes me even more annoyed that Kapel let one in at the end of the first game - we could have had a double shutout!! 😆 In all seriousness, I'm sure he has learned his lesson there - but I also still think we should let him go and upgrade Mahkovec and Bonino's right wing in the off-season. 

Kapel is similar to Lavoie in the sense that he takes a lot of shots, which is good, but he doesn't score on the vast majority of them, which is bad. Lavoie, as I understand it, is being replaced - so Kapel should be, too.

Verdict -  I've been called a "negative Nancy" in the past (by an American girl who didn't realise that I was depressed at the time, lol), so I'm conscious to avoid being like that when we've won a trophy. Silverware is good, obviously. However, you should know by now that I say it like it is and don't tend to 'mince my words', as we say in English. 

I didn't attend any Slovene Cup games last year because I didn't really care about what happened in the competition. I went this year as it was the last time I would see a few of the players. I still do not think it is much of an accomplishment to beat teams who are well below us in terms of roster quality. We should be careful not to act as if this is some kind of big achievement, as that would prevent us from accepting how much we need to improve to make a proper playoff run in the ICE League next season. 

I think that a successful Olimpija team should be demolishing Jesenice in a competition like this. 4-1 and 2-0 is decent enough, but if we are looking to make waves in the ICE League, as the team has specifically stated, we should be putting up double figures goals on these guys. I am talking 10-0-type games. They are not in the same league as us, literally and figuratively. We should be showing that much more emphatically.

In fairness, Us played really well in the 2nd game. But we didn't look good and we didn't control as much of the game as we should have. Jesenice came out stronger at the start of all three periods, which is something we let ICE League teams do to us, too. You have to hope that an injection of talent in the summer and new HC Ben Cooper's influence will help mould a much more effective unit next year.

In terms of players who stood out, this was a pretty boring game where nobody except Horak and Us really made a good account of themselves. Now 61 is a Slovene citizen, we saw some 'danes ne' as well as the Czech 'dneska ne' on the scoreboard, which I enjoyed. Good on the production team for that!

I am concerned for the likes of Kerbashian, who (by my reckoning) only had two noteworthy moments over the two games. In the first, he made an ill-advised no-look pass in the D-zone that led to two goalscoring opportunities for Jesenice. In the second, he ripped a good shot that was well-saved by Us. He needed to tip the scales in his favour to ensure he secured a contract with us for next year. He did not do that and now I'm not sure if that will happen. Just like I will say below for Bičevskis, we need more from a first line centre. This was generally not a good series for pending free agents, who had the chance to dominate against lower-level competition but did not take advantage of the opportunity.

My main takeaway from the Slovene Cup Final games is that this roster needs a serious clear-out of average players who do not have the inner fire and/or requisite skill to help us win competitions that actually matter. Sorry if that comes across harsh, but it's how I see it.

Some post-game party rumblings I heard from a trusted source:

• Červeny is in active negotiations with the team. Glad to hear it! Sign him up!
• Lalonde is coming back next season. Really happy about this - we need a right-shot D-man and his physicality was a marvel to behold (and something I am desperate to see more of). Having played a bit for us already should help him settle in quicker, too.
• Bičevskis asserted that he wouldn't be re-signing next season because of the way his role was reduced this year. He was first line centre last season, but his elevated points scoring was much less to do with him and much more to do with having offensive dynamo Trevor Gooch on his wing. I'll say it like it is - play better and you'll get more ice time. Bičevskis did not play well enough to be a first line centre again.
• Ben Cooper, new Head Coach, is meant to be a PP specialist. Bonino is happy with his appointment as HC.
• Curiously, I found out who the other Head Coaching candidates were:
• Rob Daum, ex-VSV coach
• Kevin Gaudet, former Vienna coach and current German 3rd League coach
• Kevin Constantine, former WHL and Fehervar HC, currently coaching in the Hungarian League
• All of the above have ICE League experience, so that was clearly a prerequisite in the HC search. I feel OLL definitely made the right choice in terms of experience and background with Cooper.

Nicolai Mayer, former RBS forward and currently playing in Sweden, is apparently signing for OLL. This would make sense with the Ben Cooper connection.

Finally, I wish a very happy retirement to Žiga Pavlin. It was such a pleasure to witness his statesman-like leadership as Captain of this team, his thunderous hits, his stalwart net-front presence and his powerful point shots. I will miss seeing him on the ice but am very happy to hear he has a role with the team next season. Hopefully he can combine his front office job with some assistant coaching. I would love to see him on the bench again, looking suave!

P.S. Slovene Hockey Federation, keep Olimpija's name out of your mouth. Making enemies of the only big club in the country is not a good idea. Go and help prevent Celje from going bust instead of casting aspersions at us.

P.P.S. A source tells me that Luka Maver of Black Wings Linz arrived at Hala Tivoli yesterday for contract negotiations. This is an interesting one, as he supposedly re-signed with BWL. Perhaps a contract termination is in the offing, as is common with coaches in the European leagues when they get a better/more suitable offer. Either way, he's a big-bodied forward who could be what Tomaževič couldn't live up to this year, a true power forward who can make space consistently and cause havoc in opposing net fronts. Maver played for OLL juniors before heading to America, then PIV and BWL in the ICE League.