JESENICE 1 - 4 OLIMPIJA
DRAGONS CRUISE TO WIN BUT LET ONE SLIP
PP remains poo-poo
Hello everybody. It's been a while, hasn't it?! I've been enjoying following Sean Shapiro's 'Shap Shots' on Substack; his playoff reports have just been numbered thoughts. I'll do the same here.
1. It was clear that Rožle Bohinc had a goal or two in him from his performances this season, yet it didn't happen for him in the ICE League. Even as a big fan of his, I never expected his first goal to be one of such quality. He did the Filip Forsberg, one-hand-dangling the puck around the goalie after charging forward from the neutral zone. Jesenice are literally and spiritually not in our league, but if Bohinc can gain enough confidence to attempt and execute manoeuvres like this in the ICE League, we may have an even more special player on our hands than I first anticipated.
2. Who else but Rudolf Červeny, the Rocket Richard winner from the Season Review Pt. 2, to open the scoring. Please bring this man back next season.
3. I may have been too harsh on Sabla in saying ⛔ to him in 'Should they Stay or Should they Go'. He does provide a lot for OLL's attack and I do think I unfairly conflated him with the woeful PP. It's not his fault that he wasn't put in a position to succeed. Let's hope the new coach will sort that out, pronto, because the PP looked bad again tonight. On a side note, seeing Rodman still around was a bit of a jump scare. I've not met the guy, to be fair, but from all that I've heard he should be out of the door as soon as Friday evening is done!
4. As anybody who has seen my IG stories recently will attest, I was pretty incensed (read: absolutely furious) about the late goal we let in. It broke Horak's eminently-deserved shutout and it was not due to any mountain man magic. It was due to a frankly awful effort from one of our players.
Before I launch into being emotional about it, let me lay out some objective facts. Once Us got pulled and Kogovšek came in, Olimpija took their foot off the gas. That's absolutely fine. However, there's a difference between lowering the intensity and playing in a negligent fashion. An extremely lackadaisical backcheck from Rok Kapel was just that, allowing them to score in the final minute. This not only gave them something to celebrate and 'hang their hat on', it also allows them to frame the game differently. If I remember correctly, they were 1-0 up with Kogovšek in net. If they start him on Friday, as they should, they will have a much different mentality than they would have being crushed 4-0.
I don't know about you, but I want to play Genghis Khan-type hockey. End-your-bloodline-type hockey. We could have crushed Jesenice's dreams here and instead we gave them a lifeline into Friday. Whilst it's still highly unlikely they mount a comeback, we should never have given them this opportunity. As someone who has played international sport themselves, and lost a European final when his team let another team gain some late momentum after dominating, let me tell you: stranger things have happened.
You might reasonably say, 'Mr OHB man, look - it's 4-1 instead of 4-0, what difference does it make?'. Apart from the above, it makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE! How you do anything is how you do everything, in my book. Horak is our best player and plays with the kind of fire and intensity that wins you championships. I bet Bonino would confirm that. There is not a single moment where he doesn't play like that. Kapel's attitude of 'oh, yeah, I guess I'll follow the attacker, but I won't bother to use my stick', which allowed Jesenice's Koblar to shoot and bundle in the rebound, is a fundamental part of why we got absolutely owned by Pustertal in the Pre-Playoffs. It's embarrassing - have some empathy for your goalie's shutout, for your pride in your performance, for the jersey, for the fans! I'm not a hockey expert, yet, but I think it isn't controversial to say that you should...use your stick...to do things...and prevent things...
I'm getting a bit toxic here, but sometimes you need some toxicity to root out the rot you see.
My genuine reaction to Rok Kapel, Mr '14 pts in 47 games in the ICE League', thinking he's too good to backcheck properly, even when he has a guy with two Stanley Cup rings on his line who always backchecks to the full extent of the law:
(For reference for you non-Twitch-degenerates: https://www.wikihow.com/Omegalul)
By the law of Nikita Grebenkin ("backcheck, forecheck, paycheck"), Kapel didn't earn his paycheck. https://youtube.com/shorts/1QvQpYP2kYs?si=IqwkLDqdLdS0sxgz
(Yes, I have been listening to this for the entire time I was writing the article.)
I accept I am more emotive about this kind of thing than many, but it's what makes me a good writer. This means something to me. It means something to Horak. It clearly doesn't mean very much to Rok Kapel. If I was Skip Bayless or Shannon Sharpe, I would say "Leave this man in Jesenice, because that's where he's playing next season!". I'm neither of those overpaid primadonnas, so I won't say that, but I think you can tell that I found that lack of effort despicable, and, unlike for Sabla, I am very happy with my choice of ⛔ for Kapel in Season Review Pt. 2. Horak had some angry words for Kapel in the line after the game, and I have to say I thought he was quite restrained about it.
Now, was it true that Bohinc got dragged out of position slightly and wasn't there for the rebound clear? Probably. Does it invalidate any of the above? Nope!
5. Sabla and Bonino scored the other two goals. Both decent enough, but you probably aren't scoring those in the ICE League.
See you on Friday.
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