GAME 2: OLIMPIJA 7 - 2 VILLACH
DRAGONS FRY EAGLES WITH SAUCY OFFENSE
SEVEN DIFFERENT SCORERS COMBINE TO SEND VILLACH PACKING
VSV by the end of the game:
Goals
- Multiple times today we saw the three forwards on a line working in near-perfect tandem. Being in sync with each other is so important for generating chances going forward and denying them going backward. I tip my hat to Coach Cooper and his team for instilling this.
- Obviously, I loved to see us crush Villach in this fashion. Apart from a minor Alex Ferguson-esque 'squeaky bum time' in P2, we were dominant.
- I'd simply like to see us retain this style of play throughout the season. It's a real treat to watch and it will take us very far.
- As above, please can we save the 'Auf wiedersehen' chants for P3, or when we are greater than 3-0 up? It felt like tempting fate and it nearly came about when VSV were storming back into the game at 3-2 down.
GAME 3: GRAZ 3 - 4 OLIMPIJA (OT)
DRAGONS GRIND DOWN GRAZ WITH COMEBACK WIN
OFFICIAL STREAM CUTS OUT BEFORE BRENNAN'S WINNER
Graz 99ers at the start of the game:
Lineup changes
Sabla is out for a few weeks, unfortunately, so Bukovec goes into the top line to replace him. I am surprised Mehle did not get this chance, as he is more suited to the role, but he is included as the 13th forward.
Ćosić remains 7th D, as does the top pairing of Mašič and Brennan.
Stars of the game
* Miha Beričič - For me, the most visceral and beautiful moments in sport come when you see a player succeed purely by 'wanting it' more than their opponents. For me, Miha's goal was the key turning point in the game, coming just as it seemed Graz might start running away with it. It came about because he wanted it more than the Graz players around him. This was run-through-a-brick-wall type behaviour and I love it.
** Lukaš Horák - One sequence where he pulled off a double-double save, followed by a snow angel to cover up a high-danger chance in front gives you an idea of how Horák makes the nigh-impossible look mundane. We are spoiled by having him as our starting goalie.
*** TJ Brennan - Call this man King Midas because everything he touches turns to gold, save for his white stick! OT winner - just such a shame the new streaming service cut out before we could witness it.
Goals
P1:
G99 - A good save from Horak leaves the puck behind him. Mašič is there to corral it safely, but Brennan accidentally high sticks Bine in the face, allowing a G99 forward to sneak in and tuck it away. An unfortunate one.
P2:
OLL - Boychuk enters the zone with control and passes it wide to Meyer. Meyer shoots, hits the post and Boychuk knocks in the rebound. Bukovec is just happy to be there ^^.
P3:
G99 - Graz throw the puck on net from a wide angle and Halbert is in the perfect/worst position to deftly deflect the puck into his own net, with no-one else around him. A bit of a freak goal. I'll be honest - I don't know the protocol here. Is it always to keep your stick on the ice, even in this kind of situation? Or should the D be more aware of the situation and let it pass? It should be noted that it was Crnović who made a very poor clearance attempt, which let Graz have the chance to put the puck on net and get the deflection goal.
OLL - A monstrous effort from Beričič, with help from the rest of the 4th line. Pance keeps the puck in the offensive zone and force through a chance. It goes Sodja-Halbert-Beričič. On his second try, Beričič fires it into the roof of the net. Halbert and Sodja on the assists, but Pance was crucial in creating this goal, too.
G99 - Gregorc gets absolutely undressed by G99's Currie in a 1-on-1 and Currie scores past Horak. Sometimes, there will be moments of magic from the opposition. I do feel, however, that it's worth asking a question. That question is: 'Would Rožle Bohinc have handled that better?'. My feeling is that yes, he would have, with his greater reach and physicality. If you don't play the best players available you will inevitably get punished for it. Two of our goals so far came down to Crnović and Gregorc. Ćosić and Bohinc will make mistakes, too, but I firmly believe they'll defend better overall than the current 3rd pair.
OLL - A long-range wrist-shot from Meyer finds its way in, sneaking in between the right post and the goalie's glove. Mehle took a nasty crosscheck to his lower back to create the lane for this shot (give him the 1st line role going forward!!!).
OT:
OLL - Brennan scores from Graz's left circle! Simšič's decoy move drags one G99 player out of the equation, then Quince finds Brennan on their left circle to fire it in. Boom!
Near-Misses
P1:
1309 - G99 have the back post wide open but miss.
28s - Horak slips and has to jump sidelong, flat out to try to save a shot. I think the G99 shot goes off the crossbar, but it's tough to see on the replays, even from different angles.
P3:
1246 G99 force Horak to make a double-double save, plus a 5th save in the sequence, a snow angel (cover the puck-type save).
What I liked to see:
- Marcel Mahkovec was anticipating very well in defence, tracking back and opening up fast transition options.
- I loved the 4th line effort goal, as described above.
- I also loved witnessing some Horakian greatness, which has become the usual for us but is not something we should take for granted.
- Seeing 3/4 of our goals scored and assisted entirely by new members of the team. Another sign that the summer recruitment went well - and this was without any 2nd line magic!
- Talking of that, the alternating popping of the 1st and 2nd lines is so nice to see. One picks up the slack when the other is having a quieter day, leading to the sustained success we are seeing so far.
What I would like to see:
- I recognise that I'm turning into a 'play the kids' commentator, but I really do think Beričič deserves to be elevated to the 3C role and that Sodja and Mehle should join him there (when we have a full squad). You might query whether it's a big difference to swap Simšič-Quince-Kapel to the 4th, but to me it matters. The latter are arguably more suited to a 4th line role, while the kids on the 3rd would benefit from more ice time and more development for their (and Olimpija's) futures. The exact same thing applies for the 3rd pair swap between Crnović and Gregorc for Ćosić and Bohinc (I cannot promise that I won't bring this up every game until it happens, sorry 😂).
- A working streaming service that shows the full game, with pausing, rewind and no in-game adverts.
Final thoughts
This was a really resilient win against a Graz team that was making this a slugfest of a game. Two of the goals we conceded were rather flukey ones, so we should not worry too much that it was an OT win and celebrate how far we have already come in this short season. Graz are a very good team and we beat them in their house. The hyper-positive start to the season continues unabated!
GAME 4: OLIMPIJA 6 - 1 PIONEERS
PIV'S STRONG 1ST PERIOD AWAKENS THE DRAGONS
PIONEERS BURNT TO A CRISP BY 3 POWERPLAY GOALS
Pioneers at the start of the game
Lineup changes
Halbert, Gregorc and Ćosić each move up one pairing, as Mašič is out. Mehle, as I had hoped, has been put on the 1st line. Kumanović comes in as 13th forward, while Bohinc is 7th D.
Kolin makes his first start of the season - I wonder if solely using him for the weakest teams will characterise his match time this year? I met Horak on Saturday, so now he knows what I look like I'd better be careful not to call for splitting starts too often 😆 (obviously I am just kidding, he's a very nice guy).
Stars of the game
* TJ Brennan (2 PPGs, A) - Two PPGs in quick succession opened the floodgates for a demolition job win. It boggles the mind to think back to two years ago when we couldn't score a PPG to save our lives - now we have a defenseman scoring PPGs for fun! TJ is currently the leading scorer in the entire league, both in points and goals.
** Luka Kolin (18/19 saves for 0.947) - He played very well tonight, as usual, and provided the 'cherry on top' moment with a hilarious forward-roll to celebrate the victory in front of the West Stand. I saw that he consulted Horák before doing it, I would have liked to listen in on that conversation - presumably, Horák banned him from stealing his belly flop routine! I also enjoyed the debut of the 'danes ne' for Kolin, instead of 'dneska ne' for Horák.
*** Nate Halbert (2A) - He joined Brennan on the first pair today and looked at home. He defended a dangerous rush chance brilliantly, perfectly toeing the line between being forceful and not conceding a penalty. He also continued to exhibit his confidence in the offensive zone, with some smooth skating and distribution, resulting in two apples (hockey slang for assist). I take back what I said in preseason about not wanting him on the PP! He looks great going forwards and backwards!
Goals
P1:
PIV - Crnović moves way up the ice to pinch/hit a player, but is unsuccessful in keeping the puck in the OZ, which frees up a volatile rush chance for PIV. The 4th line can't get back in time, so it's a 2-on-1 that sees a PIV forward receive the puck right in front of the net. He roofs it blocker-side. This was well-taken by PIV, but this is also not how you should be treating your goalie. Do not give these guys this opportunity. I concede that I am not hockey omniscient, so this may have been someone else's assignment that was missed, but it certainly appeared as if Crnović was freelancing way up ice for no good reason, leaving a humongous gap to be exploited. In fairness, Ćosić was unable to prevent the pass on the 2-on-1, but it would have been easier for him if his defensive partner was not somewhere in the Gobi Desert instead of by his side. I hear Rožle Bohinc is available to more successfully partner with Ćosić...
OLL - With 1 second remaining in the period, Evan Polei and Marcel Mahkovec catch PIV sleeping and punish me for chancing an early exit for the toilet! Polei carries the puck in and backhands it to Mahkovec in front of the net for a one-time shot that goes in blocker-side. This is another great sign that we are turning things around offensively, as it has been us in past seasons who are caught out very late in a period. Now, we are the ones catching others out! Halbert was on the secondary assist.
P2:
OLL - With 4s left in our 5-on-3 PP (PIV were ill-disciplined tonight and it cost them dearly), Petan finds Meyer behind the net. Meyer cleverly misdirects the defender stationed on the left post, shaping his body to make it look like he will take a low pass, before actually hitting Brennan on their left circle. With the space vacated, TJ scores past the PIV left post. Brennan was not using his usual white stick and returned the black one he used to Miha Beričič, which was a funny moment.
OLL - No misdirection here - TJ scores from the same place (do we have to start calling it 'TJ's office', like the Washington Capitals call the right circle 'Ovie's office', after Alexander Ovechkin's preferred scoring location?) in the 5-on-4 PP, with 17s left. This time, it's with his own stick! What a turnaround - after this short sequence, we have a comfortable two-goal cushion. Polei should get credit for taking away the goalie's eyes, but it's a wonderful shot from TJ into the goalie's top left corner. Mehle is credited with the assist on Flashscore but it's actually Halbert who passes it to Brennan.
OLL - The sequence isn't over, yet! Just as Pečo is finishing his call on the 3rd goal, we score again! It's beautiful work by Gregorc and Sodja to set up a charging Pance with a clear chance in front, which he lethally converts through the goalie's 5-hole (between his legs).
OLL - Flashscore gets another one wrong! Kirichenko gives it to Mahkovec, who passes on to Petan right in front. Petan pivots and sneaks the puck under the goalie's right pad for another PPG. It was poor defending, but you've still got to put them away!
P3:
OLL - Brennan finds Boychuk, who shoots from long-range. Polei is towering in front of the goalie once more and deflects it in.
Near-Misses
P2
1847 - Meyer misses the puck at the back post with the net invitingly open.
1115 - Mahkovec hits the post in the 5 on 3.
What I liked to see:
- Žiga Mehle on the top line - he was carrying the puck in to the OZ, fighting through traffic and hits to give his linemates a better chance at scoring. It seemed obvious to me that he would be a better fit to replace Sabla than Bukovec, but I am still grateful that the change was made as some obvious defensive changes have not!
- Going 50% on the PP and 100% on the PK - if good teams aim to have both combine for 100%, we are doing pretty incredibly to be ticking at 150%.
- Continued offensive dominance in P2 + P3 - as Pete Carroll, currently of the Las Vegas Raiders but formerly of the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL, used to say: it's not about how you start, it's about how you finish. Now, he really did have issues with getting his teams to start on time, but the point remains. We're in danger of getting used to this offensive mastery already, but ensure you savour it for all those times in previous seasons where it felt like Olimpija couldn't buy a goal. Now, we are top of the league, have double the goal difference of the next highest scoring team (18 to Bolzano's 9) and have a defenseman as the top points-scorer and goal-scorer (TJ Brennan, with 6G 4A for 10pts).
What I would like to see:
- Obviously, you can't complain too much at a 6-1 win. I would like to see Olimpija start on time a bit sooner in their next game against Innsbruck. For the vast majority of P1, Pioneers were dictating the flow of the game. Maybe it was just a bit of a hangover from the Graz OT win. Regardless, we woke up and dominated in P2 and P3, so all's well that ends well.
- The speakers need to stop having issues! It was a crying shame that we couldn't hear Pečo's calls in all their glory. Also, it would be nice to hear what the refs are saying at some point this season.
- Maybe this is what the coach wants, but Crnović's high pinching was not successful and left rush chances open, one of which they scored on. If this is the system, fine - but try younger players who may be able to execute it better than Crnović is doing, currently.
Final thoughts
PIV controlled the first period, but only came away with a goal to show for it. As Jeff Reinebold of Sky Sports NFL would say, "the most important player on the field is Mo Mentum". With that last-second goal in P1, we curried Mo Mentum's fickle favour and set the Pioneers ablaze for the remainder of the match.
Innsbruck seem similarly-lowly as Pioneers, so that should be a 5th win in a row to start the season. Fehervar will be more of a test, but we have passed them all with flying colours so far! What a dream start to the season we have had. It's early doors, as we say in the UK, but I do believe that the front office team, headed by Mr Ulčar as CEO and Mr Butara as President, deserve their flowers here. They look like geniuses for how their summer recruitment and coaching hire have borne fruit thus far. We've got to 'keep 'er going', as Canadian hockey players like to say, but this squad clearly has the potential to seriously challenge for the league title this year, as TJ Brennan said in his ICE League interview. What more can we ask for, as fans?
P.S. Check out this link for the new stats that the ICE League are providing. I think their Expected Goals stat is way off, but at least they're trying.
https://www.ice.hockey/stats/spielstats?gameId=26
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