BROKEN GLASS, BROKEN STREAMS, BROKEN DREAMS!
Let's start with the two strange, curtailed games before the meatier description of the Rosenheim game.
Broken Glass
OLL 6 - 1 EKZ 29.8.25
In person, I found this game very boring. Obviously, it was nice to see us scoring goals aplenty, but EKZ looked awful. This was a far cry from the hyper-competitive preseason games in Slovakia. Friend of the blog ED did point out that it's a good sign for us to be really crushing weaker opponents, something which has not proven easy in previous years. The goals just kept flowing in. I loved seeing Mahkovec slow down a puck mid-air, allowing Ćosić to enter the zone and set him up for a beauty of a goal.
A big hit involving Nik Simšič dislodged the plexiglass and couldn't be replaced in time, so there was an impromptu penalty shootout in the middle of the 2nd period, despite us being 6-1 up. I was glad that they essentially mercy-killed the game, as it was a bit like watching a heavyweight boxer beat up a kid.
However, given our good performance against Rosenheim (see below), perhaps this was less a case of EKZ being horrendous and more that we were just lights-out on the night?
One final thing - I noticed Horak was being a lot more adventurous when playing the puck. This opened up rush opportunities for the likes of Marly Quince. Sadly, he couldn't muster the quality needed to score off the chance, but it's a positive sign to see every possible offensive edge being pursued under Coach Cooper. It certainly speaks to his NHL experience, as this is something that those teams are working on. Really, it's a few years behind a similar development in football, where your old workhorse, put-your-foot-through-it keepers like Shay Given and Joe Hart made way for adept ball-players such as Ederson and Alisson. I wanted to mention Simon Mignolet, David de Gea and the death of the shot-stopper here but we'd better stop before I dive down that rabbit hole. I barely even watch football anymore!
Broken Streams
G99 4 - 1 OLL 6.9.25
The second strange game. Unlike the Slovakian free Facebook streams, 6€ went to 'Sport Europe TV' for this preseason game. They are the new streamer for the ICE League games this year. I have to say, it was an even worse performance from Sport Europe TV than EKZ. Unlike last year's streaming service from the ICE League, you cannot pause/rewind/fast-forward anymore. This is a pretty massive downgrade, as I used to start watching games late and then fast-forward through the period breaks. I wonder if this is a way to force people to watch the adverts; the adverts they showed on entering the stream auto-paused themselves when I went to another tab. The latter suggests the former is a correct assumption.
The main thing, of course, is that the connection was lost for the entire second period and half of the 3rd period. One benefit of the new service is a live chat, where OLL and G99 fans came together to complain and make jokes about the situation. We were all stuck on the same men's outfitter advert, Jeremy's in Graz. I feel for them, as their brand will now be associated with negativity for all the frustrated viewers.
I have already contacted the company for a refund, as should everyone who experienced that rubbish. They had better sort this out quickly, otherwise we'll miss the entire tranche of away games due to infinite loops on adverts and lengthy losses of signal. Bring back the old one, please! By the way, this is a good example of Cory Doctorow's theory of 'enshittification', that online technology/services start good and then deteriorate into bad ones. Last year was good, this year is bad.
Anyway, no goals in the first period, then we all missed the second and half the third. By the time the stream came back on, it was 2-1 to G99. No idea who scored for us. Lukaš Horák very kindly updated me with the scoreline when the stream was down, so my thanks go to him. Not just the best goalie in the league, but the best goalie-journalist in the league!
With 5 mins to go, G99 scored a good power-play goal (PPG) to go 3-1 up. We got a power-play (PP) soon after this. Halbert, not the usual PP quarterback, carried the puck up the neutral zone, with a deft feint around the penalty-killers, before launching a pass back into an oncoming Alex Petan. No offense to my fellow Brit, but why are you putting that much heat on a pass in this situation? I do not blame Petan at all for failing to control it. G99 pounced for a 2 on 1 rush and scored a shorthanded goal (SHG). This killed the game. Please do not put Halbert in as PPQB again. He's a good, strong defender, but he does not appear to have the touch required for PP work (insert New England Patriots owner massage parlour scandal joke here).
In short, the game seemed closer than the scoreline suggested. I was very grateful to receive some insider info that Kirichenko and Meyer were sick, with an illness going through the team. In light of that, they did well to keep it close till the last 5 mins. Mehle replaced Meyer on the top line (wish I could have seen more of how he did with that opportunity) and Mašič moved up to replace Kirichenko on his off-hand.
Broken (Rosenheim) Dreams
OLL 3 - 0 Rosenheim 4.9.25
Lineup changes: Bohinc starts, Mehle is on the 3rd instead of Simšič. Pretty happy as I had called for both of these to happen!
Stars of the game
* Luka Kolin (shutout)
** Zach Boychuk (2G)
*** The Entire Penalty Kill
See below for further descriptions.
Goals:
P1
- OLL SCORE 1930 - 30 seconds in and we score! Boychuk redirects a shot from Brennan. I half-missed this as I was writing about how well the Rosenheim fans had travelled. They were really loud and you've got to respect the commitment for a Thursday night preseason game.
- OLL SCORE 3 - Meyer with the pickpocket on the forecheck leads to a Sabla-to-Boychuk redirect goal. Hey, if it works, why not keep doing it?! Bohinc gets a secondary assist, but it's Meyer who created this opportunity.
- OLL SCORE 24s left - Pance hits the empty net off a faceoff win by Petan.
- Luka Kolin - looked very sharp tonight and continues to push the envelope for a more even split of starts with Horak this year.
- Robert Sabolič's promotion to the first line worked well. His chemistry with Boychuk and Meyer looked smooth.
- Žiga Mehle was consistently attacking the middle of the ice with speed through the neutral zone. I loved to see this, as we need to build more carry-in zone entry attempts into our offensive repertoire. Dumping the puck in repeatedly will not work on its own and players like Mehle must be given the opportunity to try to create more dangerous offensive 'looks' for us.
- Zach Boychuk - talking of him, it was great to see him take the reins on the top line with two skilful goals. Petan was quieter this game, but Boychuk took over. Those two compensating for each other's quieter games could lead to sustained offensive success this season. It goes without saying, but that would be massive for a club like us, that has great goaltending and penalty kill units, but which has generally struggled for goals in the last couple of years to fully take advantage of those existing strengths.
- Nico Meyer - I love his forecheck pickpocketing. He's like a quiet demon out there for opposing defenders, appearing when you least expect him to. He also knifed through the neutral zone coverage multiple times, setting up good chances (even if no one could take advantage of them). For those concerned about his lack of size, this is the upside of that - he's more agile and stealthy than anyone else out there.
- Clayton Kirichenko - I supremely enjoyed seeing him hit with real intent in the defensive zone (DZ). Somebody had to replace Lalonde's menace!
- Talking of menace, Evan Polei's dirty work on the boards and on the forecheck should be commended. As former NFL coach Jon Gruden would say, he's the 'straw who stirs the drink' - without his physical link play, the rest of the offense stops working so well.
- Penalty Kill - I counted 5 penalties that we gave up (the refs were a bit soft tonight) and we still went 100%. It's great to see us continue on like last year's league-leading PK.
- I really enjoyed seeing Miha Beričič's clever PK coverage, staying near the boards in the neutral zone and then pouncing on a lazy backwards pass by the Rosenheim PP. I've said before that I love supporting Team Liquid in Valorant eSports because their coach instils clever play in the players. I am glad to see some of that is happening for OLL under Coach Cooper, too.
- We looked really impressive tonight. We could have done more in P2 and P3, but you can't argue with a 3-0 win.
- In P1, we manufactured high-danger chance after high-danger chance. Given how starved we have been of these in the past, it was beautiful to see.
- We had a lot of blue-line point shots with fly-by tip attempts today. This obviously worked well, with two redirect goals off the ice, both by Boychuk.
- Tian Hebar needs to put on more weight to see more playing time in this league. This is a bit rich coming from me, a proud member of Skinny Nation, but it's a fair comment to make. He was getting bumped off the puck in the defensive zone by forecheckers too easily to be realistically selected over Bohinc, Ćosić, Gregorc and even Crnović. Jure Povše wasn't able to bulk up sufficiently to avoid losing possession frequently and was sadly let go, so let's not go down that route again.
- Keeping the defensive pairings together for the PK is an interesting idea from Coach Cooper. In previous years, we have slotted together the toughest defenders. That can have its advantages, but I also see the benefits of using the same pairs as you normally would. The synergy builds faster this way, even if seeing Mašič on the PK does worry me a bit. On this note, I enjoyed seeing Marcel Mahkovec join Alex Petan on the PK, as it shows the increased trust in his defensive abilities. I have been impressed by them, so I am happy to see Marcel being rewarded with extra ice time for the hard work he will have put in.
- It was nice to see us have a good shorthanded chance, with Quince and Kapel. Usually, we are the ones giving them up!
- Our OZ set plays off the forecheck look smooth. Coach Cooper is clearly a talented coach, even if I have set up our relationship to be a bit antagonistic thus far, given my strong differences of opinion to him in terms of defensive team selection.
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