PIV 5 - 2 OLL
PIONEERS PUT DRAGONS ON THE NAUGHTY LIST
Prior to this game, I fully believed we could win the league this season. Now, I don't think that anymore. This was an awful display perhaps best summed up by the shots ending up equal (24-24) but the penalty minutes being PIV 2 - 14 OLL. It seems some of these guys could do with a stint in my primary school class, as they need serious help with their decision-making. This is not all the refs' fault - we know they are extra-sensitive this season, yet we keep the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again going.
If you're not sure what I mean, let me spell it out for you: we are not playing smart hockey at the moment. Opponents are getting away with little cheap shots here and there, as they always will. We are taking the bait and getting penalised for our petty revenge (notorious NHL rat Brad Marchand would have us for breakfast). These penalties are killing our momentum and costing us games.
Look, I can sympathise from my own amateur sporting career that it is highly frustrating when an opponent hurts you and gets away without being penalised for it. However, especially as a professional player, that selfish drive must be transcended for the good of the team. Sadly, that is not happening at the moment and we are suffering for it. If we want to have any chance at turning our performances around - let alone a playoff series victory - we're going to need to start with this. The mantra I chose for my primary class's behaviour this year is "help the team, don't hurt the team". Olimpija would do well to adopt that, too.
Aside from a couple of nice goals, this was a truly empty performance. Where are the guys who are so enraged by the thought of losing to the 2nd-bottom team that they play with their hair on fire and force a shift in the momentum? Where did all our highly-paid skill players go when we needed a spark? Is this kind of showing really all that we can muster with this coaching staff, from all those practices? What an embarrassment.
By the way - it would be too easy to just blame this all on Kolin. This was not all on him - as usual, the team defence in front of him over-exposed him to dangerous shots. The goals went: rush chance (Mašič misjudged it and left a central lane wide open), a well-placed high shot (for which you just have to applaud the opponent), Sodja and Drozg fail to cover the net-front, Drozg loses a board battle and they score off the rush on a 3 on 2, then the empty netter. Could he have done more? Can't we all, in life? That list has 3 unforced defensive errors, one you can't do much about and one where he wasn't on the ice. I know I always defend our goalies (unlike the actual Olimpija players, apparently), but I am fairly sure I am in the right here.
ED did point out that Kolin's save percentage is in the bottom half of the league (18/29 - EDIT: I made a mistake earlier lol, thanks to ED for pointing that out), though. Lies, damned lies and statistics...but it's something to monitor. I - and the entire goalie community - believe that save% is a team stat, not an individual one. Check former pro goalie Francis Marotte's IG post on his coach saying he 'needed to improve his stats':
https://www.instagram.com/p/DRz4y_rjZz1/
I think we've never been good at defending this season under CC, but we've had sufficient possession and goal support to paper over those cracks. Those cracks are essentially an acknowledged trade-off in CC's system of playing aggressively and as high up the ice as possible. This invites rush chances, which Kolin struggles with more than Horak, but which are tough on any goalie.
Horak's elite play is essential for this team, in that he covers up a lot of our defensive mis-steps in a way that Kolin often does not. I still think Kolin is a very good goalie, I just think you have to be Horak's elite level to bail out this poor team defence, amplified by a system that leaves itself open to dangerous chances against and which requires more offensive (and generally less defensive) defenders to operate within it. Kolin is not that level, yet. ED would probably say stop huffing copium and accept Kolin needs to play better, which may be fair - we'll have to see with more data. 😆
PIV played well, but we let them play well. This game had all of the coalescing hallmarks of Olimpija doom that have been emanating from our recent poor performances:
- Idiotic penalties from experienced defenders who should know far better? Oh yes. (TJ at least made up for his with a goal, Halbert (x2) and MacWilliam did not).
- Evaporated offense, with nothing but dump-ins and the occasional long-range shot, making it look like Karhula-era Olimpija is back and here to stay? Affirmative.
- An almost complete lack of ambition to carry the puck in and take on defenders to gain central ice? Apart from Polei one time, yup!
- Free rushes against given out like a generous Slavic grandma's sweet treats at Christmas time? You bet!
- Defensive turnovers sprinkled on top, just for fun? Why not!
- Insufficient net front presence to protect our goalie, leading to goals against? Yes, sir!
Where is the vaunted Olimpija offense? The flowing, entrancing displays of the early season seem long gone. Isn't this meant to be Coach Cooper's calling card, his raison d'être? All that's left are interview platitudes while we rock slowly in the corner, telling ourselves "We just need to shoot from the point and get a tip, then we'll be ok...", even though with each repetition, we believe it less and less.
Our defensive fragility has come into much sharper focus now that we aren't controlling possession or scoring anywhere near as much as before. Our intelligent movement and passing have basically disappeared; I am losing faith that meaningful adjustments can or will be made. I just don't see CC's vision for the team anymore in how we play. Aside from Boychuk's unfortunate injury, we are largely back to full health. It's no longer an excuse.
Just one more long-range, low-danger shot...
One commenter on the team's Instagram page asked if Coach Cooper should be fired - of course not. What good would that do? Give AT another half-season as interim coach? At the very least, CC deserves a full season. As SS pointed out to me, the team's goal is to win the league within the next 4 years; this year's goal is automatic playoffs. We are on track for that, so people like me need to calm down a bit.
CC does need to work out how to coax greater consistency out of his team, though. JB made a comparison with a team that CC used to work for, the Florida Panthers. JB said that we have a playoff team this year with young players; like the Panthers, we play hot and cold - but there's always the chance that they really turn things on when the playoffs start. I hope JB is right about the playoffs - but he's definitely right about the Panthers. They have games like this one, shrug it off and move on. Both the team and I need to do that instead of over-lamenting this loss.
On the topic of friends of the blog, ZG mentioned that he still thinks Olimpija are not taking pre-game preparation for away games like this one seriously enough. He showed me that the Alps League's EKZ, who we battered in preseason, went down to play Zagreb's team a day early, stayed overnight in a hotel and then went for the pre-game warm-ups. ZG believes that Olimpija's insistence on driving over on the day of the game affects their performance, with better play against closer teams (e.g. KAC, VSV, G99, RBS) and worse performances against farther away clubs (e.g. HCI, PIV, BWL). I have to say, this does track with our better and worse results - we play better against the better, closer teams and worse against the further, worse teams! Maybe we just play up or down to our competition's level, but geography has to be a factor there.
ZG said that for the HCI/PIV games, we tend to rock up a couple of hours beforehand and that lack of time to prepare fully affects our gameplay. As a former junior player (and current beer league-r), ZG can say with authority that your legs won't be as good as they could be if you take a long journey (e.g. 8hrs+) and then play so soon (~2hrs) after arriving. I'm sure there have been lengthy discussions around budgeting and schedules, but I agree with ZG that we should aim, wherever possible, to give our players the best rest and preparation before games, instead of the more amateur 'turn up relatively last minute'. At the moment, it doesn't seem like a very professional approach. If we truly want to win, we need to search for every competitive edge we can acquire. More frequently staying over and longer run-ins to away games is surely one to explore.
NU said that we've got to hope that this is the worst part of the season for us. I also hope he is right, but I will refer you all to the legendary Mick McCarthy interview answer (a football manager whose team was on a big losing streak): Interviewer: "It can't go on like this, can it?", Mick: "It can!". We're 30 games in with 18 to go in the regular season. 37.5% of the season remains - it'll be interesting to see how that goes. Hopefully it won't go like McCarthy's time at Blackpool...
Finally, I feel it's worth asking - did Pustertal crush the life out of this team in the last game? Is this hollow performance simply a hangover from that loss? I do worry that all the optimism of the early season is seeping away and that we are following a preordained script of a first-round playoff exit, possibly to HCP. But let's transcend those worries and live more in the moment, like my Buddhist monk book told me to (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51175752-a-monk-s-guide-to-happiness). As Halbert says below, we've got to be much better going forward. Let's hope that's the case. Merry Christmas.
P.S. Many thanks to the friends of the blog who are keeping me intellectually honest, such as the guys above (ED, SS, ZG, JB, NU and more). It's such a wonderful thing to be able to disagree and debate in a friendly, constructive manner - I try to teach my kids this every day. In the modern world, such abilities are getting rarer and rarer. I really appreciate our interactions; they are helping me become a better writer about this team and a better fan of this club. Ultimately, it's just nice to talk to intelligent, thoughtful people who care as much as I do. That's been my favourite part of this whole blogging experience thus far. Najlepša hvala, fellas!
Halbert Post-Game Transcript
"We fell asleep a couple of times and they scored their chances. We weren't good enough for 60 minutes. We got a little sloppy and need to be way better going forward". (Halbert took two needless penalties within 5 minutes of each other, both in the last 10 of P3 while we were 4-2 down and desperately needed to climb back into the game. Some reflection on this would have been sensible.)
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