G39-40: HUNGRY, HUNGRY HUNS DENIED!

Firstly, I had some good chats about my Slovene Cup rant, especially with ED and SP. I agree with those guys that the ideal answer would be for Jesenice and the rest of pro hockey in Slovenia to receive investment and funding so that they can start to approach Olimpija's level. Given Celje's demise and Jesenice's struggles, I don't feel optimistic that will happen, though. My love for Stoic philosophy has led me to treat dying things as already dead (omae wa mou shindeiru, for the weebs out there). I would love to be proven wrong, but until Jesenice get a juicy sponsor to revive their sinking fortunes, I don't see how they will resurrect themselves to a decent enough standard that makes the Slovene Cup watchable/worthwhile. One of their players, Tom Sojer, did follow me on Insta though and I love his Slovenified Mark Twain character name so much that I feel I should back off the Jesenice doom mongering a bit 😆

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/kenshiro-meme-omae-omaewamoushindeiru-omaewamou-gif-18658759

Pečo's son also plays there, so I do feel a bit bad for saying they should just give up at the senior level. I think those guys could still find opportunities in Austria and elsewhere (e.g. Jure Povše is in France now), but of course having other options in their home country is preferable. Again, though, I think we've seen that money talks and if there's an absence of it, the silence can be deafening (I won't do my echo in the valley of the shadow of death line again, but I hope you enjoyed that last time. If the Church of England wasn't so scandal-ridden, I might have trained as a priest just to be able to give banger sermons every week to relatively captive audiences.)

Something obvious I did forget regarding the Slovene Cup, though, was how useful it is for giving our young Slovene players some serious ice time. That matters very much to me - although, my opinion is that they should almost all be playing much more in the ICE League. I get the argument for development in the Alps League, but that doesn't have to be with Jesenice. I am sure we could do what Abramovich did with Chelsea back in the day and find a Vitesse Arnhem, or mirror Liverpool's relationship with Le Havre, which produced the inimitable Florent Sinama Pongolle (possibly the greatest sporting name of all time).

Tian Hebar was someone I thought could definitely use some more time in the lower-level hockey oven before seriously contending to start for Olimpija. From what I hear, he has been playing well for Jesenice. Bohinc should be starting for Olimpija now; his performances for Jesenice haven't been as good, apparently, perhaps because of a frustration with that situation. Ćosić should also be starting, as should Mehle. I would like to see more of Bukovec, too, as I always enjoy the energy he brings to his shitfs. Even Kumanović has had his moments, although he's been unlucky with injuries in his time here. Quince has been good for this team, but I hope Beričič and Sodja get moved up to the 3rd line next season. They deserve a proper chance at it. 

To be completely honest, I have enjoyed this season rather less than I had expected to - despite our unexpected success. That is something I have struggled with internally for a while, but I feel relieved to express it now. That feeling is mainly down to the apparent anti-youth movement Coach Cooper seems to have instilled. At every turn, he has gone for aged veterans over young guys (excepting Mašič and Mahkovec, who are locked in their spots). I was looking forward to seeing Ćosić and Bohinc play a lot this season and was so excited to watch their development in bigger roles. Likewise with Mehle, I wanted to see what a consistent top-6 or top-9 role could do for him. 

Instead, we've filled the team with either older foreign players who may or may not stick around or older Slovene players with limited potential at this stage of their careers. As you may know by this point, I find the latter especially frustrating. Those combined veterans have propelled us to more wins, fuelled by better offense than we could have reasonably expected. But aren't we neglecting our future by plugging in these veteran stop-gaps instead of giving the younger guys a chance to shine? I admit that as a teacher I will naturally have a built-in future-focus/youth bias. I don't think that's a bad thing to have when assessing a sports club with long-term ambitions, though.

Clearly, CC trusts Simšič over Mehle and Crnović/Gregorc over Ćosić/Bohinc. If he does, that is his prerogative as head coach. I suspect he wants his 3rd pair to be very reliable and not provide anything too fancy, which would explain jettisoning 14+86. Not giving them a real chance to gain playing time is not good coaching, though (I have heard from a pretty reputable source that Ćosić isn't expected to play for the rest of the season or playoffs, barring injuries).

It sounds crazy to say, but I think I would rather have done worse this season and played with more young Slovene players in the squad. You might reasonably say that we must focus on maximally achieving what we can right now - I think achieving maximally in the long-term is more important. I don't think we are adequately looking after the future of our team. The 35y.o. foreigners will come and go, but the likes of Ćosić, Bohinc and Mehle don't come around so often. We need to nourish these talents so they can flourish and be stalwarts of the team for years and years.

Instead, we are sidelining them - and from what I hear, not even really explaining what they have to do to get playing time. Imagine how frustrating that must be. Will those guys be content to stick around with Olimpija in their Cooperian purgatory? People close to them are already wondering.

Cooperian Purgatory, after Gustav Doré's 'Dante's Purgatory'

Low-quality memes for high-quality concepts, welcome to OHB.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-dantes-purgatory-gustave-dore.html Plus club photos/Elite Prospects.

If going from the potentially anti-Slovene stance of 'why do we even bother with the Slovene Cup' to the rather nationalistic position that young Slovene players must be prioritised for Olimpija's long-term autarky/survival in the ICE League is a bit jarring, then you clearly don't enjoy as many internal contradictions as I do! 

Anyway, let's get to the away wins over the Huns.

FEHERVAR 3 - 4 OLIMPIJA

KURALT NEARLY KILLS OLIMPIJA'S HOPES BUT DRAGONS SURVIVE SLOVENE BETRAYAL

* Robert Sabolič and TJ Brennan - Both created and finished chances tonight, fuelling our first away win since December 17th.

** Marcel Mahkovec - Scored a fantastic goal with his usual predatory instincts (see below).

*** Lukaš Horák - Played well and was arguably unlucky on all three that went in.

https://weirdnwildcreatures.fandom.com/wiki/Mako_Shark - Plus Ales Fevzer

Goals

P1

OLL - Polei from Quince and Simšič. It went 12 to 11 to 9 at the back post.

AVS - (Kuralt, their Slovene player!) - Have you heard this one before? OLL D turns it over and they score on a rush? MacW this time.

OLL - Sabolič from Petan and Horak(!). Hory gets the move started, finding Petan on the right side. Petan scythes up ice and picks out Sabla, who was arriving late to the party, but just in time to score off the rush.

OLL PPG - Brennan from Mašič and Boychuk. TJ from his office on a one-timer. Quince on the screen.

P2 

OLL - Mahkovec from Sabla and TJ. A beautiful pass from Sabla sends Mahkovec through for a rush chance, splitting the AVS D-men. Mahko takes the puck away from the RD and shields it with his body from the LD. Magnificent stuff from Marcel.

P3

AVS PPG - The puck ends up behind Horak off a long-range shot and it gets poked in by a vigilant attacker.

AVS  - Kuralt again! He squeezes one through glove side. No screen, just post and in. 

Takeaways

It was squeaky bum time at the end, to quote Sir Alex Ferguson, but we got our first away win in over 5 weeks. TJ looks back in fine form, which will help us immensely. Starting well and ending not so well is ok when we win, but it's something we need to keep an eye on, as better teams will punish us harder for taking our foot off the gas.

FERENCVAROS 3 - 4 OLIMPIJA

TJ SAVES THE DAY

https://www.reddit.com/r/superman/comments/1gqerho/the_iron_giant_sketch_in_superman_meme_pose/ and https://www.hkolimpija.si/igralec/t-j-brennan/

* TJ Brennan - A superhero performance from 43 tonight. He scored twice, but of course the headline goal was the game-winner with 3s to go. Twice they gave TJ space down the 'royal road'. Twice, he punished them. Superstar TJ is back, baby!

** Nate Halbert - Talking of heroism, Halby was an absolute warrior on the PK, with multiple big net-front blocks and stops. 

*** Žiga Pance - Pančo scored an important backhand after we didn't manage a single shot on goal during our 1:08 of 5 on 3. That helped turn the tide of the game, rightfully, in our favour after lots of chances failed to connect. 

Goals

P1

OLL - Mahkovec from Sabolič. Lovely OZ one-time passing as Sabla centres it to Mahkovec to blast in from their left circle.

FTC - Mašič gets pickpocketed as the last man just past our blue line on a breakout. FTC have a 2-on-0 on Kolin, pass and score.

P2

OLL - Pance from Petan and Mašič. Pance careens across the slot and scores on a delightful backhand under Balizs's blocker, not long after we went 0 SOG on 1:08 of 5 on 3.

OLL - Brennan from Drozg and Boychuk. FTC unwisely give TJ a lot of space down the 'royal road' (right down the middle of the ice up to the net). TJ says 'thanks very much' and bangs it in the top corner.

P3

FTC PPG - A point shot deflects off an OLL D and falls to a FTC F to poke in.

FTC PPG - With 2:59 to go, Simšič gives yet another late penalty and they, of course, score off it (1:25 remaining). We weren't able to clear PK and they eventually get in a one-timer from our right circle.

3s left OLL PPG - TJ BRENNAN WITH THE LATE, LATE GAME-WINNER!!!!! They give TJ too much space down the middle again and get punished, again! Meyer and Mašič with the assists.

Takeaways

So, same scoreline and same allocation of goals per period from the Hungarian teams (1-0-2)?! Obviously we'd prefer to concede less and not cede so much ground in both P3s, but we'll take it! 6pts against 7th and 8th place does very nicely for us in securing 6th. ED told me the following - we are in the playoffs if over the next two games these things happen:

• Vienna drops 2 points
• VSV drops 1 point
• We get 6 points. 
• Also Vienna plays VSV in the next round so OT/SO W for VSV would do 2/3 of the job and the rest is on us.

ED has a preternatural attention to detail, so I trust him! Thanks ED!

Flashscore

Talking of friends of the blog, Euro Hockey Hub messaged me and said that Olimpija are conceding a lot of goals, but winning. That is the epitome of our season under Coach Cooper, isn't it?! I can't say I love playing this way, but if it gets results like this weekend's, then I can't complain too much! I also can't really argue with how beautiful our passing was in the OZ. There were chances galore generated from crisp one-time passes criss-crossing the OZ, so much so that it was hard for the viewer to follow, let alone the FTC defenders!

Please can we stop playing Simšič so much in crucial situations. He keeps making big penalty blunders in close games during the last 5 mins of P3, as he did today and which resulted in a game-tying PPG for FTC. As ED said to  me, Simšič owes TJ a case of beer for scoring another PPG with 3s left to win the game.

Talking of blunders, wow - let's not forget Mašič turning it over just past our blue line as the last man, setting off a 2-on-0 for FTC, which they scored on. Ok, he technically got moved down to the 2nd pair alongside TJ for these two games, but how does Mašič continually get trusted yet Ćosić can't even get a game at this point? I would love to see what Ćosić could do on the PP and on the 2nd pair with TJ, yet you know under CC there's just no chance of it happening. 

Is Mašič just 'one of the boys' and Ćosić is not? I've always hated that part of sport, as it's something I felt keenly in locker rooms during my own amateur sporting career. I'm not saying Ćosić is a certified outsider like me, as he seems a lot more cool/streetwise than I am (lol). But he does seem to have been frozen out and it is not clear why, except that CC either doesn't like him or trust him, or both. MacWilliam also made a calamitous turnover in the AVS game. You should be allowed to make mistakes, but at some point you should let other players have a go, too - especially ones that are undeniably crucial to the club's future.

Finally, Jan Drozg hasn't been doing much, has he? He's taken a few faceoffs as a right-hander, but that's about it, outside of some pleasant link-play. Given his pedigree as a KHL-er who was deemed too good for this league by some of the OHB insiders, we could and should reasonably expect more from him. He's had a few assists, but 2 goals in 15 games is not what he or the team expected, I don't think. Ok, he's not been a mega goal-scorer in the higher leagues during his career, but he went ballistic at the junior levels, even in Canada. Time to up that number! (EDIT - ZG did remind me that he hadn't played proper hockey for quite a while due to his KHL limbo situation, so he probably still isn't in any sort of rhythm. Fair point!)

P.S. Our 5-on-3 blank was negated by Pance's timely goal afterwards, but it's worth going over Jack Han's (Liiga analyst) tips:

"For most PP units, the way to maximize a 5v3 is not by over-moving or over-passing against players who are just going to stand there. Instead, they should:

1. Take a high volume of shots from the green crescent below without expecting to score (my emphasis)
2. Retrieve rebounds against penalty killers who aren’t even going for the puck
3. Repeat 1 & 2 until skaters + goalie get physically and mentally overwhelmed
4. Attack the net front, taking advantage of PKers who are out-numbered, tired and overcome by events"

Instead of following this advice, we passed it around looking for a perfect opening that never came. We can't afford to be so wasteful in the playoffs. 

https://jhanhky.substack.com/p/two-fixes-for-mtls-powerplay (OG link)

https://www.facebook.com/fosterch11/photos/jack-han-on-mtls-5x3-woes-heres-the-most-important-thing-to-understand-about-5v3/10163715101001221/ (Free access)

5 GAME RETROSPECTIVE - 34-38

Hey there, remember OHB? It's been a while! I'm not a New Year's resolutions kind of guy, but if I had any, they would have gone out of the window immediately with these first few weeks. Travelling back and straight into frenetic work in the first week was one thing; getting turned into a husk of a human by flu in the second was quite another! Now, I don't play Dark Souls-type games, as being a teacher is more than enough for me in terms of impossible difficulty (I'll judiciously avoid any analogy between the bosses of those games and mine), but I do feel my humanity has been restored, so let's get back to it with a 5 game retrospective before we recommence the final push in the ICE League.

https://imgur.com/gallery/ZOdKRs0/comment/52687047/1

Ah yes, talking of the league, we won the Slovene Cup. Not to be the classic negative British man, but I really find the victory laps we've taken over beating Jesenice quite embarrassing. It's like furiously celebrating watching a pro boxer beat up an old lady - I find it in poor taste, and I'm only half-joking. We're acting like we've done something worthy and we haven't. All we did is just not lose to a team that we should never lose to. The state of SLOHOKEJ outside of us is parlous, to say the least, so I don't know why we're busting out the branded "PRVAKI!!!" caps. Euro Hockey Hub advised me to consider covering more of Slovene hockey - any advice from Mark is gold dust, so of course I considered it. Not for very long, though - there doesn't seem to be much else here at the senior level!

This should have been a Mario Balotelli postman quote type of deal - get the job done and move on without unnecessary fanfare. A bit like the Florida Panthers, CC's old team, when they win the Eastern Conference. Those guys don't even touch the trophy, as it's not the one they really want. Slightly different context here, but I would prefer that extremely evident 'job's not done' attitude. Still, someone could argue that we're unlikely to win the ICE League, so we have to celebrate the trophy we do acquire. I am not that person, though 😆

Me looking for any half-decent adult hockey in Slovenia outside of OLL

(I'd rather watch ZG's beer league than Jesenice, any day of the week)

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/pulp-fiction-confused-travolta-where-lost-gif-5308454

Of course, it's fine with me that there's not much else on offer at the senior level here, as I am happy covering Olimpija alone. But we should heed our lonely echo in the valley of the shadow of the death of Slovene pro hockey outside of Ljubljana and avoid over-celebrating what is a mercy killing, at best. I worry that this kind of nothing-burger trophy win will lull us into a false sense of security that will see us get blasted in the playoffs, but allow us to turn around and say 'well, we achieved/won something this season'. We haven't. The club are happy with automatic playoffs; I think with the investment we've made and how our previous two seasons have gone, it has to be winning a playoff series as well. 

This is a decent representation of what I fear over-celebrating the Slovene Cup might do to us in the actual competition that matters:

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/253740962/9th-place-guy-celebrating

To be fair, the ladies I watch play handball, RK Krim, also absolutely pulverise their opposition in their version of the Slovene Cup. I just don't see the point of even participating in this kind of thing, to be quite honest. Let the other essentially amateur teams duke it out and just auto-award us and Krim the championship, if this is the level of competition. I would be absolutely fine with Jesenice relinquishing the pretence that they can keep going at the senior level and simply becoming a junior team, as that seems to be a more thriving area of SLOHOKEJ, thereby saving us the trouble of the faintly farcical Slovene Cup every year. 

Granted, I am not Slovene and therefore do not have the full context of the situation, nor the fire and fury of hatred against Jesenice - but that's mainly because I consider them entirely irrelevant. I don't like Maribor one bit and I barely even follow the football version of Olimpija. You should have seen my disgust when I saw some guy wearing a purple Maribor t-shirt on the Dragon Bridge last year!

Anyway, you can see that I've missed expressing my opinions, so let's get off this rant and on to the previous 5 games. Don't worry, it's not worth doing a quintuple set of full-blown reports at this stage, so a nimble overview will have to suffice. 

VIENNA 3-2 OLIMPIJA

Did we play CC's style? YES/NO/SORT OF

Did the other team significantly impede our ability to play CC's style? YES/NO/SORT OF

Did the other team play better than us? YES/NO/SORT OF

Did we win? YES/NO

Main takeaway: One player can win a game - Vienna's hat-trick hero scored more than we did. In all seriousness, this was a tight game and it could have gone either way at the end. Euro Hockey Hub, who lives in Vienna and goes to their games, said they have improved a lot since their coaching change, so we shouldn't view this overly negatively (even if we still keep dropping away games). Vienna grabbed the chances we gave them with both hands, while we were unable to do the same.

Goals: Quince and Mahkovec.

GRAZ 2 - 0 OLIMPIJA 

Did we play CC's style? YES/NO

Did the other team significantly impede our ability to play CC's style? YES/NO

Did the other team play better than us? YES/NO 

Did we win? YES/NO  

Main takeaway: We were quite unlucky with our bounces this game (Quince's deflection going through the goalie's legs and clipping the post, for instance), but sport is like that sometimes. We kept it close against another Austrian team who are looking good under their changed-coach. Yet, it was another away loss and Graz largely shut our offense down in what was a pretty depressing game to watch in my airport hotel room.

OLIMPIJA 5 -1 FERENCVAROS

Did we play CC's style? ABSOLUTELY/YES/NO

Did the other team significantly impede our ability to play CC's style? YES/NO/NOT AT ALL

Did the other team play better than us? YES/NO/NOPE LOL 

Did we win? YES/NO  

Main takeaway: FTC were bad in this game, but that doesn't preclude us from being good, too. It was really nice to be spotting impressive moments proliferating across the team for the first time in a while (e.g. Kapel's vigorous forecheck). I felt bad for FTC's monk goalies (both did the monk pose, maybe it's a Hungarian thing, praying to Attila). The scoreline could have been closer, though, as FTC improved as the game went on. Horak was the difference there, as per usual. Finally, it was nice to see TJ break his goalless streak.

Goals: Brennan, Pance, Simšič, Mahkovec x2.

SALZBURG 5 - 1 OLIMPIJA 

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/363114678/giant-vs-warrior

Did we play CC's style? YES/NO/WE DIDN'T GET THE CHANCE TO PLAY ANYTHING REALLY

Did the other team significantly impede our ability to play CC's style? YES/NO

Did the other team play better than us? YES/NO 

Did we win? YES/NO  

Goals: Mašič.

Main takeaway: It was hard to judge how we played in this one, as RBS controlled the game so effectively from P2 onwards. With 12 Ws in a row, shall we just give them their 5th consecutive title already? ED did point out we are 2-1 up on them on the season, but it won't matter if we are trending down while they heat up to be red-hot just in time for the playoffs. We scored a gorgeous PP goal, but that was the only time we opened them up. Everything else was a clinic by RBS in keeping attacks to the outside and making space to shoot into at the other end. This was a sobering loss to take after dismantling FTC in the previous game. As the saying goes, sometimes you get your eyes opened to the different levels in sport. On this evidence, we seem to be firmly in between FTC and RBS, which doesn't leave us in a powerful pose for the playoffs.

Interviews:

Mašič mid-game: the key points are the same as always: good forecheck, force turnovers, quick strike from there.

Halbert post-game: (interviewer said 'thanks for coming', which is a classic cricketing chirp in the UK for when you haven't done anything during the game) "They played well and we didn't. They forechecked well. We have to look in the mirror, that's the way you win championships. We need to regroup and play 60 mins, can't get by only playing the last 10 minutes - it's too late then. 

Teams took us a bit lightly to start the season, now they're taking us seriously. We're not getting any freebies anymore. We have to turn up every game in these last 10 before the playoffs. Maybe we haven't been doing that every time."

OHB comment: I appreciated Halby's candour in this. I found his comment about the early successes of OLL under CC being down to other teams not taking us seriously. Is that slightly damning of Coach Cooper's turnaround? That it only works when teams don't bother to prepare extensively for us? I don't think that's what he really meant, but it sort of came out that way.

Olimpija 4 - 1 Linz

Did we play CC's style? YES/NO

Did the other team significantly impede our ability to play CC's style? YES/NO

Did the other team play better than us? YES/NO/DEFINITELY NOT

Did we win? EMPHATICALLY/YES/NO 

Goals: Mahkovec, Brennan, Meyer, Pance. 

Main takeaway: Finally, we found a way to treat Linz as they are - a weaker team that we should dominate. Once more, we let Horak down for his shutout attempt. 

Overall takeaways + Outlook for the final 10 games

• OHB and ED/SS are both right about Kolin. 
• I accept their hypothesis (yes, we are going to use that word for this) that I should view Kolin more neutrally at this stage. On reflection, I was conflating his current game with his potential, when I called him 'very good'. What he is right now is either 'neutral' or 'good', as ED and SS separately posit.
• However, I feel I am still correct to assign a lot of the blame to the team defence in front of him. As you see above (and as NR agrees), the team does not tend to play better defence in front of Horak. He is just better at papering over the cracks in the defence than Kolin, at this stage. You can see that in his Herculean efforts to get shutouts, only to keep getting let down late on. 
• So, I concede that I need to adjust my view of Kolin down somewhat, but I also remain steadfast in my belief that our system's commit-it-all approach to the OZ does not help our goalies when it inevitably breaks down into chances against. Thus, we should not be overly harsh in our judgement of Kolin.
• The chatter in the OLL community about bringing in a veteran goalie for next year, e.g. Slovenia's Pintarić, currently in the French league, is interesting. I still believe in Kolin, but I can't deny that being loaned out to a team in a weaker league to be their no.1 goalie would be good for his development. Having a more consistent option as Horak's backup would be helpful, too. It's a tough one, but if they have the ability to pull it off, I think it could work out for everyone. I still firmly believe in Kolin, but I think even he would admit he would rather be playing more games and experiencing less of this rollercoaster ride of backup appearances, either lauded or reviled at the flip of a coin behind Olimpija's porous defence.
• The team have already identified that we need to be better road warriors in away games going forward. Being good at home is very helpful, but as you'll see in the NHL playoffs, teams that can't win on the road don't tend to go very far. Taking ZG's suggestion to arrive early and stay overnight for away games could help with our performances, with the very basics of energy levels and mental preparedness. Sometimes it's the basics that make the difference, as Coach Cignetti has shown with his incredible success, taking Indiana from worst to first in college American Football by focusing on the fundamentals. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6915590/2025/12/29/indiana-football-curt-cignetti-rose-bowl/
• In terms of our outlook, we seem to have 6th place pretty much locked up (OLL G38/65pts, AVS G39/54pts, FTC G40/50pts) - especially if we shut the door on the Huns, as the Romans couldn't, with our games against AVS and FTC tonight and tomorrow. 
• Who we will end up playing, I am not sure. I would take anyone but Pustertal. A fresh start in the playoffs, without the HCP monkey on our backs, would be my main goal. We have beaten all the teams above us at least once this season. Any of them is fine... Just not HCP. I can't take another knockout from them, 3 years running. 
• Do I think we can win a playoff series? I think we can win games, but it's hard to say about a series. Which OLL is going to turn up? Is it the one that fully embodies CC's vision for the team, with rampant offensive possession and high-scoring? Or is it the one that gets lost chasing the mirage of that vision, leaving us with the same leaky defence but without the goals at the other end? Will we see both in the same series? Olimpija's inconsistency is making my confidence in my ability to properly judge the team waver. Teams will always have ups and downs, as CC and others have pointed out. Those teams, like RBS, tend to have a stronger identity that they stick to for longer than we seem to be able to. Whatever the case, it won't be long until we see the proof in the pudding.