G41-43 AUSTRIAN ADVENTURES AND ADVERSITY

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/hello-there-gif-5677380953331354485

Hello there! I hope you have enjoyed your Olympic break. I certainly did - the Seahawks won the Super Bowl and finally closed the chapter on the Malcolm Butler interception that I watched in the middle of the night at the St Andrews Students' Union Bar 11 years ago. Team Liquid also 3-0'd Fnatic to win the Kickoff Lower Final and qualify for Masters Santiago in VCT EMEA. I can't decide whether two of my other teams winning, plus Aonishiki in Sumo, is a good sign or a bad sign for Olimpija's chances in the playoffs. Anyway, we are almost back to OLL hockey, so let's review the previous three games before Wednesday's 'Boys' Night' against Vienna.

OLL 5 - 2 PIV

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Sabla and Mahkovec combining for a textbook shorthanded goal 6s before the end of P1 to open our account. I managed to miss this entirely when I took my glasses off to put my jersey on, it happened that quickly 😆😭
• Polei doing his net-front dirty work job and stabbing in a loose puck near the goal line, amidst general chaos
• PP finding success getting the puck to more central areas instead of staying outside
• Scoring a goal off the rush instead of just conceding them!
• Drozg drawing three tripping penalties in the OZ - I'd asked for more from him in the previous article and this definitely counts! Call it the OHB effect! 😆
• Mašič blasting a one-timer in and dangling through the PIV D when coming out of the penalty box. I wish he'd try this more often, but it seems CC doesn't give the guys the license to do that
• I enjoyed watching this with Olimpija News and VBT, who I met in-person for the first time. It was a pleasure!

LOWLIGHT: PIV's consistently dirty play, e.g. a hit to the head on Beričič, resulting in a concussion. The refs did assess a major penalty and a game misconduct at the time, although these do not appear on the ICE website's game breakdown. They didn't address the hit until Halbert had already taken matters into his own hands to defend Beričič, so well done Halby and 'boo refs'. Polei got jumped at the end by a PIV player for a clean hit and the refs wouldn't let him teach them a lesson they wouldn't forget. I left the game pretty furious with how PIV were allowed to get away with 'hacking' us, as we used to say in British football when bad teams would start just trying to hurt the better team, having lost the game. The refs did do something, but not enough to keep this from deteriorating into a very poor showing from a team that looks to be sinking out of the ICE League.

MAIN TAKEAWAY - We continued to treat PIV as we should always have done. We have gone 6-1, 4-1 and 5-2 against them this year - we shouldn't forget how much difficulty we used to have against them in the last couple of seasons.

OLL 5 - 1 RBS 

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Jan Drozg has arrived! Now he's shaken off the rust, we're seeing a Bonino-esque impact. He looked so dangerous and could have had 4 or 5 goals, but ended on a juicy hat-trick nonetheless. The OHB effect rears its head again - 3 goals certainly improves on drawing three trips in the previous game 😆
• Giving RBS a 5-1 after they handed us one in the previous encounter. Each time, the victorious team sucked the soul out of the loser - what an interesting playoff series this would be, with storylines galore for CC and the other former RBS players...
• Kolin coming in to replace Horak and doing a fantastic job of it, when shaky play could have let RBS back into the game.

LOWLIGHT: Get well soon to Horak - he was hit in the back of the head by a shot and fell awkwardly (still saved it though, as it's Hory) and Brennan (apparently a knee injury?!). 

Another one has to be Crnović doing one of his carry-ins of old, flying around with his jersey billowing behind him - only to go right around the rim of the OZ and back out again without doing anything with the puck. This is the only notable thing he has done in a while and it goes some way to epitomising his season, a non-descript showing for the ages. Please, let Ćosić have a go! The latter does have the lowest +/- on the team, which may suggest why CC doesn't like him playing, but his -6 is only one less than...Crnović, at -5. Give the man a chance to do something, to save us from Crnović's nothing!

MAIN TAKEAWAY: We weathered the RBS storm in the first 10 minutes and otherwise controlled the game as RBS had in their home game against us, which was also 5-1. Inflicting an exact reverse on them was very satisfying! We had double their shots at 40-20, showing this was no fluke result.

 

VSV 8 - 5 OLL

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Coverage of this game was well and truly sponsored by ED and LR, who were enormously generous to me. Not only did they pay for my ticket, they drove me there and back - supplying me with my beloved Cedevita at a pit stop along the way and my classic water when at the stadium. Not to mention the vignette and Karawanke tunnel charge! I did try to pay for things, but I was refused. Slavic hospitality at its finest - I am extremely grateful to them. To go from feeling entirely alone here not too long ago to being shown such immense kindness means very much to me. Najlepša hvala once more!  
• Seeing Sodja's backhand goal live was one of the top moments of my Olimpija fandom. Our position in the away section meant we couldn't see much of our goals at the other end, but boy did we see Sodja's, right in front of us! The fact he celebrated right at us was the cherry on top. The last time I had such a soul-imbued 'wow' moment was the ending of Pentiment, a game by Obsidian Entertainment. It's a murder mystery game set in a side-on illustrated manuscript about a Medieval German town. Highly, highly recommended!

LOWLIGHT: Is conceding 8 too obvious? CC said we were too sloppy defensively after the game, but ED fairly pointed out that the shots were pretty limited and yet we kept conceding. I feel those fewer shots were generally pretty dangerous, but Kolin does have to do better, even if two ENGs were added to the tally. There were too many rebounds on offer today. This is where the community's growing calls for a more consistent, veteran backup start to make sense - even if I still believe in Kolin's potential.

Another lowlight was when VSV fans threw a lighter at F13's head (a young Olimpija fan). Well done to him for pressing charges and getting them banned from the stadium. Now, as he said himself, things weren't helped by a couple of our older fans antagonising the VSV contingent. As I said to him, the lone security guard also didn't do a great job - he should have inserted himself directly between the warring fans, instead of watching from below. Kudos to the Villach police, though - they did not mess around once it was clear something bad had happened. 

I realise a lighter is worse than a coin or two, but it does make me think about my own experience of having things thrown at my head. In Austria, the police are onto them in seconds and they get a stadium ban. In Tivoli, it seems like security could not care less, especially if you are a foreigner. Instead of acting the first time a violent incident happens, they simply tell you - with an almost Francophone insouciance - to get hit again and then they'll consider handing out a pathetic warning. In essence, this is a 'get stuffed, tujec, and leave us to our smoke breaks outside' approach. There's not much Austria does better than Slovenia, but this is definitely one of them. 

MAIN TAKEAWAY: This scoreline was an ugly combination of a bit of a hangover from the imperious performance in the RBS game, our having qualified for the automatic playoffs already and VSV being really up for it chasing a better pre-playoff spot. 

Injury updates from NU

• Horak hurt his ankle in the awkward twist down from getting hit in the back of the head vs RBS, but he is good to go for after the Olympic break.
• Brennan and Mašič are out till at least playoffs (Brennan - knee, Masic - shoulder)
• Kirichenko is possibly done for the season (couldn't walk after a game, no more info).

Here's how our defence has been looking:

Mašič - Brennan

Halbert - Kirichenko

MacWilliam - Gregorc

Crnović

So, we are at minus 75% of our top-4 D and 50% of our 3 pairs gone 😳 Time for Bohinc and Hebar to be recalled from Jesenice, if they haven't already returned!

How I think CC will line up the D:

Halbert - Gregorc

MacWilliam - Crnović

Ćosić - Bohinc/Hebar

How I would line up the D:

Ćosić - Halbert

Bohinc - Gregorc

MacWilliam - Crnović/Hebar

ZG suggested pairing Ćosić and Gregorc, as they play together for the national team. That would look like this:

Halbert - MacWilliam

Ćosić - Gregorc

Bohinc - Crnović/Hebar

It's slightly crushing that the injuries are piling up just as the playoffs come into view, but that is how hockey goes sometimes. We have 5 more games to go in the regular season, all in February. Then, the real fun begins, to quote Anakin Skywalker. 

P.S. Friends of the blog (e.g. NU, ED, ZG) have suggested we go hunting for another Lalonde-type addition, a defender (or two) from a better league that is out of the playoffs and wants to become a stick-for-hire, an icy mercenary, for a contending team. A Balearic Slinger, if you will, for those who enjoy Total War: Rome. I wouldn't be opposed to it, especially if they are of the booming-hit variety like Lalonde was, but I also want our reserve guys like Ćosić and Bohinc to get a chance. I suppose we'll see soon if there's any fire to this smoke!