HCP 5/7 GAME OVER

I feel Ray Lewis' postgame locker room speech bears listening to after the defeat to HCP in Game 5. We should have won this, but HCP forced their way back into the game late in P3 and took over in OT. That they then got swept in the final by Graz muddies the waters a bit, but ZG assures me that they didn't play anything like they did against us. Perhaps that's a somewhat mucky feather in our cap, that after sleepwalking through the first 3 games, our games 4 and 5 really took it out of them? If only we'd woken up a game or two earlier...

I can't get this Aaron Rodgers clip out of my head - HCP still owns us, unfortunately, just as he owned the Bears. 

The OHB silence for most of this month has been twofold - a continued bad luck run of sickness/injury and a conscious letting things settle. 

What can we say about this season, before the Roundtable Boys End of Season Review/Awards? Well, a 3rd place podium finish is an undeniably fantastic start to the CC era. Our offense really popped throughout the season and in the quarter-finals in a way that is scarcely believable compared to the previous two years. Winning a series against HCB was truly amazing after our previous pre-playoff defeats.

On the business side of things, it was an unmitigated success. As ED pointed out, the club had 30 new sponsors this year, +1000 average attendance, double the attendance in 2-3 years, a sold out Hala Tivoli (with ticket prices up to 23e for the playoffs) for the first time in 10 years... All this bolsters the club tremendously and sets us up for future success as an organisation. Well done to Mr Ulčar, Mr Butara and the whole backroom team. It's easy to take this stuff for granted and focus on the hockey, but one doesn't exist without the other. 

What are the key areas we need to improve for next year?

• Team defence. We got better in the playoffs, but still had some calamitous breakdowns that fed the Bruneckian wolves. Our high-press, OZ possession style of play led to far too many rush chances being given up, which often left goalies who were not Lukaš Horak high and dry. I worry that this is a feature rather than a bug in the CC system, but perhaps AT can get a better handle on things in Y2 under CC.

• Youth development. OHB readers are well aware this is a sticking point for me. I want to see more of an effort to promote our young players as well as incorporate some flashy new signings. Injecting talent while developing greater sustainability will be, as the army of Ugandan Knuckles used to say on VR Chat, "de wey". I understand our No1 goal is an imminent title, but we must ensure we are simultaneously laying a good foundation for the future, once our older players are retired. A friend of mine I respect very much brought up the example of the Montreal Canadiens, who have their entire young core signed up long term. We can't mirror that easily, as we have no draft to dip into, but we can keep pushing the guys we do have to assume bigger roles (e.g. Beričič, Mehle, Ćosić, Bohinc, Bukovec, Sodja - even Kumanović deserves more of a shot).

• Team leadership. I think we can see that Sabla was too much of a fiery Jamie Benn type of captain and not enough of a statesmanlike Žiga Pavlin type of captain. Jan Urbas' return to the fold is a ready-made fix, as is Žiga Jeglić, a former Jesenice man who wasn't quite so flagrant as Sabla in his days in red. Jeglić's experience and technical wizardry will surely help the team significantly, even if he is getting on in age, like Urbas. 

• Curse-breaking. As VBT pointed out to me, we need to avoid signing another HCP player. The past three seasons we have signed one or more and then lost to them in the playoffs (Pavlin/Ege+Atwal/Petan). As he said, break the curse!

Signings

As already mentioned above, signing Žiga Jeglič and Jan Urbas from the same DEL team is a big boon to our chances next year. Skilled Slovene veterans with proven and lengthy track records, the latter of which must be the presumptive new Captain, should always be welcome. 

No one else has been announced yet, but the team already stated their intention was to bring in Reid McNeill for next season. Given that they already managed to sign him for the playoffs this year, alongside his injury dampening his market, I think it's a safe bet to say he'll be staying with us. 

I don't want to enter into rumours about other signings or people leaving, as that has got me into more trouble than I'd like. That kind of stuff is a bit of an empty social media hype mirage, anyway. Plus, I get the juiciest information when I agree to keep it to myself!

Re-signings (as of May 2nd)

• Brennan and Meyer. It's brilliant to get them both back, the MVP and most efficient player in the league, respectively. It wouldn't be CC hockey without them, as they were such huge drivers of our play this season.
• Boychuk. I think this is good for synergy and consistency. For me, I think we could do with more dazzling link play from a 1C, but he did score quite a few clutch goals, so you can't complain too much.
• Mahkovec. Really pleased to see he is staying with us. Out of any of the young guys, Marcel is the likeliest to be attracting attention from better leagues. I did get his Slovenia jersey in part to hedge against him leaving, so I am glad that has not happened just yet!

Who is left? Well, Tokarski is reportedly out already, as Horak's recovery is going well enough that he won't be needed to start in the new season. Whilst it would have been nice to have a Horak-Tokarski tandem, there's limited money to go around and Horak has already said he wants to start as much as possible. Pairing him with an improving Kolin makes sense. 

Jan Drozg would be someone else to re-sign, but he must have offers to consider. Perhaps his disjointed season will work in our favour; I would love to have him back. The status of Petan, Halbert, MacWilliam and others is up in the air. I'll discuss developments whenever they occur, officially. 

As Nintendo execs say, please look forward to the Roundtable Boys end of season review, which will be expanded beyond the usual suspects as I trial a decentralised version.