After a hugely bankrupt weekend: Kloten pulls the emergency brake and fires coach Fleming

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Kloten’s performances against Langnau (2:5) and Biel (2:3 nV) sealed the fate of coach Gerry Fleming. The Canadian is released after returning home from the Emmental. These major bankruptcies caused the club management to take action so quickly. Because the Zurich Netherlands are in danger of losing contact with their direct competitors. The situation is more than uncomfortable.

The balance speaks for itself: the last ten matches yielded only two victories. The fact that one of them was present in the derby against the ZSC Lions (4:2) probably gave the 56-year-old Flemish some breathing space. But otherwise the team did not show the desired development – so the emergency brake was now pulled. According to the press release, the management believes that new impulses are needed in the current sports situation.

Larry Mitchell will now take over the coaching position on an interim basis. It was the team leader who brought Fleming from the DEL to Kloten with a two-year contract. With promoted Frankfurt, he caused a stir last season by reaching the pre-play-offs.

At Kloten, however, Fleming was never able to get the team up to speed or simply keep it on track. The power play (only 12 percent success rate) always remained a building site, and the coach almost never found a line that worked. He couldn’t get top performances out of any of the top performers, and the constant line changes didn’t help.

Mitchell now has until Friday and the match against leader Fribourg to – in addition to looking for a new coach – bring the necessary stability to the team. The German-Canadian worked as head coach in the DEL for the Straubing Tigers and the Augsburger Panthers from 2008 to 2017. In 2017, he moved to the chair of sports director at ERC Ingolstadt before replacing Patrik Bärtschi at EHC Kloten in October 2022.

Source : Blick