The grace period for Tapola is over: SCB is only halfway there

class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc”>

The SCB season in Zug came to an abrupt end on Saturday. The Bernese failed in the quarter-finals. Just like last year. They haven’t won a playoff series since winning the championship in 2019. At that moment, Leonardo Genoni was still in the SCB goal. Even half a decade after the departure of the now seven-time champion goalkeeper to EVZ, the goalkeeping situation in Bern has not yet been definitively resolved, as evidenced by coach Jussi Tapola’s interplay between Adam Reideborn and Philip Wüthrich. Former SCB goalkeeper Marco Bührer recently said: “Actually a great goalkeeping duo.”

With the departure from the quarter-finals, Tapola’s closed season ends. From now on he no longer has to deal with the collegial and loyal team leader Andrew Ebbett, who read out all his wishes. Now the ‘Kloten clan’ takes over with sports director Martin Plüss, who has long been more than just an advisor, and his sports director Patrik Bärtschi. A different wind will blow. And anyone who has seen how player agent André Rufener, who once played with the two in Kloten, behaved in the media stands in recent days when his client Wüthrich did not play or was substituted, can easily imagine that he too has complained to them about this for a long time since then. Tapola.

But Plüss and Bärtschi would do well not to criticize the stubborn Finn. With him, SCB achieved a turnaround in contrast to the disastrous past four seasons. SCB qualified directly for the play-offs for the first time with a 5th place. Tapola signed the team and stabilized it defensively, so that SCB can hold its own against any opponent. The 49-year-old’s communication skills are much better than expected. And the young players have made great progress under him.

Tapola has a hard head

Tapola has a very tough head and sees himself as a coach and not as a politician. He makes no distinction between foreigners and Swiss, which is completely inconsistent with the thinking in our ice hockey. That is why he had no problem putting Reideborn on the bench twice in the play-offs as a substitute goalkeeper and sacrificing a foreign field player. Nor did he try to please all foreigners. He informed Martin Frk, Julius Honka and Corban Knight that he was not betting on them.

SC Bern is only halfway back to the top. There is still a gap with the top teams in the league, especially in attack. He does not have Swiss strikers of the quality of Lino Martschini, Dario Simion or Fabrice Herzog, who took over the reins at Zug at crucial moments and scored the goals.

Although SCB has only signed one new Swiss player for next season, striker Marc Marchon (von Kloten), the foreign market offers the opportunity to increase the quality of the squad.

Increase quality with new foreigners

Of the import players, only Swedish defense chief Patrik Nemeth and German qualifying top scorer Dominik Kahun, who was a non-factor in the series against Zug, as well as Reideborn in the first phase of the season, were convincing. And Joona Luota brought more than you would expect from a substitute. Colton Sceviour was injured for a long time and only scored for the first time in the penultimate qualifying match.

In Sweden, two players, storm giant Victor Ejdsell (28, Färjestad) and defender Anton Lindholm (29, Leksand), have long been associated with SCB.

Source : Blick