Helplessness and despair at the ZSC Lions

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Rarely have we seen a player as helpless as Christian Marti after the 3:5 defeat in Biel. The ZSC giant and his teammates are 0:3 down in the series against the Seeländer and seem to be on the verge of accepting the opponent’s superiority.

In the middle third, Zurich conceded five goals. One at the beginning and one at the end of the second part. Two in quick succession in response to Zurich’s first goal of the series. “We have to do better. It starts with me,” says Marti, who was on the ice with four goals against and moved too far when Toni Rajala made it 2-0. “That should not happen to us against Biel.”

Asked if the Seelanders were in a state where everything was going well for them, the 30-year-old Nati defender said: “They came second in qualifying. I think they’ve been doing it all year. They’re fast, which makes it physically difficult to play against them. And then you always have to be careful not to go over the limits because they have a good power play. It’s not that easy. It’s an extremely thin line. And you probably know it too. ‘ While the Lions went 17 minutes unused (including 5 in the closing stages of game 1), the Bielers struck three times in 14 minutes of power play.

“And then you look further”

Now the Lions know from their own extremely painful experience since last year’s final against Zug that it is still possible to turn around a 0:3 deficit. Is that an encouragement? Marti dismisses it: “I don’t know. We were 0-2 behind in the series against Biel last year and were about to be eliminated in game 6 and then managed to turn things around. And yet we have this times lost. So you can’t say: we know how to do it.” It’s just a matter of winning the next game at home. “And then you look further.”

Lions coach Marc Crawford seems as ignorant as Marti. Not in his statements. In which he relaxedly tries out the classic, known from Larry Huras, that you can only eat an elephant piece by piece. But the actions of the Canadian betray desperation. In the third game, he left his playoff leading scorer Justin Azevedo and Lucas Wallmark behind and now relies on Jarno Kärki of the GCK Lions in addition to Garrett Roe. An ineffective move.

He brought the robust Finnish striker into the team for the power play, says Crawford. “Unfortunately we didn’t have any,” he adds, sheepishly saying he saw a few scenes where Biel could have been penalized.

Crawford as good as his team

Crawford seemed self-assured and tame since he panicked during qualifying when he called referee Mikko Kaukokari a “s***sucker” and was suspended for a game. Just like his team.

Everything currently indicates that Zurich will close the season with four defeats in a row. Like last year under Rikard Grönborg. Or as in the last play-offs under Crawford in 2016 (0:4 as a qualifier against Bern). Also in 2021, the Zürichers did not find a chance in the semifinals against Servette (0: 3) after getting off the court once.

Of course there were some big twists in the playoffs (5 times after 0:3, 8 times after 1:3). And everything came suddenly.

Source : Blick