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The ZSC Lions’ playoff t-shirts feature the “Time to Hunt” slogan. The hunt for the title, which Zurich has been chasing for five years, ended Wednesday night without a win. What remained was the realization that Biel was better. And a lot of frustration.
“I said before the series that the team that gets closer to their performance limit will win. The people of Biel were probably at their limit and deserved to win. You have to compliment them for that,” says sports director Sven Leuenberger.
The 53-year-old is particularly frustrated by the latest defeat (3: 5). “You have to take this game home when you are 2-0 and 3-1 ahead. That should not happen to a team like ours.”
“We haven’t been smart all season”
Leuenberger says that you could now say that the semi-finals have achieved their goal. ‘But I don’t care about that. What only annoys me when I have to watch it: You just have to win this game. Everything was ready on a silver platter. Biel played smarter. We weren’t smart, we weren’t smart all season, we always got stupid penalties. Point. We have world champions and numerous Swiss champions in our team. About 70 percent of the team should know how to do it.”
Why couldn’t ZSC win even when it was leading the series for the first time? ‘Because we were too stupid. We just do undisciplined shit, to put it bluntly. If you want to get ahead, you can’t afford it. At 3:3 we have the puck on the stick three times to play it out. And if you can’t do that in a game like this, you don’t deserve to win.”
Captain Patrick Geering (33) blows the same horn. “You just have to get by with 3-1,” he says. “If you can’t, you deserve to be where I am now. Biel was more insensitive, always had an answer ready during the series. We, on the other hand, presented ourselves outnumbered with all these goals as juniors. This 0:4 hurts.”
Coach change ‘clearly didn’t work out’
The change of coach after Christmas from Rikard Grönborg (54) to returner Marc Crawford (62) also brought no progress. When Crawford took office, Geering said: “We wanted to be held accountable for our performance. That it is said if you play badly and that there are consequences. It cannot be the case that only we as a team are not satisfied and yearn for more.” And what does he say about that four months later? “It was a decision of the management. So shortly after the end of the game you can say that it obviously didn’t work out. But it would be looking in the wrong place.”
Where can you pull the lever so as not to be empty-handed again next season? “We need to get better in every way,” says Geering. And Leuenberger replies: “We certainly have young players who are pushing. We have opportunities with expiring contracts in foreign positions. And those who have contracts can and must play better. Without wanting to name names: you can count those who have had a good season on one hand.”
With the foreigners, the contracts of Garrett Roe (35) and Justin Azevedo (35), whose time in Zurich has expired, and that of the French dream dancer Alexandre Texier (23) are expiring. Goalkeeper Simon Hrubec (31), defender Mikko Lehtonen (29), goalgetter Juho Lammikko (27) and Niclas Wallmark (27, until 2025), who scored only one goal under Crawford and was last under contract twice, are listed still under contract.
Attacker Yannick Zehnder (25) is the first to make his appearance and he did not earn his usual earnings at EVZ this season.
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
