Were the 6 coaching changes really worth it?

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Continuity seems to pay off. With Antti Törmänen, there is a coach in the final who has been with Biel since 2017, apart from his one-year break in 2020/21, when he first faced cancer.

In any case, those teams that replaced their coach during the season were not a resounding success. Lausanne (Geoff Ward for John Fust) missed the pre-playoffs despite an interim raise.

Bern (Toni Söderholm for Johan Lundskog), Lugano (Luca Gianinazzi for Chris McSorley) and Davos (Waltteri Immonen/Glen Metropolitan for Christian Wohlwend) failed in the quarterfinals. The ZSC Lions (Marc Crawford for Rikard Grönborg) did not win a single game in the semifinals against Törmänens Bieler.

And Ajoie’s sporting director Julien Vauclair, who fired Filip Petan and climbed back into the gang himself, is desperately fighting against relegation in the qualifier against La Chaux-de-Fonds (score 2-2).

While it was clear from the start in Davos that the Immonen/Metropolitan duo would only stay in office until the end of the season (Josh Holden takes over in the summer), SCB and Söderholm decided after the quarterfinals against Biel’s advance didn’t last long. The Berner scored fewer points per game under the Finn than under his predecessor (1.34 against 1.55) and dropped from 6th to 8th place.

Crawford is highly regarded for promoting young talent

Both Gianinazzi and Crawford should be spared the same fate. Under the 30-year-old talented Ticino coach, Lugano made progress (1.43 versus 1.12 points per game), narrowly reached the pre-play-offs in the final sprint, defeated Friborg there and withstood qualifier Servette in the quarter-finals.

For the Canadian, on the other hand, there was no upward trend (yet). On the contrary. Under Crawford, the Lions not only scored significantly fewer points per game (1.45) than under Grönborg (1.87), but also lost their former strength in the manpower game, which became fatal in the game against Biel (6 goals conceded in 13 times) .

But what the 62-year-old returnee really appreciates is that he has also used his own talents, such as 16-year-old Daniil Ustinkov. Something his predecessor had seriously neglected. Nevertheless, the teams that switched coaches in the top half of the table (3rd ZSC, 6th SCB, 7th HCD) did not see any improvement, at least in the medium term.

Source : Blick