Switzerland: NLA 2020-2021 (Zug wins championship)

[Theokritos]

 

[vorky]

Attendance is still zero?

 

[BlizzardSloth]

Attendance is still zero?

50.

 

[Theokritos]

Games on Wednesday:

Zug vs Bern 5-2 (Zug leads series 3-2)
Lugano vs Rapperswil 3-4 OT (Rapperswil wins series 4-1)
Fribourg-Gottéron vs Geneva 0-5 (Genève wins series 4-1)
Lausanne vs Zurich 5-2 (Zurich leads series 3-2)

 

[SoundAndFury]

Can someone in the know explain what's the deal with Rapperswil?

 

[stv11]

Well, Rapperswil was smart enough to get Jeff Tomlinson as a coach 6 years ago and let him slowly build this team after they were relegated in 2015, targeting the right players and putting them in a position to succeed. What you're seeing today is the result of 6 seasons of smart decisions rather than a team suddenly performing a miracle run. Plus he has a pretty serious health condition, it probably plays a part in motivating the players.

On the other hand, Lugano is not your average 2nd place team, the standings were so close between the 2nd and 8th place that a few lucky bounces could be the difference between 2nd place and not having home ice advantage (see the last game vs Ambri, which they won on an own goal during a delayed penalty call with 2 minutes left). Plus they have a very mediocre coach who overplayed his best players during the regular season to get the 2nd place only to have them out of gas during the playoffs, never tried to change the course of a game by mixing his lines or calling a time out, always relaying on his underpeforming first PP unit for 90 seconds while the 2nd one was creating more in 30 second, and too tactically inept to avoid his opponent adapting to his "let's send everyone in front of the net and throw the puck there" system.

 

[Theokritos]

QF:

Games last Friday:

Bern vs Zug 0-1 (Zug wins series 4-2)
Zurich vs Lausanne 3-0 (Zurich wins series 4-2)

Already qualified for the SF:
Geneva, Rapperswil-Jona

SF:

Games last Sunday:
Zurich vs Geneva 1-2
Zug vs Rapperswil-Jona 6-1

Games yesterday:
Geneva vs Zurich 4-1 (Geneva leads 2-0)
Rapperswil-Jona vs Zug 2-4 (Zug leads series 2-0)

 

[BlizzardSloth]

Games last Sunday:
Zurich vs Geneva 1-2
Zug vs Rapperswil-Jona 6-1

Games yesterday:
Geneva vs Zurich 4-1 (Series tied 1-1)
Rapperswil-Jona vs Zug 2-4 (Zug leads series 2-0)

Geneva leads the series 2-0. Also worth mentioning that semis are played in a best-of-five mode to make sure the season is over before the World Championship starts. They have yet to determine if the final will be played best-of-five or best-of-seven.

 

[Theokritos]

Geneva leads the series 2-0.

Good catch!

Also worth mentioning that semis are played in a best-of-five mode to make sure the season is over before the World Championship starts. They have yet to determine if the final will be played best-of-five or best-of-seven.

Thanks.

 

[PanniniClaus]

I see there is a game on Bell in Canada at 3 PM Atlantic this afternoon. channel 643 - "Game"

 

[jonas2244]

For those who watch Swiss German television, anyone else think that Christoph Sterchi is the worst hockey commentator we've ever had?

 

[filip85]

For those who watch Swiss German television, anyone else think that Christoph Sterchi is the worst hockey commentator we've ever had?

Nobody is better than Stefan Bürer

 

[stv11]

And finally we'll have a 5th champion in the 21st century!

 

[Speyer]

Rapperswils run has ended unfortunately now its Zug vs Servette in the finals. Will be good for thelLeague to finally have a Champion not named ZSC, Bern or Davos after so long. Since Davos and Bern will probably not be among the teams for the forseeable future this might be the beginning of a period of parity.

Also how does relegation work this year? I am a bit out of the loop with all the special rules because of Covid.

 

[jonas2244]

There is no relegation. Ajoje joins the NLA and we have one team more next year.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Also how does relegation work this year? I am a bit out of the loop with all the special rules because of Covid.

From what I can tell Ajoie is promoted and 13 teams in the league next year.

 

[Speyer]

Yeah I thought I had read something along those lines. Thanks for clearing that up. Sort of weird to have 13 teams though...

 

[BlizzardSloth]

Yeah I thought I had read something along those lines. Thanks for clearing that up. Sort of weird to have 13 teams though...

Could be 14 for the 22/23 season since the "no relegation, but promotion"-rule will still be in place for next season. But it has to be either Kloten, Olten or Visp since they are, at the moment, the only teams which are allowed to join the NLA.

Also, regional groups will be funny next year.
East: HC Davos, SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, ZSC Lions, SCL Tigers, HC Ajoie
West: Genève-Servette HC, Lausanne HC, HC Fribourg-Gottéron, EHC Biel, SC Bern
South: HC Lugano, HC Ambrì-Piotta, EV Zug

 

[Speyer]

Could be 14 for the 22/23 season since the "no relegation, but promotion"-rule will still be in place for next season. But it has to be either Kloten, Olten or Visp since they are, at the moment, the only teams which are allowed to join the NLA.

Also, regional groups will be funny next year.
East: HC Davos, SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, ZSC Lions, SCL Tigers, HC Ajoie
West: Genève-Servette HC, Lausanne HC, HC Fribourg-Gottéron, EHC Biel, SC Bern
South: HC Lugano, HC Ambrì-Piotta, EV Zug

Yeah Zug in the South and Ajoie in the East makes a lot of sense. So the 14 team league would be closed then I guess without any relegation, promotion system?

 

[BlizzardSloth]

Yeah Zug in the South and Ajoie in the East makes a lot of sense. So the 14 team league would be closed then I guess without any relegation, promotion system?

Well, they probably made the groups thinking Kloten is going to be promoted and now Ajoie is in the East.

I'm not completely sure about that matter, as far as I know it has yet to be determined if they gonna stay with 13/14 teams. But I guess they will close the league at 14 teams in the long run. But I don't think that Ajoie as such a small market will stay for a long time, a closed league would probably prefer Kloten.

 

[SoundAndFury]

What's the purpose of those regional groups anyway? More games between those teams?

 

[stv11]

Yes, just making a 52 game schedule.

 

[Theokritos]

Zug has won the first two games of the final series (1-0 and 2-1) and since it is a best-of-five series, they could end it all with another win in Game 3 today. Geneva needs to win in order to stay in the series.

 

[stv11]

Well deserved for Zug, what a season they had. Third final was the right one, just like back in the 90s.

 

[jonas2244]

Yeah, the best team all the season. Great buildup also with guys like Simion, Stalder, Geisser, Gross, Leuenberger, Zehnder, etc. Servette a little bit thin on D and some of their core players didn't perform in the final.

And Diaz also has his title.

Edit: I'm really looking forward to see what's Hofmann can do in the NHL next year.