Speed, Tactics, and Titans: The Fight for Advancement

Eismeister Zaugg

Speed, Tactics, and Titans: The Fight for Advancement

Ajoie against Langenthal and Kloten against Olten: the semifinals of the playoffs for or against the promotion promise drama and spectacle.

SC Langenthal is a defending champion and has a mission for the well-being of our hockey. Because the Langenthalers gave up the league standings against the Lakers in 2019, they may not be promoted. If they are champions again, no one will be promoted to the National League. So the Langenthalers are fighting the advance.

In our national football, sport has all the uncertainties and risks that make up its appeal. Even in times of the virus crisis, nothing has changed in the proven mode of descent and ascent.

However, in ice hockey with the increasingly pronounced, fully integral and civil servant mentality and sporting stupidity of its creators, the relegation has been suspended for this and next season. To protect yourself against unnecessary investments in a crisis in the battle for relegation, or more honestly: against your own incapacity.

There would be nothing wrong with that if the promotion had also been suspended for two years. But that is not the case. There is a newcomer in both years, provided Ajoie, Olten, Kloten or Visp are Swiss League champions. As a result, if Langenthal doesn’t save us from that, we will have 13 teams in the first division next season and 14 teams the following season.

Switzerland, with a total of 30,000 registered players, will have the same number of teams in the top league in two years as Sweden with just over 70,000. It’s crazy.

The newcomer, who, as in other years, cannot “help” the relegated person with technology transfer, will probably only have two options: financially exaggerated (in which the Kloteners have a lot of experience) or together with Langnau in the cat table. of sports opportunities. And take a seat of insignificance.

What are the chances in the playoff semifinals?

Ajoie (2nd), 2016 champion, 2020 cup winner and most recently in the highest league in 1992/93, is slightly favored against Langenthal (3rd). In a ratio of 55:45.

It is a duel between titans and tactics. The Langenthalers have won three of four games against Ajoie this season. 5: 4 and 4: 3 on Pruntrut and 3: 2 on your own ice. In a game at Langenthal it was a defeat (0: 4).

The starting position is simple: if the two Canadian titans Philip-Michaël Devos and Jonathan Hazen can be neutralized with clever tactics (forming a magic triangle with defender Jordane Hauert), then victory is close. Head coach Jeff Campbell did quite well this season, with the two Canadians scoring “just” five goals in their four head-to-head encounters.

Unlike Ajoie, whose game is completely focused on his two Canadian forwards, Langenthal’s foreigners (Eero Elo, Zack Torquato) tend to play the role of supplementary players. Just as important are forwards like Dario Kummer, Fabio Kläy, Vincenzo Küng, Marc Kämpf or Stefan Tschannen, who have all or part of the talent of the National League or have had it in the past. Above-average defense with Yves Müller, Hans Pienitz, Luca Christen and Mathieu Maret allows for astonishing tactical adaptability. Servette is still trying to get Luca Christians. But he has a two-year contract at Langenthal that will not allow him to leave until the end of next season.

This greater balance with three lines that can decide a game is the Langenthal advantage. And on a good night, Pascal Caminada is the best goalkeeper in the Swiss League.

This semifinal is tied. Almost exactly 50:50.

On the other hand, Kloten (1st) is the clear favorite against Olten (5th). So in the ratio 85:15. The Zurich team won three of the four qualifying matches: 4: 2 and 6: 0 on their own court and 2: 1 away. There was a 1: 5 loss at Olten.

For Kloten the following applies: if the cheap return to promotion without league classification is not successful with this team in the third year after relegation, when? Per Hanberg, Langenthal’s Swedish head coach since 2019, is by far the best, most balanced and most experienced team in the league. Tactically flexible and balanced like Langenthal, with players who can decide a game like Ajoie and fast like Olten. And secured by Dominic Nyffeler, brother of Lakers goalkeeper Melvin Nyffeler. It may not be as agile and spectacular as Langenthal’s Pascal Caminada. But firm and reliable.

And yet Olten is not completely free of possibilities. Oltner, who have been trying to climb in vain since 1994, are the fastest team in the league on a good night. The front line around Garry Nunn, Lakers rising hero Dion Knelsen and Mason McTavish would be one of the fastest even in the premier league on a good night.

Seen this way, the exits of Mason McTavish and Brennan Othmann are very painful before the semifinals: the Swiss graduate McTavish has been designated for the Canadian U-18 World Cup team together with the Swiss-Canadian Othmann. The Oltner have lost two of their most dynamic forwards. Mason McTavish’s place is now taken in the first storm by Stanislav Horanski, who has returned from Ambri.

Furthermore, there is an absurdity that is only possible with our officials: Greg Halberstadt and David Stämpfli were weighed by Kloten for the first team, deemed insufficient and deported to Olten on loan. With the clause that both can not be used in the event of a playoff against Kloten. Really bad luck for the people of Olten. Because David Stämpfli has now become one of the best defenders on the team.

Olten and Kloten are the best teams in the Swiss League. The chances of the Oltner being able to flee from the Zurichers are small. And it will only succeed if goalkeeper Silas Mathys is “upside down” and Olten’s local press practice sums it up at the end: “The hockey god Mathys!” and not with regret: “Oh my God Mathys.”