“That was a real slap in the face.”
Philipp Lukas didn’t beat around the bush.
The head coach of the Black Wings Linz is called upon to act as a crisis manager early in the season. The steel city team is at the bottom of the table in the win2day ICE Hockey League after two 0:5 defeats in Bozen and against KAC (match report >>>).
“Every game counts, even if we are just starting out. Our performances are not good enough,” says Brian Lebler. In the first two games, the captain was one of the active players in an otherwise completely harmless Linz offense, but was unlucky in his attempts.
Harmless offensively, vulnerable defensively
In addition, they are vulnerable in defense and make unnecessary mistakes – like on Tuesday against the Red Jackets.
Before the 0-1, Ian Scheid wanted to play the puck along the boards to Henrik Neubauer, but he failed to see Jesper Jensen Aabo rushing up from behind. The Dane intercepted the puck, played it to the middle and Luka Gomboc scored.
The 0:3 was the fault of Graham Knott, the Black Wings’ top scorer last year. His chip pass in front of his own goal completely failed, was intercepted by Mathias From and the shooting star beat Rasmus Tirronen.
The setting is right, the execution is not
Such moments not only rob the Upper Austrians of any chance of victory, but above all of their self-confidence.
Lukas says: “Our attitude is right, but if the execution is not right, we cannot be satisfied.”
Lebler added: “We have the right guys in the dressing room, they all have a good attitude. Our fans give everything, even after the game. I don’t know why, because that was just not good of us. The people out there deserve better.”
“We all have to take a look at ourselves”
“There’s no sugarcoating it. We’re not going to stand there and say it’ll be OK. It’s not OK. We all have to take a look at ourselves,” says coach Lukas. “We have to find explanations for this quickly.”
Lebler concludes: “We have to minimize our mistakes and finally score some goals.”
The first opportunity to do so will be on Friday, when the traditional duel with the Vienna Capitals (7:15 p.m. in the LIVE ticker >>>) takes place. And on Sunday it’s off to the Graz99ers (5:30 p.m. in the LIVE ticker >>>).
Power Ranking: Salzburg falls from the ICE top
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