Published3. November 2024, 10:40
Ice hockey: The malaise of Genève-Servette summarized in five figures
Saturday at Vernets, the Eagles conceded another defeat in the championship, this time against Bienne (0-1). They are only 12th in the National League standings.
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Chris Geiger
Markus Granlund, Sami Vatanen and Genève-Servette can grimace: they are not in a good situation in the National League.
BASTIEN GALLAY / GALLAYPHOTO
The national team break comes at the right time for Genève-Servette. The team coached by Jan Cadieux, beaten on Saturday evening at Les Vernets by HC Bienne (0-1), has not advanced for two weeks. To the point that the Garnets will spend the international break in an unworthy 12th place in the National League standings.
Five figures perfectly symbolize the malaise in which the 2023 Swiss champion and defending champion of the Champions League currently finds himself. The Eagles’ next meeting is also scheduled in this competition, on Tuesday November 12 in Lausanne, during the round of 16 first leg.
1
This is the meager total success obtained at home by Genève-Servette. After eight first championship matches played on the road due to the renovation of the Vernets ice rink, the garnet team returned to its venerable lair on October 18. Victoriously, since she had beaten – not without difficulty – Rapperswil. From? It’s a zero point against Lausanne, Davos, Zurich and, therefore, Bienne. In GSHC’s defense, this is the current top quartet in the National League.
3
Or the number of Geneva players to have crossed the bar of ten personal points in the championship. This is far too little, considering the quality of the squad available to coach Jan Cadieux. Finnish stars Teemu Hartikainen (22 units in 16 matches), Sakari Manninen (17 in 16) and Markus Granlund (12 in 10) are the only ones to survive in the garnet ranks. Between them, they scored more than 56% of the Eagles’ goals (23 out of 41). Michael Spacek, for example, has still not shaken the nets. Worrying.
5
This is the number of losses conceded by the GSHC during its last six outings in the league. Apart from a surge and a victory (1-3) Friday evening on the ice of a drifting Lugano (six defeats in seven matches), the Geneva collective always returned to the locker room with their heads down. The bad patch began on October 23, during a Lake Geneva derby lost at home against neighboring Lausanne (2-3), despite a good overall performance from the Eagles.
Robert Mayer was injured on October 26 against Davos. He hasn’t played again since.
Laurent Daspres/freshfocus
7
That is the total of Garnet players absent due to injury, Saturday evening, for the reception in Bienne. Goalkeepers Gauthier Descloux and Robert Mayer, defenders Theodor Lennström and Mike Völlmin, as well as attackers Luca Hischier, Marc-Antoine Pouliot and Noah Rod were therefore missing. Between them, these executives in the Eagles locker room have only made 34 appearances in the league this season. The GSHC coaching staff was, however, able to recover the backs Roger Karrer and Simon Le Coultre for this final match before the international break.
8
This is the miserable tally of goals scored by Jan Cadieux’s men over the last two weeks of competition. They found the opening three and two times respectively against Lugano and Lausanne, had to be content with a single success scored against Zug, Davos and Zurich, before being blanked by Bienne. During these six matches in question, only Alessio Bertaggia and Sakari Manninen found the net more than once (two goals each).
