(KEYSTONE/Jean-Christophe Bott)
Every beginning of the weekthroughout the championship, HSHS will offer you the column dedicated to “top e flop”or rather to the players who in our opinion are distinct in the last rounds of the championship, as well as to those from whom however, something more was expected.
A are selected goalkeeper, two defenders and three attackers between those who did particularly well and those who fell short of expectations.
Below is the selection based on championship rounds played in the last week.
Kevin Pasche (Lausanne – 1 top, 0 flops): The 21-year-old Lausanne goalkeeper found himself with a great responsibility, who after the departure of Connor Hughes was called upon to be the main point of reference for the Vaud cage. His start to the season was a bit shaky, but the last week was perfect in every sense of the word, with two shutouts in as many games and a total of 60 shots saved without allowing a single goal. Of course, to contribute to everything there were also a couple of posts hit by Langnau on Saturday, but on the track we saw a confident and concentrated Pasche, capable of pulling off several complicated interventions as evidenced by the best weekly GSAA data (4.5 goals avoided compared to the average).
Kodi Curran (Ambrì Piotta – 1 top, 0 flop): Arriving a bit on tiptoe in a department that already had two consolidated certainties in Virtanen and Heed, Curran didn’t take many games to demonstrate that he is an excellent defender and that he is absolutely worth the foreign license used to send him on the track . With three imported defenders the blue and white have acquired solidity, and Curran who is improving game after game also showing excellent intuitions in building the game and in the offensive phase. Kloten had obtained his first goal which was also worth the victory, and in general his contribution all over the pitch made him one of the best blue and whites of the last week.
Gavin Bayreuther (Lausanne – 1 top, 0 flops): The performances of the American from Lausanne are going under the radar a bit, but as the matches go by we are starting to understand the qualities of Bayreuther, who is already a key element for his team in every game situation. In fact, paired with Glauser he manages to guarantee a clean game that starts with quick exits from the third and also leads to good plays in the offensive zone, where he shows good vision as demonstrated for example by the nice assist for Jäger on the winning goal on Saturday in Langnau. He is currently the player most used by coach Ward both in a general sense (over 21 minutes per game) and in the powerplay and penalty killing phases, thanks to his qualities which make him a complete defender and so far also the author of six assists.
Marco Lehmann (Berna – 1 top, 0 flops): The Bern striker is having a crazy start to the season, who in the line completed by Czarnik and Ejdsell (also excellent, and who in turn would have deserved a place in the top) is grinding out points at an impressive rate. After 11 games Lehmann has already scored eight goals (!) and a total of 15 points, all combined with the best balance of the entire league with a sparkling +14. But the credit for his great impact is not necessarily to be found in his foreign linemates, because so far Lehmann has brought great energy to the court combined with top-level technical plays, which have made him unstoppable. So far he has only been on the scoresheet in three games, and the conditions for him to become one of the true protagonists of the season are all there.
Philip Zadina (Davos – 1 top, 0 flop): It didn’t take the strong Czech forward long to digest the fact of no longer being in the NHL, and indeed in Switzerland he proved himself from the first games as a dominant element both from the point of view of scoring (he already has seven goals) and from the physical one and the intensity. The strength with which Zadina brings his game to the ice is in fact often impressive, such as his recent performance against Bern in which he proved to be truly furious even in the forecheck and backcheck phase, so much so that he drew applause for his tireless pressure in a moment of boxplay. In the last week he added two more goals to his statistics, which also sees him as the player with the most shots in the entire league with over 4 per game and an excellent goal percentage of 15%.
Miro Aaltonen (Kloten – 1 top, 0 flop): After the last difficult season, the Finnish striker seems to have returned to the levels of his first year in Kloten, and indeed seems to have put an extra gear in terms of leadership and determination in wanting to drag the team along. With 12 points and above all 8 goals in 12 games so far he has been a driving force for the aviators, and even in the games in which he is unable to leave his mark on the scoreboard – like Sunday afternoon in Bienne – a lot of stimuli still comes from him, as evidenced by the five shots on goal against the Seeläanders. Last week was characterized above all by the double against Rapperswil, and it is also important to underline that they are at the top of the league for goals with equal numbers with a total of seven.
Berra Challenge (Friborgo – 0 top, 2 flop): On Saturday Gotteron got a breath of fresh air thanks to the victory against Ambrì Piotta, but the situation in the team remains unchanged and despite the success Reto Berra played a disastrous match. Slow and insecure between the posts, with awkward movements and quite evidently held back by the nervousness of the moment, Berra didn’t make a great impression on the three goals conceded, and especially on Heim’s one he should have done much better. Also potentially disastrous is the penalty received for a beating given to an opponent. The performance added to that of the previous evening in which he had conceded six goals at Lausanne with just 80% of interventions, and after ten matches his numbers speak of 88% of saves and 2.91 goals conceded per match . Not enough data to help Friborg get out of the quagmire of this start to the championship.
Gabriel Carlsson (Zugo – 0 top, 1 flop): Zug is one of the other negative surprises of this start to the season, and the fact that the Swedish defender is so far sailing in anonymity is not a good sign. So far, Carlsson has not found a precise position in the team – he has already changed four defensive partners – and in the last week he also handled a puck badly on the attacking blue which then allowed Bienne to close the game on Friday. The following day the Swede ended up as a supernumerary, after a period in which he had been negative in three of the last four matches played (-5 overall).
Andreas Borgman (Friborgo – 0 top, 1 flop): There are few things that have worked so far for Gotteron, and among the players still far from their best version – that is, the one shown last year – there is also the Swedish defender, so far the author of chaotic matches in the defensive phase and with little bite in the attacking zone. In fact, there were many uncertainties shown by Borgman on the evening in which Friborg collapsed in Lausanne, errors that began to add up constantly also due to a certain lack of confidence. For now, Borgman is also stuck with an assist obtained in the first match against Ajoie, and the pairing with Diaz who had done so well in the past today appears less reliable than expected.
Dominic Cuban (Ambrì Piotta – 0 tops, 1 flop): The Czech player from Ambrì Piotta certainly cannot be blamed for not constantly looking for goals – so far he has shot 38 times on target, and for attempted shots he is first in the league with a total of 80 – but overall his his performances are still too evanescent and are based almost exclusively on his shot which can suddenly become lethal. This allowed Kubalik to still find some goals, but practically never to become the protagonist of the all-out game that is expected of him, with also a lot of imprecision in managing the puck. In the three weekly matches he did not shine, and indeed even in the derby he was seen little except for the goal found with the complicity of a deflection by Guerra. The striker didn’t shine even in the away games at Kloten and Fribourg, with Saturday evening in particular seeing him as the protagonist of too many anonymous substitutions.
I recommend Zohorn (Lugano – 0 top, 1 flop): A lot of work and skating, but for now Lugano’s new Czech center is struggling to carve out a defined role for himself in the National League. He himself defined himself as more offensive than he demonstrated in North America, but for now he moves too far from the slot (he who was hired precisely to dominate that area of the ice) often resulting in inconclusiveness and too shy in going for shots. His understanding with Sekac is good, but for now the pair has produced little substance and just one goal scored in nine games is definitely a meager haul.
Dario Simion (Zugo – 0 top, 1 flop): Even the expert Ticino striker is struggling to find his game in this complicated start to the season for Zug, and after the goal scored on his debut against Lugano a rather complicated period has begun for Simion. Still searching for the ideal line, the Juventus future hasn’t managed to get on the scoresheet in eight games, and on a defensive level with his blocks he’s also conceding something too much. In fact, in the last four games he has always been negative, with an overall score of -7 which certainly does not reflect his qualities as an attacker with a good two-way game.
