Defending champions Genève-Servette have crashed out in the semi-finals of the Champions Hockey League. The negative spiral continues. Now they are in danger of missing out on the play-offs again in the championship.
22.01.2025, 13:56
22.01.2025, 14:08
SDA
A week after the 6-1 defeat in the first leg of the Champions Hockey League semi-final, Genève-Servette's elimination against the ZSC Lions no longer came as a surprise. At least the defending champions were able to bow out of the European club competition with a 3-3 draw in the second leg in Zurich. Nevertheless, missing out on the final still hurts, as the Grenats were at least able to build on their good performances at European level.
In the domestic championship, Geneva currently find themselves at the bottom of the table. Their 11th place does not at all reflect the club's expectations, which have risen following their first championship title two years ago and last year's Champions Hockey League win. After the Servettiens missed out on the play-offs a year ago in the wake of their European Cup triumph, this year they even have to worry about participating in the play-in of the teams in 7th to 10th place.
Turnaround fails to materialize
Even the dismissal of successful coach Jan Cadieux in the week before the end of the year did not have the desired effect. Cadieux's successors, his former assistants Yorick Treille and Rikard Franzén, have not managed to give the team the necessary, expected momentum. In the eleven games, the interim duo only managed four wins across all competitions. There were also significant defeats such as the 4:7 in Zug or the 3:7 at the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers - so the 1:6 home defeat against ZSC was no exception.
That's why rumors about another coaching change in Geneva persist, even though team manager Marc Gautschi recently announced his intention to stick with the Treille/Franzén duo at least until the end of the season. There was talk of possibly signing former NHL coach Gerard Gallant, who led Canada to the 2021 World Championship title and most recently coached Team Canada at the Spengler Cup, or Christian Dubé, who was fired from Fribourg-Gottéron in the spring.
Lack of patience and discipline
When asked about the reasons why the team is failing to achieve a turnaround, Tanner Richard says: "If we knew that, we would change it immediately." The national striker then goes into more detail in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. "The final consistency is missing. Playing well defensively for 55 minutes is not enough." That was evident again on Tuesday against ZSC. "They're not necessarily better, but they still take a 2-0 lead."
Richard was also self-critical. "I make a mistake before the first goal against, and they score on the counterattack to make it 1-0. Then we take two unfortunate penalties and it's already 2-0." Geneva's recent performances show this: Time and again, the players lose patience and nerves, throwing the team off their stride. "That's a bit of our Achilles' heel this season. Our opponents are taking advantage of that," says Richard, before adding: "They're a bit hungrier at times."
Club legend Bezina worried
A statement like this makes you wonder. Club legend Goran Bezina is also concerned about Geneva's fall from grace. The former defender with 177 international caps to his name offered to help the club with "good advice and his experience" until the end of the season, as the Tribune de Genève reported last week. "Sometimes it doesn't take much to turn a team around. But at the moment, GSHC lacks fire and character. It's quite simple: the players have to move now, and quickly, because time is running out," the Valaisan is quoted as saying.
"The positive thing is that we still have 14 games left. We have it in our own hands to reach the play-in," says Richard about the tricky starting position. The direct play-off places (top 6) are probably out of reach for Servette, as the 15-point gap is too big for that. The difference to the tenth-placed SCL Tigers, on the other hand, is only four points, although the Emmental side still have two games in hand.
Servette have an important away game in Lugano on Thursday. As 13th in the table, the Ticino side are direct rivals. The upcoming program with six games within eleven days is tough, especially as Geneva will face four top teams - Zug, Davos, the ZSC Lions and leaders Lausanne - before the national team break at the beginning of February. What's more, the team has been hit by a wave of flu this week. For this reason, six regular players did not make the trip to Zurich on Tuesday.
But there is no room for excuses, as Richard is well aware: "For us, every match is now a play-off match."
