The 2005/2006 championship starts. Lugano wins with regularity. And it often convinces even its demanding public, in spite of the initial grumbling for Maneluk's cession. Glen Metropolit, a Canadian player, all inspiration and concreteness coming from Jokerit Helsinki, who will be the regular season's top scorer, needs only a few weeks to understand that, with his arrival, the team has made a quality leap. Jason York, over 700 career games in the NHL, shored up the defence. He sails to the top of the league for a long time.
Sometimes, however, the team takes a minimalist attitude, tends to sit on talent, to strut, to look in the mirror. Before Christmas, the club announces that Larry Huras will not be the coach of the future. This news is frankly not unexpected, but it fuels controversy as several key men accuse a downturn in performance in the weeks that follow. A couple of heavy victories in Ambri and Davos still give the illusion that want is power. But when the games that count begin, after the intense Olympic excitement of Turin 2006 to which seven bianconeri contributed body and soul to Finland's silver medal of Nummelin, Peltonen and Hentunen and to the exploits of the Rossocrociati against Canada and the Czech Republic, fragility of nerves and lack of incisiveness surface. An Ambri making full use of its resources pushes the team to the brink of an unbearable snub. Top management reacts with the overnight exoneration of the coach. The fans are up in arms and some ignominiously border on verbal aggression; others, fortunately of unwavering faith, flood the players with messages of incitement: nothing is impossible!
New leaders Harold Kreis (an icon of German field hockey, head-coach in season at partnerteam Chur) and Ivano Zanatta redistribute responsibilities, call for brains, heart, and assholes. And with the poor man's weapon, humility, the group, now without any more alibis, compacts. Vauclair's rocambolic goal at the Valascia is a sign of destiny. The locker room becomes granitic. Impervious to any attempt at destabilization. Every player is aware that only by immolating themselves to the cause can the miracle happen. And the feat of recovering from 0-3 in the series, never before achieved by anyone in Europe and only twice in NHL history, materializes on March 19, 2006. The anguish of losing to Cousins vanishes; now comes the good stuff.
On the momentum, Lugano literally asphalted that Kloten, executioner of the leader Bern, biting but immature and threw down the gauntlet to the defending champion, Davos. No match. Lugano touches agonistic and aesthetic perfection, travelling like an accelerating train that overwhelms everything and everybody. Each player sublimates his peculiarities. The heroes are not the individuals, the elf Nummelin, the bomber Hentunen, the terminator Gardner, the gladiator Sannitz, the satanasso Metropolit, the captain Peltonen. It is the team that triumphs, its unity of purpose cemented in difficulties.
And, when the final siren rings at the Resega on April 13, 2006, decreeing success in "game 5," the people bianconero rise to seventh heaven. It is the most authentic, visceral joy, the kind you have to have suffered so much before to experience, the piacer figlio d'affanno, as Leopardi writes. But it is also pride in a team that has taught Ticino and Switzerland what it really means to honor the jersey of'Hockey Club Lugano.
After being projected to be over the moon, the society and the fans bianconeri experience very difficult months. The National Hockey League knocks on the door of Metropolit and, within hours in mid-June, also of Nummelin, Peltonen and York. A very hard blow on the sporting level. Never had a Swiss club seen four of its players leave for the most prestigious stage in the blink of an eye. As if that were not enough, the Judiciary's investigation into alleged payments in black shakes the HCL leadership to its foundations. A "tsunami" also in the media that will result in the reshuffle of the general assembly of November 29, 2006, with the resignation of Beat Kaufmann and Fabio Gaggini from their respective positions, the election of Fausto Gianini as president of the association, and above all that of a new board of directors of the limited company, chaired and dragged by the club's new strongman, Paolo Rossi.
On the technical side, head-coach Ivano Zanatta and assistant coach Glen Williamson found themselves in August with a team to be moulded and rebuilt in its internal hierarchies and in the division of responsibilities. Between the posts, after the departure of Ronnie Rüeger for Kloten, the young Simon Züger is given full confidence. In defence, the Swedish Dick Tärnström, MVP of the 2004 World Championship and fresh Stanley Cup finalist, and Jason Strudwick, solid worker with a long experience in the NHL, are hired. In attack, the new foreigners are the inconstant American scorer Landon Wilson and another Swede, the playmaker Rickard Wallin.
Impervious to outside turbulence, the group grows over the course of the regular season. It is a team that likes to call itself a worker and that the people bianconero loves because of it. Sixty minutes of consistent effort, change after change, according to Ivano's dictates. Despite heavy injuries to Hirschi and Conne, captain Jeannin and his teammates have an even better regular season than expected, even fighting for first place until three days to go and finishing fourth.
Meanwhile in January 2007, the bianconera family experiences another unforgettable international experience. Over two hundred fans follow the HCL in St. Petersburg in the Super Six with the national champions of the six strongest European nations. Lugano climbs with full merit on the podium, overcoming Färjestad 3-0 before bowing with the same score to Ak Bars Kazan, a Russian team with a financial potential worthy of the National Hockey League. Five unforgettable days for those who experienced them that reinforce the warmth and affection towards the players and towards the club, strained for its part to give of itself a more dynamic and instinctive image as witnessed by the free entrance offered to all on the occasion of a match with Basel attended by 6283 people.
So it comes to the playoffs where the opponent in the quarters is the Kloten of Eldebrink and Hollenstein on the bench and Rintanen on the ice. Lugano offers on a silver platter to the opponent the advantage of the first home game, losing "game 1" with an unexpected collapse at the distance. To conquer the Schluefweg thus becomes a must. The feat is narrowly missed in the first rematch, but the Aviators prevail after a few seconds of overtime. A bombastic 8-1 revived the HCL ambitions, but the Aviators, thanks mainly to their relentless powerplay, stretched again. After the new Ticino success at the Resega, it is "game 6" that decrees the elimination. And the coup de grace comes, unfortunately, with a blatant refereeing error by Prugger who blows the whistle, with the puck still in motion, just as Jeannin is threading it into the net 32 seconds before the final siren for what would have been the 2-2 goal. An epilogue that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth for a season that was nevertheless constructive for the future. Also noteworthy was the encore of the Ladies Team, national champions again, and the promotion to the first league of Ceresio-Lugano, a team formed mainly by elements of the HCL Juniores Elite and former players from the nursery bianconero.
The approach to the 2007/2008 season is positive, and insiders point to Lugano as one of the teams to beat. The departures on defense of Tärnström and Strudwick, both of whom returned to the NHL, seem to be compensated on paper by the arrival of experienced Canadian defenseman Yannick Tremblay and the return to Switzerland, after several years in North America, of the dashing Timo Helbling. On the attack, with Ryan Gardner beguiled by the financial sirens of the ZSC Lions, the department loses one of its leaders and snipers, replaced in expectations by national player Thierry Paterlini and the athletic Kostovic and Knoepfli. To fill the role of first center in place of Rickard Wallin, deemed by the coaching staff to lack the necessary personality, small Canadian playmaker Marty Murray, already a Calder Cup winner in the AHL, is hired. The league starts off fairly well, although it can be sensed that the team appears uncreative on the offensive end. On October 18, 2007, Jukka Hentunen, top scorer for the bianconeri, leaves Lugano confronted with the unmissable opportunity of a superlucrative contract in Russia with the Ak Bars Kazan jersey. The sudden farewell of the Finn turns out to be heavier than could have been expected. The strike force of the attack waned frighteningly, Tremblay and especially Murray failed to drag their teammates along on a par with the sluggish Wilson and the more emblazoned Swiss, insecurity snaked even in the backline, not least because of the prolonged absence of the convalescent Hirschi and the inconstant performance of goalkeeper Züger. By mid-November, management and fans were under the illusion that they had found the solution. Former NHL star (674 games, 421 points), the colored Anson Carter, also known for scoring the phantom goal that gave Canada the 2003 World Cup, lands in Agno and makes his debut with a bang, scoring three goals in three games and arousing immediate sympathy for his attitude toward field hockey and life. However, between repeated injuries, delayed physical condition and some doubts about his real motivation, Carter would soon disappear from the stage.
The club invested the proceeds of Hentunen's sale, bringing back to the Resega David Aebischer, the first Swiss to have broken through in the NHL (214 presences), already winner of the Stanley Cup, a goalkeeper of great talent, but in the meantime relegated to the fringes of the North American scene. Simon Züger is sold to Basel. Between November and December, however, Lugano entered a black crisis. 209 minutes without goals, a psychological fragility and an incapacity to react to the negative episodes that cost Ivano Zanatta the bench on the 5th of December 2007. Kent Ruhnke, with a reputation as an iron sergeant and motivator, was called in to shake things up. However, the move did not have the desired effect. Ruhnke could not find the feeling with the players, could not impose his aggressive hockey credo, and struggled to be accepted by captain Jeannin and his teammates. After eleven consecutive games without scoring more than two goals, an embarrassing 0-5 at home against the Langnau Tigers, and with the playoff line getting further and further away, then, on 9 January 2008, John Slettvoll's resounding return to the bench. In order to try to save a year almost irreparably compromised, the society touches the emotional chords, relies on the charisma and psychology of the one who, unanimously inside and outside the HCL, embodies the glorious history ofHockey Club Lugano. Thirteen games are missing to the end of the regular season and the task of the 63 years old technician from Umea is improbable: to rebuild the morale and to give back the will to play and to have fun to a group in disarray, strongly criticised by the fans and by the media.
The Wizard threw himself heart and soul into the venture. To complete the contingent of foreigners, the navigated Swedish scorer Jonas Höglund and the Finnish centre Toni Häppölä are integrated. But the run up to the playoff, started with a four successes' streak, remains unfinished and, for the first time after twenty-two years, Lugano finds itself in the playout. Playout that, as predictable, turned out to be a nightmare experience. The anxiety of having to win, the fear of losing in front of a weaker team such as Basel, the chain of accidents transformed five games into pure suffering for the more than two thousand fans who remained faithful to the team and to the club. In the end Lugano succeeds, thanks also to a very heavy goal of the young Chiesa on the Rhine's ground and to Landon Wilson's new-found scoring vein. The darkest thoughts vanish and the last night even closes in joy with John Slettvoll acclaimed by the Resega's public as a hero signing autographs and shaking hands oozing gratitude. A season that remains a true bath of humility at all levels.
For the 2008/2009 season, at least at the transenna, the focus then is on continuity, with John Slettvoll renewing his agreement with the HCL for one season and convincing the club to pair him with two young compatriots as assistants of his own-Jesper Jäger and Christian Lechtaler.
The buying campaign is an important one. To Jeannin's farewell, who crossed the Sarine to Pelletier, Wirz and Knoepfli's court, the club answered with the signing of the national player Romano Lemm, unlucky for a serious shoulder accident that knocked him out for more than half of the season, and above all of Domenichelli, the Canadian forward who was Ambrì's leader for several years, married to a Swiss citizen and therefore waiting for a Swiss passport. Hnat started with the handicap of the serious injury suffered in December 2008 with the rupture of the cruciate ligament of the right knee. In August he was on the ice, confirming his scoring prowess with some twenty goals, before being blocked by a new problem with the same knee. Certainly less serious, but enough to make him miss the playoff train. The real bang, however, is the return of Petteri Nummelin to the Resega after two seasons in the NHL. The Finnish elf has lost none of his talent: his genius, his goals and his assists are a sure value and a spectacle for the eyes.
In an increasingly balanced league upwards, Slettvoll's Lugano has an up-and-down behaviour. Good performances are juxtaposed with defeats that leave one perplexed. On the individuality level, in addition to Nummelin and the Swiss licensed sniper Brady Murray (Andy Murray's son), the 24 years old Norwegian Patrick Thoresen, coming from Philadelphia, stands out. He is a real battering ram, able to combine physical strength and quality like few others: he will be the real dragger.
Disappointing instead Randy Robitaille. The Canadian centre, who arrived in Lugano at the end of August with enormous expectations (top scorer in Switzerland in the lockout season, more than 10 seasons in the NHL), must also overcome a heart problem but, except for rare exceptions, he practically never manages to get going. A chapter in itself is written by John Pohl. The American is convincing in the preparation phase, starts the championship with a good performance, is left in the stands by the technical staff with perhaps even unconvincing arguments, but, unfortunately, reacts in the worst way, assuming a truly unacceptable attitude in training. He will be released at the end of January to make room for the young Swedish offensive defender Johan Fransson. The torment of the five foreigners, however, becomes the bane of the locker room and the environment. John Slettvoll fails to handle it in the most appropriate way, the discontent mounts and the media wallows in it. These are the first signs of weakness of the man from Umea who, around Christmas, does not digest the communication from the club that they do not want to continue with him at the helm in the future. Slettvoll's boundless ego prevails over the good of the team and the club, and on 7 January 2009 on the eve of a derby the Wizard abandons everything and everyone, accusing the HCL and all its components of lese majesty.
With the team floating in the soft underbelly of the mid-table, after Ruben Fontana's interim for the derby win, Hannu Virta, former coach of TPS Turku, is called up from Finland to direct captain Näser and his teammates. At his side is promoted Sandro Bertaggia, now mature after several years of training in the Youth Section. The approach to the playoffs, whose participation is now certain, is at least curious. I bianconeri can no longer win by the 60th minute and play an impressive series of overtimes and penalty shots.
The pairing in the quarterfinals is Davos-Lugano. A spectacular series, with emotions dispensed galore, madly paced matches and the enthusiasm returning to animate the people bianconero. With a goal by the very generous Conne in overtime, Lugano stays alive even on the brink of the abyss, wins game 6 at the Resega on penalties and comes to the Vaillant Arena for the bella. A real disaster (7-1) that marks the fans' collective imagination and also stains what good had been built over the months.
In the summer of 2009, the club's presidency changed. Following Paolo Rossi's announcement that he did not want to stand again for personal and professional reasons, the Search Committee appointed for this purpose identified Silvio Laurenti as the new company leader. Laurenti brings with him a respectable managerial curriculum vitae, as general manager of BIC Suisse and BIC Graphic Europe and as CEO of Caran d'Ache. His experience as sports manager at the head of Viganello and FV Lugano in the golden age of cantonal basketball and later as vice-president of FC Lugano is also notable.
The second big news is that of Kent Johansson on the bench as head coach flanked by Sandro Bertaggia. One of the most highly-rated coaches in his country, where he also won a title with HV 71, Kenta is entrusted with the task of building a medium-term project. In the market, Thoresen's departure for the lucrative Russian KHL championship in Ufa is recorded. In his place in attack, the American Jeff Hamilton was signed, who confirmed his scorer skills but also his poor propensity to play for the collective. On the defence side, Johansson brings to the Resega one of his pupils, Johan Akerman who, however, will be able to give little impulse.
The season got off to a bad start. A streak of nine consecutive defeats between mid-September and mid-October makes Lugano fall below the line. However, the team reacts at least on the results' level and, even if not enchanting from the game's point of view, finds a certain performance. The points in the league standings for the ascent arrive in particular with the creativity of the first forward trio composed by Domenichelli, Hamilton and by a rediscovered Randy Robitaille, but also thanks to the late season graft of the Canadian Boyd Devereaux, an inconspicuous but very useful element. His season would come to an unfortunate end at the Spengler Cup with the Team Canada jersey, when a prodigious charge by Forster caused him a serious problem to a cervical vertebra. As for Robitaille, the talented Canadian will be the league's Top Scorer in the regular season, but he will make a resounding hole at the top of the playoffs.
The real Achilles' heel, however, remains throughout the season the defensive play. Aebischer's inconsistency between the posts but especially the insufficient coverage of the goalkeeper by his teammates make the rearguard bianconera among the most permeable in the league.
mid-November the company bianconera experiences a change in the technical sector. In fact, Roland Habisreutinger, a man of personality and character veteran, in the same function, from the playoff final lost at the seventh game with the Kloten Flyers, is hired for the role of sports director. For Jörg Eberle, a new challenge within the organization begins: that of training manager. The month of December allows the team to regain the playoff zone. However, the various weaknesses, which become evident with each match, are far from resolved, and so between January 10 and January 23 Näser and his teammates enter a new black hole, losing badly five matches in a row. The club finally realizes that Kent Johansson, whose competence is not in question, is not the right man in the particular environment of Swiss field hockey. His shy and introverted character make it difficult for him to talk to the players and the club, and the effect is that of a bewildered group in disarray. To give the classic emotional jolt and not risk the playout, the decision was then made to change the leadership on the bench, relying on the unforgettable gladiator Philippe Bozon, at his first experience with the professionals. The new coaching staff, with Bertaggia confirmed in the role of assistant coach, won the points needed to enter the playoffs.?
In the playoff Bern, who will then conquer the title after a hard fight in the final with Geneva, has an easy game. Lugano's most expected players literally disappear from the scene and Larry Huras' men win the series in only four games. The worst result of the HCL in the playoff history.
