GM: Eigil Tennes
Coach: Paul MacLean
Last season: 13th overall. In playoffs, defeated Geneva; lost to Berlin
Ins and Outs
(Season 13 to Season 14)
In: Andrew Hammond (free agency), Elias Lindholm (free agent), Sean Monahan (free agent), Nikita Zaitsev (free agent), Evgeny Solomonov (free agency), Yegor Milovzorov (free agency), Bud Holloway (free agent), Joonas Donskoi (free agent), Kyen Sopa (draft), Noah Gunler (draft)
Out: Andrey Bykov (free agency), Dmitry Orlov (free agent), Dmitry Kulikov (free agent), Chris Driedger (free agent), Tuukka Rask (free agent), Jordan Schroeder (free agent), Simon Despres (free agent), John Moore (retired), Adam Gaudette (free agent), Sergei Plotnikov (retired), Anthony Peluso (retired), Sheldon Dries (free agent),
Potential Lineup
Sebastian Aho/Mika Zibanejad/Mark Stone
Evgeny Solomonov/Sean Monahan/Kristian Kuusela
Olegs Sislannikovs/Nico Hischier/Matthias Asperup
Maxim Comtois/Elias Lindholm/Phil Tomasino
John Carlson/Rasmus Dahlin
Nikita Zaitsev/Yegor Milovzorov
Jake Dotchin/Zach Whitecloud
Andrew Hammond/Stanislav Galimov
Three Questions
1. Is this team exciting or what? If you like skill players and offense, buy tickets for when the Interrail come to town. The top 4 scorers on the team all crushed their previous best seasons by stepping on the gas every game. Mika Zibanejad became the face of the team with 66 assists, 94 points and a third straight season with more than 300 shots. He’s hard to control. Newcomer Kristian Kuusela became an all-star who scored 23 more points than he ever had before. Sebastian Aho passed the 30-goal plateau and scored 16 points over his previous high. But look what Nico Hischier did last year. The former #2 draft pick (Season 8) exploded. His 75 points more than doubled his previous high, he took more than 100 shots more than he did the season before, and he was +22 after entering the season at -19 for his career. Zibanejad, Hischier and new free agents Sean Monahan and Elias Lindholm give Bern one of the most dynamic group of centers in the league.
2. What happened to Mark Stone? Yeah, he wasn’t his normal self last year, was he? In a way, Stone dragged down Mika Zibanejad and Sebastian Aho on the top line. The former all-star saw two second-liners score about 20 points more than he did. Most players try to make their final year of a contract their best so they can command big bucks at the negotiating table of in free agency. Stone might have been gripping the stick too tightly. He scored fewer points and took fewer shots than he did in any of the previous five seasons. General Manager Eigil Tennes believes in Stone, though. At least enough to win the bidding for him in free agency. Stone gets another $7.2 million to give it another try this season with the Interrail.
3. How good will they be at keeping the puck out of their net? Chris Driedger seized the top goalie position as a rookie, winning 10 more games than he lost with a 2.84 goals against average and an 89.9 save percentage. But he and the team could not agree to a new contract by the eve of the free agent step and Bern lost him. Maybe General Manager Eigil Tennes foresaw there would be a few good veteran goalies looking for contracts too, because he went after Andrew Hammond and landed him from 4 1/2 hours away in Milan. Hammond, 34, showed signs of aging a little last season, but even his down numbers were still pretty good: 3.02 goals against average with a 90.0 save percentage. Hammond could steal a lot of games and move Bern up the standings by himself. Bern is now also without their two Dmitrys on defense: 34-year-old Dmitry Kulikov and 33-year-old second-pair Dman Dmitry Orlov. Kulikov led the blueliners in hits and blocked shots, while Orlov led them in plus-minus last year at +10. That leaves John Carlson and Rasmus Dahlin as the main men on defense with veterans Nikita Zaitsev, Jake Dotchin, newcomer Yegor Milovzorov and rookies Zach Whitecloud and Timothy Liljegren to take care of the defense. It’s a decent group, but not in the same class as the bluelines of the EURO League’s powerhouse teams.
Rose’s Focus
“When I was a girl, my brother Joe was a year older than me, but because girls mature faster, I was bigger and stronger than he was. I used to throw him around the house all the time. Then in our teen years, he got bigger than me … finally. But to his surprise, I could still lick him. That’s how I know you don’t have to be bigger to win. The Interrail team is kind of like me. Maxime Comtois and Jake Dotchin are the only skaters on the whole roster who can be considered big and strong. I could push around most of the guys on this team. Sure, the Interrail players are speedy and capable of buzzing around like a swarm of bees, but there are several parts of the rink where strength comes in handy, like in front of both nets and along the boards. If I’m coaching against Willie Desjardins, that’s where I’m directing the puck to as often as I can. Then again, their speed and puck-moving might just blow me out of the arena.”
