GM: Eigil Tennes
Coach: Paul Maurice
Last season: 7th overall. In playoffs, defeated Milan; lost to Berlin
Ins and Outs
(Season 15 to Season 16)
In: Nikita Zadorov (free agent), Troy Stecher (free agent), D’Artagnan Joly (free agent), Henrik Haapala (free agent), Michikazu Hata (free agent)
Out: Mark Stone (free agent), Vince Trocheck (free agent), Lorenzo Maas (free agent), Joonas Donskoi (free agent), Jyri Martinnen (free agent), Jiri Sekac (free agent), Phillip Danault (free agent)
Potential Lineup
Sebastian Aho/Nico Hischier/Kristian Kuusela
Henrik Haapala/Mika Zibanejad/Marian Studenic
Maxime Comtois/Elias Lindholm/D’Artagnan Joly
Olegs Sislannikovs/Dawson Mercer/Phil Tomasino
Troy Stecher/Rasmus Dahlin
Jake Dotchin/Timothy Liljegren
Alex Petrovic/Nikita Zadorov
Karri Ramo/Luka Gracnar
A Question
Was it a calm off-season for Bern? The Interrail are one of those teams that grew from really bad years and benefitted from high draft picks. Bern was near the bottom of the standings from Season 5 to 9, but they are feared now. Under General Manager Eigil Tennes they have made great strides the last three seasons, going from 13th in the overall standings to 10th and then to 7th last season. Things seemed to be going in the right direction, but there was some substantial movement of people this off-season. There was even a coaching changing with Paul Maurice taking over from Paul MacLean. Longtime Interrail winger Mark Stone is gone along with 6 other players who were regulars in the lineup. Free agents were signed to replace four of them and in all – continuing some players Tennes convinced to remain in town – seven players were given no-movement clauses. The biggest name forever in Bern’s franchise history was one of them. Mika Zibanejad was rumored to be unhappy with the team that picked him in the league’s first-ever draft. That’s 15 years with one organization and zero days with any other club. But word slipped out that the line he centered with Finnish wingers Sebastian Aho and Kristian Kuusela was going to have a new center this season. Swiss-born fan favorite Nico Hischier, 25, will get that role, it appears. Hischier was great last season, leading the team in scoring with 94 points while playing only 19 minutes per game. There were only eight EURO League players who had more points than Hischier did last season and all of them played at least 24 minutes per game. Still, Zibanejad seemed hurt by the pending demotion and contract talks dragged out longer than Bern fans hoped it would. The 33-year-old finally signed for $8.1 million but he will be a free agent again between this season and the next one. He will come close to hitting the 1,000-point mark by the end of this season. And he will do many things for the team that won’t show up on the scoresheet because he is Bern’s top penalty killer as well as its team captain.
Rose’s Focus
“Many of you might already know this but I am a sucker for hockey statistics. Give me a spreadsheet with a few hundred rows, maybe columns stretching up to AO or AP, a bottle of Krupnik … that’s the perfect way to spend an evening in Rose World. Statistics sing to me. Once, the 1993-94 NHL Guidebook actually played Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 to me. My niece said it was the phonograph, but I know it was the plus/minus and ice time comparisons. Bern’s team statistics from last season unlocked a gorgeous melody reminiscent of Tom Jones singing soulfully into the TV camera. Ahhhh. The stats told me where Bern’s strengths are and where they might need a little help. First off, the Internail are a high-scoring team. We all knew that before. In the defensive zone, here was the story: Bern was 8th best in Goals Against, but only 17th in Shots Against. That means the Interrail forwards and defensemen were allowing opposition players to fire away at goalies Karri Ramo and Luka Gracnar. The team’s 7th place finish in the standings tells you the goalies were big reasons why the Interrail got into the playoffs and through the first round before meeting up with the Sepp Blatter-backed Berlin Smurfs. The Finnish-born Ramo ended the season with a 90.0 save percentage through 63 games, while the Slovenian Gracnar was awesome with a 91.8 save pct. in 19 games. They are back again this season and I bet they would appreciate better team defense in front of them. Just sayin’.”
