The playoffs of Switzerland's National League A begin on Saturday. Three CHL A-License teams are in the hunt for the championship, while five teams hope to earn two available berths for next season. One of those is Genève-Servette, an eight-finalist from last season, who hope to re-qualify.
by Andreas Reiner
With the National League A regular season now complete, there are a handful of surprises in the order of finish of Switzerland's highest hockey league. There are the teams you'd normally suspect in the relegation round like the Rapperswil-Jona Lakers or HC Ambri-Piotta, but also two of this year's Champions Hockey League participants missed the cut of the eight best teams.
Both the Kloten Flyers and Fribourg-Gottéron have been struggling throughout the season – both teams fired their head coaches but neither Sean Simpson in Kloten nor Gerd Zenhäusern in Fribourg were able elevate their teams into a playoff spot. Last season, both teams met in the semi-finals, where Kloten won the best-of-seven series in six games before loosing to the ZSC Lions Zurich in four straight games in the final. Obviously, both teams are very disappointed and they'll have to win as many points possible in a six-game relegation round if they want to avoid playing a playout series (11th versus 12th). The loser will then play a best-of-seven series against the winner of the National League B playoffs for a spot in the NLA.
But let's climb up the ladder and have a look at the eight participants in this year's playoffs. In the table below, the four CHL A-License holders are displayed in bold. The two unbolded teams that go farthest in the playoffs will be eligible for B-Licenses.
| # | Club | GP | W | OW | OL | L | GF–GA | Pts | |
| 1 | ZSC Lions Zurich | 50 | 27 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 148–106 | 97 | |
| 2 | SC Bern | 50 | 27 | 5 | 5 | 13 | 158–120 | 96 | |
| 3 | HC Lugano | 50 | 24 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 155–127 | 93 | |
| 4 | EV Zug | 50 | 24 | 7 | 6 | 13 | 166–126 | 92 | |
| 5 | HC Davos | 50 | 23 | 6 | 6 | 15 | 164–132 | 87 | |
| 6 | Genève-Servette HC | 50 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 16 | 154–154 | 78 | |
| 7 | Lausanne HC | 50 | 19 | 5 | 6 | 20 | 105–116 | 73 | |
| 8 | EHC Biel | 50 | 15 | 7 | 7 | 21 | 142–164 | 66 | |
| 9 | HC Fribourg-Gottéron | 50 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 22 | 144–177 | 59 | |
| 10 | Kloten Flyers | 50 | 13 | 8 | 4 | 25 | 117–144 | 59 | |
| 11 | HC Ambrì-Piotta | 50 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 24 | 124–167 | 57 | |
| 12 | Rapperswil-Jona Lakers | 50 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 28 | 121–165 | 43 | |
The ZSC Lions were the pre-season favourites of many and they didn't disappoint during the 50-game regular season. The Lions only had the sixth-best offence in the league, but finished first, one point head of SC Bern, by surrendering a league-low 106 goals against. A big reason for that was the goaltending of Lukas Flueler, who posted a 1.77 goals-against average and .941 save percentage in 33 games. Goaltending is always important in the playoffs, so the Lions hope Flueler continues his strong play.
First up for them is eighth-seeded EHC Biel. While Biel scored only six goals fewer than Zurich during the regular season, they had the third-worst defence in the league, and the worst of any of the eight playoff teams.
In seventh place with 73 points are HC Lausanne and head coach Heinz Ehlers (his son, Nikolaj Ehlers was picked 9th in the 2014 NHL Draft), who will face SC Bern. The Bernese have drastically improved compared to 2014, when they were forced to play in the relegation round after winning the championship in 2013. For a club such as Bern, who were led offensively by league MVP Martin Pluss (23 + 22 = 45) and ex-NHLer Byron Ritchie (14 + 29 = 43), only titles are good enough but Lausanne might still poke that big, bad bear and walk away with the honeypot.
The lone representative for the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland is HC Lugano, who probably landed one of the biggest transfers of the season when Damien Brunner signed a four-year contract, coming from the New Jersey Devils. Led offensively by the NLA's top two scorers, Swedes Fredrik Pettersson (33 + 36 = 69) and Linus Klasen (19 + 36 = 55), the bianconeri, as they're called by the locals, hope to bring the Cup back home after nine years. Also, as the highest-finishing Swiss club without a CHL A-License, they can qualify for a B-License by making the finals and maybe even a semi-final berth will be enough.
To do that, they'll first have to get by sixth-seeded Genève-Servette and their charismatic owner and coach, Chris McSorley, in the quarter-finals. After a strong showing in this year's CHL and a star-studded lineup that includes Matt D'Agostini (14 + 23 = 47) and Matthew Lombardi (6 + 11 = 17 in 19 games), Genève have their eyes on returning, but to do that they'll have to beat Lugano. It's undeniable that McSorley is hungry for his first Swiss championship title after winning the invitational Spengler Cup twice in a row. Those are nice additions to the club's trophy case but, in the end, it's all about the championship.
As one of the founding clubs, EV Zug played in the CHL despite missing last year's playoffs but have bounced back this season, winning three of six CHL group-stage games and finishing fifth in the NLA. Zug were the highest-scoring team in the NLA this year with 166 goals. They were led by Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who had another strong season with 51 points (17 + 34). Not far behind him were Lino Martschini (23 + 24 = 47) and Robbie Earl (19 + 26 = 45).
Another team team in the chase for a CHL B-License is fifth-placed HC Davos. One of the longest serving coaches, Arno del Curto somehow always manages to integrate young talents into an experienced team, where the aging brothers Jan and Reto von Arx haven't received an extension on their contracts, which wasn't received very well. If Davos want to survive the first round, Swedes Marcus Paulsson, Perttu Lindgren and Dick Axelsson, three of the club's top four scorers, will have to continue their scoring pace.
The Swiss NLA playoffs begin on Saturday. Find the full schedule and up-to-date results here on the league's website.