Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

[Moonlight Shadow]

Airhook....

[Moonlight Shadow]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

Thomas Deruns not only scores the goal of the season but he also had the assist of the season:

On the floor

And a better video of the airhook goal, complete with gobsmacked Swiss-German commentator:

Unglaublich!

[ursus arctos]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

Genau.

I've never seen someone even try that in a game, let alone pull it off at such a high level. The goalie is going to have flashbacks.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

You could argue the Bern defenders did not move but how could you predict such a move...

[ursus arctos]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

Exactly, and surely the entire league will be watching him very carefully now.

Which means he needs to work on faking the airhook and then completing a snap pass to a player driving into the space vacated by the defenceman who has gone to close him down.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

I'm amazed that's legal. He's effectively not hit the puck into the net with a shot, but carried it in on the end of his stick?

[ursus arctos]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

He flips in with a wrist flick at the very end of the move.

The relevant rules are that he can't touch the puck with his stick above his shoulder (which he doesn't) or get his skate into the blue semi-circular crease in front of the goalie (which he also avoids, there's no such limitation on where his stick can be).

It's a very well thought-out move.

[Janik]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

Rogin, possibly. But if it was an easy skill to do, then people would be trying it all the time. The stick has to move through the air at high pace to keep the puck under control, whilst he reaches away from himself and spins the end of his stick through 180 degrees.

[Muukalainen]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

That's a stunning piece of individual skill for the air hook goal. I wonder how long he had to practise it for before getting to that level of proficiency. It should be pretty easy to stop though, provided the defender is alert to what might happen, by knocking, lifting, etc. the stick prior to final delivery, but then as ursus points out, the options that that could open up for him become a problem.

Brilliant work too by Thomas Deruns with that assist, but it looks to me that the final pass was intended for himself. If only that last swing of the stick had connected and sent the puck past the goalie.

[ursus arctos]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

Then he would have been channelling Ovechkin, who did it again last year.

[Muukalainen]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

It's difficult to find the right words as to how good those two goals are. The usual superlatives don't do them anywhere near justice. In neither case is it easy to see where the defenders could have done much more to stop him.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Things you see in the Swiss League Playoffs Final

Chaps...I'm lost for words for our team...Maybe number will explain better.

Bern have lots of money, play people in third line that would in the first line in most other team. They won their 1/4 series 4-0 and their 1/2 series 4-0.

We're skint, don't even have our quota of 4 foreign players. We won our 1/4 series 4-3 after being 3-1 down, won our 1/2 series 4-2.

We were 3-1 down in the final series, tonight we're back at 3-3...

Last game saturday in Bern. We've never won the league, Bern has never won the league at home.

We have nothing to lose, rank outsiders according to the media who had us struggling to qualify for the playoffs at all. Bern are "The Machine" and arch-favourites. They must win. They already fucked up their big chance to close the tie on game 5 at home.

The Swiss playoffs started on the 9th of March.