On Friday evening, Grégory Hofmann played his 750th National League game away against EHC Kloten – including 651 regular season games, 130 playoff games, and 9 league qualifying games. During his 17-year career, Hofmann has won two Swiss championships with EVZ and one with HCD. In the 2018/19 season, he scored more goals for HC Lugano than any other player.
Grégory Hofmann will be honored for this milestone on the ice on Saturday right before the game starts. Congratulations, Hofi—here’s to many more games!
On Saturday evening, Jesse Graham will make his debut in blue and white in the home game against the SCRJ Lakers. Before the game, Grégory Hofmann will also be honored for playing 750 games in the National League.
While Hofmann will lace up his skates for the 751st time against Rapperswil-Jona in the National League, it will be Jesse Graham’s first time. The Canadian was signed by EVZ on Wednesday as a replacement for the injury-weakened defense. The 31-year-old landed in Zurich on Thursday morning, trained with the team for the first time on Friday, and will now make his debut in front of the home crowd on Saturday.
«It all happened very quickly! But I had already been in contact with Reto Kläy and Michael Liniger in the summer. I had only heard good things about the organization, so the decision wasn’t difficult for me.»
Jesse Graham, Defender EVZ
Graham already knew some of the faces in his new team vaguely—he had played against David Sklenicka in the KHL, and they still have mutual friends from his time at Barys Astana. He also faced Lino Martschini as an opponent in the Canadian junior league OHL during the 2010–12 seasons.
ANOTHER HOME WIN?
Last season, there were only home wins between the SCRJ Lakers and EVZ. While the first match ended in a narrow 4-3 victory for the Rosenstädter, the other games were decided more clearly: 5-2 (H), 3:5 (A) and 6:1 (H) from Zug’s perspective. Will we be celebrating another home win on Saturday evening?
For the Lakers’ new sporting director Claudio Cadonau, the away game at the OYM hall is likely to be a special one. In May, the former EVZ defender and two-time champion with Zug took over as sporting director. He has seen his team win three of their first five championship games – their second defeat of the season came on Friday at home against Auswärts, with a score of 0:4. Meanwhile, EVZ picked up another three points in Kloten thanks to a 5:2 win and are currently in 4th place, two points ahead of SCRJ in 6th.
OFFICIAL GAME DAY PRESENTER
