Lausanne, Davos, Lugano, and now Langnau. As is well known, due to the stadium extension, the EVZ will be playing their first eight matches of the new season away from home. Following three away fixtures, in which the Zug side racked up an impressive 7 points, their next away match takes place on Friday (19:45) in the Emmental. The promising start to the season should not obscure the fact that the Tigers certainly caused us problems last year – four matches yielded a modest four points, and we came away defeated from both away fixtures.

However, there are many signs that Lauri Marjamäki’s team is showing a different side to itself this season. It was a close call, and the EVZ could well have had the maximum number of points to their name after three full rounds. Having led twice, however, they were eventually defeated in overtime by a strong Lugano side. Nevertheless, following clear victories in Lausanne and Davos, the start to the season can certainly be regarded as positive.

They will now be looking to carry this positive momentum forward against the SCL Tigers. The EVZ can once again count on their incisive attack: in the National League scoring charts, three EVZ players – captain Jan Kovar, Tomas Tatar and Vinzenz Rohrer – feature in the top seven, with the latter even leading the table with eight points.

Despite promising signs, the SCL Tigers’ start to the season has certainly not gone to plan. From four matches, Thierry Paterlini’s team has managed to secure just two points, leaving them bottom of the table. However, it is also true that the Emmental side came close to picking up points in both their match against Lausanne (3–5) and their game in Zurich against ZSC (3–4).

The SCL Tigers versus EVZ fixture has already taken place during pre-season: in the final warm-up match a week before the start of the season, we eventually won 3–2 after leading 3–0. If that isn’t a good omen, I don’t know what is!