HC Lugano after the storm: who will guide it?

Any keen follower of the National League A knows it: this season, Lugano is in the middle of a severe crisis. With a negative (better: orrible) record of eleven losses out of sixteen games played, the club from Ticino is now at the bottom of the placement table, struggling to remain in the highest tier of Swiss hockey. 

A couple of days ago Patrick Fischer, the young coach of the team since 2013 and himself a former Lugano, Zug and (although briefly) Arizona Coyotes player, was fired alongside his assistant Peter Andersson. "Fischi" was part of the staff for a long time, even before 2013, first as junior and then as assistent coach, and his dismissal, although highly anticipated, has been a strong shock for the whole club. 

The team played this weekend with Christian Wohlwend as its temporary coach, being badly defeated yesterday in Biel; but the announcement of his full-time substitute will be most likely made right after tonight's game, the deadly important (even more for the inhabitants of Ticino) "Tessiner Derby", against the other Italian-speaking Swiss team Ambrì-Piotta. Ambrì is now placed in the second-last position of the NLA standings, so that the position of its head coach, the Canadian Serge Pelletier, has also been highly discussed lately, even more after yesterday's game against HC Davos, which was easily won by the Graubündner. 

Bengt-Åke Gustafsson has lately been suggested by the local press as the most likely choice as new head coach of Lugano: that would be an interesting addition to a team that, actually, has a quite good roster with many attempts at playing using a more "Scandinavian" style, but which it lacks enough preparation and cohesion to attack and defeat the more organized teams from behind the Alps. Who else than a Swede, then, would fit their needs?

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