The 2014–15 season was a bit of a disappointment for ZSC Lions Zurich defenceman Patrick Geering. Now he's trying to make up for that, playing for Switzerland at his second IIHF World Championship.
by Krystof Kousal
PRAGUE – Patrick Geering is a homegrown product of Swiss club ZSC Lions Zurich, where he has been a part of two national championship teams in 2012 and 2014. He was also a member of Zurich's original victorious Champions Hockey League team in 2009. As well, he has been a regular on Swiss national teams, playing in the U18 and U20 World Championships and, last year in Minsk, his first men's championship.
This past season was a tough one for the 25-year-old defenceman, as he spent half the season on the sidelines, dressing for 25 NLA regular-season and six Champions Hockey League games. He recovered to have a good playoff, though, recording 9 points (2 + 7) in 18 games, helping his Zurich club to the Swiss finals.
Now he's playing in his second World Championship, where the Swiss are off to a shaky start. They have two wins, but also two extra-time losses to Austria and Latvia – teams they are expected to beat. We spoke to him on the heels of Wednesday's overtime loss to Latvia.
It was a very close game against Latvia. How did you see it?
I think overall we had a lot of shots but we were not able to score against their goalie. In the end it comes down to that we were not sharp enough to score the goals.
You did a good job killing off the penalty in overtime, but what happened after that?
It was a quick transition play 2-on-2 and they made a good play. We weren't able to stop them. In the end they did a good tic-tac pass and that is how it went in.
Was it a game of just two defensive mistakes for you?
In the end it comes down to that. But we just had to score the goals. We had some really, really big chances, more or less hundred percent chances. There's a saying that if you don't score then you get scored and that is how it was today.
This is your second World Championship appearance. How do you like it so far?
I think it's in a really good place for hockey – Prague. I mean good crowds, it's fun to play hockey here in front of that. Now we have to regroup and it would be great to have some other games rather than group stage here in Prague.
How would you look back to the season in both Swiss league and CHL?
It is hard to say anything right now because it's far away. Las year we got beaten pretty bad by Vienna. So we have to be better in the Champions Hockey League at least. And in our league we got beaten in the final by Davos. We are looking forward to another year in the CHL and hopefully we get further than last year.
You played only a half of your team's games in the regular season. How hard was it for you?
I had pretty bad concussion. It was not actually a bad hit but it took a lot of time to recover and that was pretty bad because I was out for 100 days. I could not do anything during that time. I'm looking forward to the next season, but now it's still the World Championship.
But you are here in Prague now, so the season must have been a success for you.
Yeah, sure. It was one of my goals to play at the World Championship because I missed a lot of games I wanted to keep my season going. It is great to be here now.
Do you think the CHL makes European hockey an attractive alternatiive to playing overseas?
I think so. I think it's always fun to measure ourselves against other teams, other countries and other leagues and to have a look at where you stand and what you have to do to be better. It's fun to travel, get to know different clubs, different cities and rinks, so I'm looking forward to playing there the next season.