Grönborg spent less than four seasons in Zurich. He went the furthest with the team in the 2020/21 season, where they were eliminated by Servette-Geneva in the semi-finals. And despite the disappointing results this year, he was finally fired from the team before the end of 2022. Marc Crawford, seasoned with NHL experience, took his place, who also led the team to the semi-finals.
“He perfectly understood his work and sold it through the media. He was such a lion in a cage. I was surprised that more of his moves overseas weren’t realized. In the end, he found himself in Switzerland,” describes the Swede’s coaching career, Sport.cz editor-in-chief Martin Kézr. “For me, he is one of the best European coaches today,” the hockey expert assesses.
I was really nervous, and I don’t get nervous about hockey. Šimon Hrubec in the program Příklep about how he watched the fight to save MotoruVideo: Sport.cz
The Czech national team goalkeeper Hrubec also had words of praise, having spent several months in Zurich’s goal under the baton of the fifty-four-year-old Grönborg. “He’s a great coach, but he’s very nice. I almost wonder if he didn’t pay for it. There were moments when I hoped it would blow,” the three-time finalist with Třinec returns in time.
“As far as the results are concerned, it may be a small minus, but it is important to be a good person. And he is. I will remember him fondly,” recounts Hrubec, who caught 42 matches in this year’s Swiss top flight. “He has a different face, but otherwise he is a very human person.”
Hrubec thus has a comparison with both coaches who led him in the season. “Rikard always tried to find something positive. But it wasn’t always good. Then there was a change of coach, who, right after the first match, scolded someone terribly. It was also good, he gave it that character,” compares Hrubec, a guest of the hockey program Příklep.
