Shoot – this is the alternative

Three straight losses capped off a humiliating loss to Mangleroad Star on Saturday. Then the club felt compelled to take action.

– Of course it’s boring. It’s not a situation you want to get into,” Aasland tells TV 2 shortly after the news broke.

The letter arrived Sunday night.

– Special

– Was it a surprise?

No, not far. I noticed that there was a lot of talk and a lot of stuff around. Hence, part of this is for the coach to take responsibility and move first. The 33-year-old replied that it came as a bombshell.

Aasland thinks it’s a shame not to be around when the Norwegian championship is decided so soon.

– It’s so boring. I have been there for many years and have developed close relationships with many. There are many guys I’ve been close to and I wish them well. You get a special relationship after working closely together for many years. It is very private and boring to end up in this situation. He says there are a lot of people you love and wish them well there.

The fired coach would spend the next few days resting, taking deep breaths and thinking it all over. He doesn’t know what the way forward is.

– We are not satisfied

Vidar Wolde will take over as head coach for the rest of the season. He has several seasons of experience as a coach, but this season he was the club’s sporting director.

– This step is based on an evaluation over time. When the results were what they were, we felt like we were slowing down and just couldn’t handle the message we wanted and how we wanted to look, and then we felt it was OK to make a change now that you still have the opportunity to do it. We hope to send a signal that what was done wasn’t good enough. This applies to all of us who work in sports. It’s a signal that we’re not satisfied with what was there and hopefully the playgroup will seriously understand the fact that we have to step it up a few notches and put on work gloves to bring out the potential we know there is, he says.

For Wold, it was great to help get the message across to the man he’d worked closely with for several years on Sunday night.

– In the last 3.5 years, he may have been the person next door to the family you spent the most time with. It was a boring conversation. At the same time, we are both professionals and we know the consequences of being coaches. We can be as unhappy as we want with the team, but we both know that in the end it is we who are responsible and who we have to stand up for. He is a man we really appreciate. Wolde says this doesn’t change anything between Jana and me.

Canadian Dan Ratochny got a very important job in the new coaching staff. The 52-year-old, who has been appointed part-time, sports advisor and resource to both the sporting department and the coaching staff, will be more present in the coming weeks and will work closely with the playing squad.

– The board of directors asked me to lead the coaching team, and I see myself more as a supervisor, says Wold.

He notes that they have many capable people in the club, and is quite satisfied that now Ratoshni has the opportunity to take on a bigger role.

Wold really wants to see a very different version of Team Frisk in Thursday’s game.

– I hope we look a little different in front of the superstar than we did in the past and that the playing group takes the steps that have been taken seriously. They have a responsibility too, Jana is not alone. Hopefully they’ll take that cue here and dig deeper and come together as a team, so we can’t do anything about what happened. We have to look ahead and start with blank slate and build self-confidence, because something is lacking. He says: We have to regain our confidence that we are a good hockey team.

Assistant coach Simon Stolt-Wang will continue in his role.