Olympic Qualifiers (Latvia)
 

Final Roster announced

http://www.icehockeyuk.co.uk/gb-name...-squad-p181521

Netminders

Ben Bowns
Stephen Murphy

Defencemen

Danny Meyers
Ben O’Connor
Dave Phillips
Mark Richardson
Rod Sarich
Mark Thomas
Jonathan Weaver

Forwards

David Clarke
Robert Dowd
Robert Farmer
Mark Garside
Jason Hewitt
Phil Hill
Robert Lachowicz
Matthew Myers
Greg Owen
Craig Peacock
Jonathan Phillips
Colin Shields
Ashley Tait

Reserves

Stevie Lyle
Geoff Woolhouse

Stephen Lee
Kevin Phillips
Russ Cowley

Ben Davies
Matty Davies
Leigh Jamieson
Aaron Nell

Schedule

7 Feb: GB v Latvia (17:30 GMT)
8 Feb: GB v France (13:30 GMT)
10 Feb: GB v Kazakhstan (11:00 GMT)

What are the chances of us getting through? Slim to none? Or impossible to laughable?

Let's just say posting this classic clip is very appropriate

I'm curiously monitoring this even though I have no British roots whatsoever (well, girlfriend lived in Liverpool for six years but that's another story). Really, really hoping you guys can pull this rabbit out of your ass, but it obviously doesn't look likely.

At least you probably have a better shot than the Netherlands in a group with Germany and Austria. Also the group with Denmark and Belarus seems extremely difficult for the other two, one could make the argument that the best four teams are Germany, Latvia, Belarus and Denmark so a group with two of them will be very tough.

No lockout means Latvia and France won't get their NHLers, I believe, so no Daugavins or Da Costa to contend with. Who are some notable players from the British team? I know Colin Shields was drafted in the NHL way back when. Guy called Cody Payne was drafted in 2012 but he's not on this team's roster. There's also a goaltender called Danny Taylor that's in the AHL who was drafted in 2004. That's about the extent of my British national team knowledge...

Anyway, it's impossible to predict the permutations now. Nevermind Latvia, what are the chances GBR will keep the game against France respectable and beat Kazakhstan?

GB don't really have any standout notable players, David Phillips played a fair few games in the AHL, Ben O'Connor is another good Dman, and our top forwards are Shields, Dowd and Peacock.

Payne and Taylor aren't "proper" British players by IIHF standards, so they can't play.

There is decent chance we could beat Kazakhstan, depending how the teams play on the day, we gave them a good game in the WC's a couple of years ago losing 2-1. The French team is overall a lot better than us even without their star players, but it probably wouldn't be a huge blowout.

Hold onto your wage packets, Murphy's out for an indefinite length of time :banghead:

If Murphy can't make it will Manchester's Fone be considered as back-up?

No. It'll be Woolhouse. Even then, I would probably take Mettam and Lee over Fone anyway.

At least Suds gets his wish of Ben Bowns playing.

No offence to Murphy but you won't miss him much as he's undersized so he leaves the the 3 and 4 holes open when he goes down. He also drops his glove and elbow on his blocker side leaving the 6 and 7 holes open;
His lack of size makes him a shot stopper instead of a shot blocker and he scrambles some.putting him outta position. In Belfast he's flourished with import D but top internationals will feast on him.

What are you talking about? Murphy is our best goalie by a country mile unless Stevie Lyle comes out of retirement from international duty. Ben Bowns is good but he's nowhere near Murphy's level yet.

Before the injury goaltending was the least of our worries.

****in right lol

wonder if there'll be a stream for the Latvia game..

Donno but I've learned to never get my hopes up for that lol

With Latvia there's a good chance there will be a stream since it will be most likely televised there

https://www.appeagle.com/wp-content/...s-everyone.jpg

We will at least get radio coverage!

http://www.icehockeyuk.co.uk/comment...e-bbc--p181428

Well we're halfway there! Ice Hockey UK has finally got themselves to the 1950s

To be fair it's not IHUK's fault hockey isn't televised, the TV channels don't want to televise it.

Rumours that Stevie Lyle will be taking Murphy's place

as the starter or just as a goalie?

Don't know. All I know is that the Basingstoke Bison fans are saying Tony Hand had a lengthy conversation with him after their game on the weekend

In other news; SOME FUNDING!!!! WHAT IS THIS ****ERY?!?!?! http://www.icehockeyuk.co.uk/boa-sec...-ihuk--p181507

Posters on TheHockeyForum are up in arms moaning why did we not get this sooner, god those people just cannot be pleased :laugh:

They do have a point I think, whilst it's great that they are giving money, why now? why not at the start of the qualification, with the money we could have held the Japan tournament here, perhaps tried to buy some media coverage, but now, with such little time left, it seems that all the money will be spent on is 1st class flights and a booze night at the end of the tournament.

lol the funding is to qualify for the Olympics in 2014 and the qualifiers are just a few weeks away. What can you do with that money right now that's going to help you qualify in a few weeks?

What were we going to do with it if we got given it a year ago? We would still be in no position to beat a team like Latvia barring a miracle. I don't think it will be used for the tournament, that's just a guise to get them to give us some money, they will use it for preparation for future WC's

But:
The grant is from an Olympic group lol if they don't spend it on Olympic related costs like they claim, then next time they're up for grant money why would the get it? They won't give them money if they don't spend it on what it was allocated for.

But the grant saves a heap of money by paying for all the things like flights and accommodation, the money saved can then be better utilised in the future.

I don't understand why people are being so negative.

My understanding is the grant also pays for the trip to Japan