IIHF World ChampionshipDiscuss International Tournaments like the WJC, Olympics, and World Cup, as they take place, or discuss past tournaments. performances.
EHT 2012-13 [CZE/FIN/RUS/SWE] • 2nd Stage • Channel One Cup (Dec. 13-16)
The EHT was originally started by these countries, so they could prepare their teams for World Championships / Olympics / The hockey world cup, and to make quality hockey entertaiment that sells. That way they can test new players on high level. EHT is many times like NHL would be played in europe, if you watch the rosters. Best players from the leagues usually are in, sometimes they try completely new names, but the players that are in are still allways well accomplished in european leagues at the time.
Few years ago I heard about Germany and Slovakia and some others wanting in, but probably they want to keep it on 4 countries, so it doesn't interrupt the leagues of these countries too much. The Elitserien, SM-Liiga and KHL actually stop playing for these tournaments sake. That's why they want the break as short as possible, and I think thats the main reason for not having more countries.
Also they probably want to keep as high quality of play as possible, so the intrest for the games is high in TV and at Arena. I dont think it would be problem to take slovakia in that way.
D:
Roman Polák, Jakub Kindl, Ondřej Němec, Martin Škoula, Jakub Nakládal, Filip Novák, Zdeněk Kutlák
F:
Aleš Hemský, David Krejčí, Michal Frolík, Jakub Voráček, Tomáš Plekanec, Tomáš Rolinek, Petr Koukal, Jakub Petružálek, Petr Nedvěd, Martin Růžička, Jakub Orsava, Jan Kovář, Jakub Svoboda, Antonín Honejsek
Plekanec with "C"
Why isn't Milan Michalek playing? Is he injured or something?
Means Bill noticed some facts from AkBars. Medvedev and Yemelin look good on the 2nd PP unit of ours. Forward line pretty much as expected with healthy Tereschenko replacing Shipachyov on the 3rd and Bill wouldn't be Bill if he would do a little tweak. Ovechkin on the 3rd is unexpected(Not that it's the 3d line but the fact Bill apparently tries to make his 3rd line form the WC better). Let's see how it works out.
don't see any reason to exclude Tarasenko
and who is Plotnikov?
don't see any reason to exclude Tarasenko
and who is Plotnikov?
I think he excluded Tarasenko and Kuznetsov because they have a lot of hype around them and does not want them to stagnate. Probably the best decision, this way they will stay hungry and work harder for a place on the national team. Especially for Sochi.
I think he excluded Tarasenko and Kuznetsov because they have a lot of hype around them and does not want them to stagnate. Probably the best decision, this way they will stay hungry and work harder for a place on the national team. Especially for Sochi.
IIRC I read on Sport-Express that this Russian lineup will be very similiar to the Olympic one. As a Russian, I sure hope this is nowhere close to the lineup we see in Sochi, looks kind of weak IMO.
IIRC I read on Sport-Express that this Russian lineup will be very similiar to the Olympic one. As a Russian, I sure hope this is nowhere close to the lineup we see in Sochi, looks kind of weak IMO.
Also, has Semins game fallen off that much!!??
Similar doesn't mean the same. Also it's not weak by any means. And Mr.Syomin looked really... let's say relaxed for a long stretch(I' ve seen him for one game in person. He was awful, just like waiting for the game to end so he can do his laundry), got benched. After that he got some praise from the coach for 2 games I haven't seen, but that's definitely not enough to make that roster.
IIRC I read on Sport-Express that this Russian lineup will be very similiar to the Olympic one. As a Russian, I sure hope this is nowhere close to the lineup we see in Sochi, looks kind of weak IMO.
Also, has Semins game fallen off that much!!??
Semin has not been playing for a while and was nothing special in the KHL from what I saw of him. He is a lot of talent, a lot of it will come down to the form players are in at this stage next year.
This team is not weak at all it is quite strong and still experimental, in 2014 we should see the likes of Kuznetsov and Tarasenko in the team. The main thing right now is try to see which lines will have the best chemistry with the locks for Sochi 2014. The defensemen need to be good puck movers, basically play makers from the back. Russia has quite a few of those in the KHL and at the last World Championships the KHL'ers played that role very well. I am very interested in how Medvedev and Yemelin perform together.
don't see any reason to exclude Tarasenko
and who is Plotnikov?
On this squad mostly the experienced players got the call. The youngsers got some rest. Kuznetsov and Tarasenko basically also had a pretty quite stretch in the KHL lately after ripping it at the beginnnig of the season. Plotnikov is Anisimov's linemate in Yaroslavl. He'll do some 4th line duty with Anisimov. Tarasenko or Kuznetsov aren't players for the 4th line, so it's not like Plotnikov is taking their spots.
BAsically the interational breaks aren't long anough to carry out a bigger tournament. So it's limited to 4 teams. EHT is atrditional tournament for the 4 participants. Other nations participate in different tournaments at the same time, also limited to a small count of games for time reasons.
IIRC I read on Sport-Express that this Russian lineup will be very similiar to the Olympic one. As a Russian, I sure hope this is nowhere close to the lineup we see in Sochi, looks kind of weak IMO.
Wait, how exactly does this roster look weak, though? Goaltending can be improved when Varlamov is back and there probably should be a couple of tweaks on defense, but the offense looks incredible, at least to me.
Just wondering, is the home team able to choose their opponents and the dates they play each of their games in EHT?
If so, choosing Finland for Sunday's game could be some kind of mark of respect, which could be considered as the main game of the tournament as it usually decides the final placements of the tournament and people don't usually have much else to do on Sundays, but to watch TV/EHT or maybe Russia realized that Finland is sending worse teams to this tournament like last year and want to finish the tournament in a nice fashion (win).
, Sobotka out 
