IIHF World ChampionshipDiscuss International Tournaments like the WJC, Olympics, and World Cup, as they take place, or discuss past tournaments. performances.
Congrats to Slovenia! Great to see a new team make it, even if they aren't technically one of the world's top 12. Surprised they could do it without Anže, then again, Denmark is missing nearly all of their top guys.
Hopefully Latvia doesn't screw it up against France on Sunday. Considering they have 95% of their ideal line-up, and finally some good veteran leadership, all should be good.
Nice to witness history being made. Anze probably didn't even dream he'd get to play in the Olympics.
Can't help but feel for the Danes, though. They would have had a decent team in the final tournament. S'pose they would not have minded lockout not ending...
Bravo Slovenia, well deserved Lowest ranked nation outside of the three pre-competition entrants (Great Britain, Ukraine, Netherlands). Hope they put on a good show in Sochi!
Kopitar and Mursak on the same line? When are we starting the official Slovenia 2014 Roster thread?
Nice to witness history being made. Anze probably didn't even dream he'd get to play in the Olympics.
Can't help but feel for the Danes, though. They would have had a decent team in the final tournament. S'pose they would not have minded lockout not ending...
true, but i think that's even more reason to credit Slovenia's comparative depth with such a miniscule system.
congrats to Slovenia a very passionate sports people. Did well in 2010 World Cup (to qualify was incredible), home of Tina Maze, now the Olympics for hockey. quality > quantity, every time.
Good for Slovenia.. Really though this tournament should be done at the end of the year or something when NHLers could join. I think then Belarus or Denmark would have made it. But lol @Belarus for cutting Kostitsyn
Proud of the GB effort as well. Fantastic spirit and only a few negatives but lots of positives. Hopefully a bit more attention has been garnered due to the bigger media exposure and hopefully we can start qualifying more regularly.
Huzzah for Slovenia, but those IIHF numbers are just poor data. According to them Austria has twice as many male players as Russia. That's BS. According to the IIHF, 0.5% of Canada's male players are playing in the NHL while just under 20% of Russia's male players are in the KHL or NHL.
Last edited by Uncle Rotter: 02-08-2013 at 11:42 PM.
These games still count towards the world rankings, & by which nations pre-qualify for 2018. So even though Belarus & Denmark are both eliminated, the winner could finish 13th & the loser 18th. Which would be a difference of 50 points. (They would count as 50% by 2016, the same value as the 2014 World Championships)
Group D turns out to be very interesting.
Germany HAS to win against Austria this Sunday.
Otherwise it would be the first Olympic hockey tournament without German participation since 1948.
It could be devastating for German hockey, considering that lots of government funding for hockey youth programs are on the line. No Olympic participation means severe cuts to those fundings.
Last edited by cyberdork: 02-09-2013 at 05:49 AM.
Reason: 1948 not 1928
Group D turns out to be very interesting.
Germany HAS to win against Austria this Sunday.
Otherwise it would be the first Olympic hockey tournament without German participation since 1928.
It could be devastating for German hockey, considering that lots of government funding for hockey youth programs are on the line. No Olympic participation means severe cuts to those fundings.
Wow that must put a huge preassure on the german players,doesnt it?
Yeah, and as a German I just hope that Vanek won't show up in tomorrows Austrian line-up
You guys have big country with relatively good following of hockey,would be nice to see some funding for you guys. If hockey popularity in germany increased,i think you would be at the level of Sweden if not better.
Slovenia are qualified. BLR-DEN play each other in the last game and Slovenia has the H2H in their favor no matter who wins that one.
Great to see Kopitar get a chance to play in the Olympics. Bit of a shame though, Denmark would get a very strong team with their NHLers, but it is what is is.
Denmark simply doesn't have the depth to be without 6 NHL players. A well deserved qualification for Slovenia.
Nah. U got a few guys in AHL aswell. I mean 8 players from NA would make a huge difference
It`s easy for us and Norway to say as Latvia has most of their players in KHL and Norway in SEL and are always accesible to our teams whats the point for denmark of these 8nhlers when they are not available?
true, but i think that's even more reason to credit Slovenia's comparative depth with such a miniscule system.
congrats to Slovenia a very passionate sports people. Did well in 2010 World Cup (to qualify was incredible), home of Tina Maze, now the Olympics for hockey. quality > quantity, every time.
They're also very good at handball (finished 4th in the wolrd cup last month) and basketball (ranked higher than in hockey despite a lot more countries being competitive).
You don't think more kids will want to play when they see their team competing in Sochi?
It certainly won't hurt. The biggest problem is the lack of infrastruture. Even if more kids do want to play with only 7 indoor rinks and a handfull of clubs their options are pretty limited.
Looking at things from a distance I think the fact Slovenia's most succesful professional club (an organization that produced a large number of the current national team) went belly-up this past summer could, mid and long term, cancele out any positives that can come from Olympic qualification.
Now if a relatively decent showing at the Olympics not only results in more interest from kids but helps lead to the re-establishment of pro hockey in Jesenice and maybe even a full blown professional club in Maribor and even just a small handful of new rinks and amature/youth clubs than it could be huge. Those are all pretty big ifs at this point though.
With all that said what countries like Slovenia, Norway and Denmark have accomplished in recent years really is pretty cool. Those countries are all small and I am under the impression hockey doesn't exactly enjoy the highest of profiles. I also imagine the federations and clubs, both on (e.g. players) and off (e.g. money) the ice, don't have a lot of resources to work with. Despite this all three countries currently have very respectable national teams and seem to be producing on an increasingly consistant bases, if not NHL players, than players who are capable of playing in strong European leagues.
Lowest ranked nation outside of the three pre-competition entrants (Great Britain, Ukraine, Netherlands). Hope they put on a good show in Sochi!
