IIHF World ChampionshipDiscuss International Tournaments like the WJC, Olympics, and World Cup, as they take place, or discuss past tournaments. performances.
Outstanding effort from GB, this just shows we have the capabilities ith a fairly young squad, to compete with the tops nations, after the 4-4 tie with Norway, well done lads, we are all proud, now go a beat Holland and Belgium, and as we cannot now win the pool (realistically) lets hope Belarus beat Hungary and Norway and we snatch second place!
I can't help but wonder how much better the team would perform if they had a decent amount of time to play and practice together. Still we have to beat Holland and Belgium.
What's up with Vladimir Tsyplakov? I recall he played his last NHL games with the Sabres...
His name came up alot during the olympics and they said that he really wanted to come back to the NHL but that no teams were interested. That's too bad because I liked him while he played for the Kings. I think now he plays in Russia.
I think its less than half now.. 6-7 players are Canadian born/trained.
Slow but unsteady is the progress..
It's now down to 6. That's the lowest it's been since Pool C 1991 when we also had 6. The only time it's been lower is Pool D in 1989, when we had a fully British squad in our first year back in international competition.
FWIW, I don't see that number rising again. A lot of the imports we have in the team are coming towards the end of their careers, and there aren't really any obvious young ones to replace them. At the same time, the British contingent in the team is very young and only going to get better with experience.
We just need more games outside of Championships. Hopefully next year for the Olympic Qualifiers we will be a little more prepared.
It's now down to 6. That's the lowest it's been since Pool C 1991 when we also had 6. The only time it's been lower is Pool D in 1989, when we had a fully British squad in our first year back in international competition.
FWIW, I don't see that number rising again. A lot of the imports we have in the team are coming towards the end of their careers, and there aren't really any obvious young ones to replace them. At the same time, the British contingent in the team is very young and only going to get better with experience.
We just need more games outside of Championships. Hopefully next year for the Olympic Qualifiers we will be a little more prepared.
Graham.
I agree, with that, the dual-nats are the older players, which is great to see that we have done so well (so far) with such a young (brit-part of the) squad.
The only problem with playing games other than at championships is that clubs don't want to release their players for the games so we end up playing a team where half of the players have no realistic chance of making the squad for major championhips.
Unfortunately for Ice Hockey in Great Britain, club comes before country, maybe not so much for the players, but if the coach does not want them playing then there is nothing that they can do about it!!
I agree, with that, the dual-nats are the older players, which is great to see that we have done so well (so far) with such a young (brit-part of the) squad.
Yeah, so far. Then we go and lose 4-1 to Netherlands...
Quote:
Originally Posted by GuildfordFlamesFan
The only problem with playing games other than at championships is that clubs don't want to release their players for the games so we end up playing a team where half of the players have no realistic chance of making the squad for major championhips.
Unfortunately for Ice Hockey in Great Britain, club comes before country, maybe not so much for the players, but if the coach does not want them playing then there is nothing that they can do about it!!
Yes, but if were prepared to name our teams more than 3 weeks in advance, the clubs are not allowed, under IIHF rules, to prevent the players playing for their country. If they do, then the player is banned for 2 weeks. The problem is, we usually announce our team 5 days in advance...
I think its less than half now.. 6-7 players are Canadian born/trained.
Slow but unsteady is the progress..
cool good to hear. Let's hope it goes on like this. About time they stopped with the ridiculous practise of having non Brits play ahead of young British trained players. Hell, with so many imports at league level STILL, eating up the ice time, it's about the best time for some of them to get regular minutes!
