WJC: 2016 WJC Division III (Jan. 15-24)
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tony d
New poll series coming from me in June
You know hockey's a global game when Mexico's hosting an event, looking forward to seeing the results of this event.
Worth noting this is the first time since 1997 that Israel has a U20 team. Hopefully they keep it around, would be nice to have a few more junior teams out there.
FinnLightning26
Death and no taxes
SwedeChild
Registered User
Well...they probably have the best soccer team in Scandinavia ATM, including Finland with a population of 320.000 people. Amazing.
Who knows what will happen in their future hockey development.
The population, and lack of arenas (there are only 3 indoor rinks in the country, no outdoor ones) are major factors. They do have the odd player go to Sweden and play in the lower divisions sometimes, but they are not really set at the moment to grow the sport, at least without some substantial development.
Yeah population will always be a major concern for Iceland, they will probably produce some good SHL and Liiga players, but will never be a superpower.
Will be interesting who are the favourites here. I've been hearing and reading good things about Turkey. They haven't spent a lot of money per say on new ice rinks, but they are putting a lot of money into ice time and development concerning players. Been seeing a lot of good improvements and some results in just the last five years or so.
Will be interesting who are the favourites here. I've been hearing and reading good things about Turkey. They haven't spent a lot of money per say on new ice rinks, but they are putting a lot of money into ice time and development concerning players. Been seeing a lot of good improvements and some results in just the last five years or so.
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Pajicz
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- Mar 22, 2011
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I know it's Iceland, but isn't the Icelandic climate actually a bit too warm for outdoor hockey?
Eye of Ra
Grandmaster General of the International boards
they are also very good in handball....speaking about handball, the euro championship starts tomorrow!
hansomreiste
Registered User
We have made a great start by beating South Africa 10-0. 
At the moment, ice hockey is probably the only thing making me proud of my beautiful country, now ruined by Islamists and terrorists. On Sunday, first time in the history of Turkish media if I am not mistaken, a Turkish Ice Hockey Super League game will be broadcast LIVE on TV. This is a huge step towards exposure and making people know about hockey.
This will probably be a little bit off topic but I still would like to share my view on this thing, if anyone is interested,
Currently, as S E P H stated, we do not have many rinks nor money to splash around for hockey, but ice hockey improved a lot in recent years, I can tell you that for sure. We have relatively good rinks in Kocaeli, Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara and Erzurum and very small, local ones in many other cities, which are not suited for an ice hockey game or even training.
The biggest problem for Turkish community now is that ice hockey is a very expensive sport. We are almost totally foreign-dependent, which means we have to pay a lot for equipment and the ice itself. Statistics say that %55 of people in Turkey earn below starvation line. Well, that's a little weird because starvation line is way too high for Turkey, but still, that should give you an idea about how poor people are. To make it even clearer: Many unqualified people earn minimum wage which is now 1300 TL, equivalent of 390 Euros. Turkish lira lost a lot of value, not surprising at all considering how instable the country and our ******** government is. Teacher's wage, which is generally criticised for being very high (LOL) is around 700 Euros. On the other hand, a proper flat in a relatively safe district in Istanbul costs around 350 Euros.
So, if you are living in a small city, then you have no ice rink and you don't earn good money. If you are in a big city, then you are going to have to pay TOO MUCH for your life standards, rendering you unable to pay for ice hockey.
Today, in Turkey, the cheapest proper ice skates designed for ice hockey are at least 30 Euros. In Silivrikapi, the first olympic ice hall in the city of Istanbul, 45mins of free skating without instructor costs like 3 Euro. I don't even want to come up with ice hockey gears; even pro players generally buy them second-hand.
Mostly for economical reasons, Turkish families can't make their children go and learn ice hockey. It's a luxury only for the rich at the moment. We have no problem with cold actually; many cities in Turkey have natural places to skate in winter, but the thing is, only few people have ice skates. Because as I said, it's a very luxury thing and you have to put a real effort to buy them.
Though the future still looks good. People know and love ice hockey more and more. For example, my 12 year-old brother is fond of KHL and he has been both ice skating and watching ice hockey with me for more than 3 years.
A few years ago, we lived in a relatively small district, where we had an ice rink. Now, we are in an even smaller place, but the ice rink here is better. In fact, you can see many billboards around the town, calling kids to ice hockey rink to live more healthily and such stuff...
I am not sure how far we can go in ice hockey, but I can definitely say that we are still going forward.
At the moment, ice hockey is probably the only thing making me proud of my beautiful country, now ruined by Islamists and terrorists. On Sunday, first time in the history of Turkish media if I am not mistaken, a Turkish Ice Hockey Super League game will be broadcast LIVE on TV. This is a huge step towards exposure and making people know about hockey. This will probably be a little bit off topic but I still would like to share my view on this thing, if anyone is interested,
Currently, as S E P H stated, we do not have many rinks nor money to splash around for hockey, but ice hockey improved a lot in recent years, I can tell you that for sure. We have relatively good rinks in Kocaeli, Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara and Erzurum and very small, local ones in many other cities, which are not suited for an ice hockey game or even training.
The biggest problem for Turkish community now is that ice hockey is a very expensive sport. We are almost totally foreign-dependent, which means we have to pay a lot for equipment and the ice itself. Statistics say that %55 of people in Turkey earn below starvation line. Well, that's a little weird because starvation line is way too high for Turkey, but still, that should give you an idea about how poor people are. To make it even clearer: Many unqualified people earn minimum wage which is now 1300 TL, equivalent of 390 Euros. Turkish lira lost a lot of value, not surprising at all considering how instable the country and our ******** government is. Teacher's wage, which is generally criticised for being very high (LOL) is around 700 Euros. On the other hand, a proper flat in a relatively safe district in Istanbul costs around 350 Euros.
So, if you are living in a small city, then you have no ice rink and you don't earn good money. If you are in a big city, then you are going to have to pay TOO MUCH for your life standards, rendering you unable to pay for ice hockey.
Today, in Turkey, the cheapest proper ice skates designed for ice hockey are at least 30 Euros. In Silivrikapi, the first olympic ice hall in the city of Istanbul, 45mins of free skating without instructor costs like 3 Euro. I don't even want to come up with ice hockey gears; even pro players generally buy them second-hand.
Mostly for economical reasons, Turkish families can't make their children go and learn ice hockey. It's a luxury only for the rich at the moment. We have no problem with cold actually; many cities in Turkey have natural places to skate in winter, but the thing is, only few people have ice skates. Because as I said, it's a very luxury thing and you have to put a real effort to buy them.
Though the future still looks good. People know and love ice hockey more and more. For example, my 12 year-old brother is fond of KHL and he has been both ice skating and watching ice hockey with me for more than 3 years.
A few years ago, we lived in a relatively small district, where we had an ice rink. Now, we are in an even smaller place, but the ice rink here is better. In fact, you can see many billboards around the town, calling kids to ice hockey rink to live more healthily and such stuff...
I am not sure how far we can go in ice hockey, but I can definitely say that we are still going forward.
We have made a great start by beating South Africa 10-0.
This will probably be a little bit off topic but I still would like to share my view on this thing, if anyone is interested,
Currently, as S E P H stated, we do not have many rinks nor money to splash around for hockey, but ice hockey improved a lot in recent years, I can tell you that for sure. We have relatively good rinks in Kocaeli, Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara and Erzurum and very small, local ones in many other cities, which are not suited for an ice hockey game or even training.
The biggest problem for Turkish community now is that ice hockey is a very expensive sport. We are almost totally foreign-dependent, which means we have to pay a lot for equipment and the ice itself. Statistics say that %55 of people in Turkey earn below starvation line. Well, that's a little weird because starvation line is way too high for Turkey, but still, that should give you an idea about how poor people are. To make it even clearer: Many unqualified people earn minimum wage which is now 1300 TL, equivalent of 390 Euros. Turkish lira lost a lot of value, not surprising at all considering how instable the country and our ******** government is. Teacher's wage, which is generally criticised for being very high (LOL) is around 700 Euros. On the other hand, a proper flat in a relatively safe district in Istanbul costs around 350 Euros.
So, if you are living in a small city, then you have no ice rink and you don't earn good money. If you are in a big city, then you are going to have to pay TOO MUCH for your life standards, rendering you unable to pay for ice hockey.
Today, in Turkey, the cheapest proper ice skates designed for ice hockey are at least 30 Euros. In Silivrikapi, the first olympic ice hall in the city of Istanbul, 45mins of free skating without instructor costs like 3 Euro. I don't even want to come up with ice hockey gears; even pro players generally buy them second-hand.
Mostly for economical reasons, Turkish families can't make their children go and learn ice hockey. It's a luxury only for the rich at the moment. We have no problem with cold actually; many cities in Turkey have natural places to skate in winter, but the thing is, only few people have ice skates. Because as I said, it's a very luxury thing and you have to put a real effort to buy them.
Though the future still looks good. People know and love ice hockey more and more. For example, my 12 year-old brother is fond of KHL and he has been both ice skating and watching ice hockey with me for more than 3 years.
A few years ago, we lived in a relatively small district, where we had an ice rink. Now, we are in an even smaller place, but the ice rink here is better. In fact, you can see many billboards around the town, calling kids to ice hockey rink to live more healthily and such stuff...
I am not sure how far we can go in ice hockey, but I can definitely say that we are still going forward.
There also seem to be an increasing number of hockey players with Turkish roots in German hockey these days. I wonder if this will turn into a similar situation as in soccer where some of them play for German while other will play for Turkey.
Anyway, it is good to see hockey growing in countries like Turkey. I would love to see them move up in the rankings over the next years.
hansomreiste
Registered User
Exactly. In fact, recently, our women's team went to Germany for a training camp alongside with the head of the federation as far as I remember, to "keep it close" with Germany. Current level of ice hockey in Germany is much better than Turkey, so I believe a few players of Turkish origin who are not good enough for Germany could prefer Turkey and make us even better. At the moment, any little step forward is important for us. A few sides notes I would like to share,
* In December, two junior teams of Buz Korsanları SK (Ice Pirates Sports Club) took part in Santa Claus Cup in Hungary. Turkish children taking part in an international ice hockey tournament? Well, this is something none of us could have foreseen.
* Division II games of group B in 2016 IIHF Women's World Championships will be played in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, at Ankara Sports Hall. The thing is, this place, with the capacity of over 10,000 spectators, will be designed specially as an ice rink for this event.
* Currently there are six olympic ice hockey halls in Turkey where official ice hockey matches & trainings are held. Names and cities with seating capacity in brackets,
Aşık Veysel Ice Rink, İzmir (3500)
Erzurum Ice Rink for 3000 people, Erzurum
Kocaeli BB Olympic Ice Sports Hall, Kocaeli (2000)
Belpa Ice Skating Hall, Ankara (1500)
Silivrikapı Ice Rink, İstanbul (1000)
Erzurum Ice Rink for 500 people, Erzurum
Well obviously the guys in Erzurum didn't bother much about finding a name for their rinks, naming them directly with their capacities... It's interesting that our biggest and probably the most modern ice hall is located in Izmir, a city along the Aegean sea, where it very very rarely snows and temperatures dropping below 10 C is considered as a sign of doomsday.
Great post, thanks for the information hansomreiste!!We have made a great start by beating South Africa 10-0.
This will probably be a little bit off topic but I still would like to share my view on this thing, if anyone is interested,
Currently, as S E P H stated, we do not have many rinks nor money to splash around for hockey, but ice hockey improved a lot in recent years, I can tell you that for sure. We have relatively good rinks in Kocaeli, Izmir, Istanbul, Ankara and Erzurum and very small, local ones in many other cities, which are not suited for an ice hockey game or even training.
The biggest problem for Turkish community now is that ice hockey is a very expensive sport. We are almost totally foreign-dependent, which means we have to pay a lot for equipment and the ice itself. Statistics say that %55 of people in Turkey earn below starvation line. Well, that's a little weird because starvation line is way too high for Turkey, but still, that should give you an idea about how poor people are. To make it even clearer: Many unqualified people earn minimum wage which is now 1300 TL, equivalent of 390 Euros. Turkish lira lost a lot of value, not surprising at all considering how instable the country and our ******** government is. Teacher's wage, which is generally criticised for being very high (LOL) is around 700 Euros. On the other hand, a proper flat in a relatively safe district in Istanbul costs around 350 Euros.
So, if you are living in a small city, then you have no ice rink and you don't earn good money. If you are in a big city, then you are going to have to pay TOO MUCH for your life standards, rendering you unable to pay for ice hockey.
Today, in Turkey, the cheapest proper ice skates designed for ice hockey are at least 30 Euros. In Silivrikapi, the first olympic ice hall in the city of Istanbul, 45mins of free skating without instructor costs like 3 Euro. I don't even want to come up with ice hockey gears; even pro players generally buy them second-hand.
Mostly for economical reasons, Turkish families can't make their children go and learn ice hockey. It's a luxury only for the rich at the moment. We have no problem with cold actually; many cities in Turkey have natural places to skate in winter, but the thing is, only few people have ice skates. Because as I said, it's a very luxury thing and you have to put a real effort to buy them.
Though the future still looks good. People know and love ice hockey more and more. For example, my 12 year-old brother is fond of KHL and he has been both ice skating and watching ice hockey with me for more than 3 years.
A few years ago, we lived in a relatively small district, where we had an ice rink. Now, we are in an even smaller place, but the ice rink here is better. In fact, you can see many billboards around the town, calling kids to ice hockey rink to live more healthily and such stuff...
I am not sure how far we can go in ice hockey, but I can definitely say that we are still going forward.
It does suck to hear about the poverty in Turkey, but if hockey is able to be played in Kenya, Turkey has no excuse in terms of expanding. 
Would you say the economics in Turkey is very wide a part? Like if you're born in Turkey, you're either very rich or very poor? Or is similar in communism as everyone makes a certain amount while the very small percentage at the top make the most money off of the rest of the population?Don't forget how strict IIHF rules are in terms of international hockey. Each player to be qualified for a country has to have citizenship and play in that country for two years over the age of ten (I believe those are the major requirements). While if FIFA, all you need is citizenship and you can choose which country to play for. Its how Algerian football have a decent squad, they're able to develop and be born in France, but play for Algeria internationally. I would think if Turkish immigrants become great hockey players, we'll probably be seeing more Mesut Oezils' for Deutschland than Çalhanoğlu who was born in Germany, but plays for Turkey.
Would you say this region of Turkey is filled with perhaps a rich population of folks? That would make sense why the most modern rink is there. Hockey in United Arab Emirates has grown like 400% in two years and the reason why is because of how rich the population is. They're able to make indoor skiing centres with artificial snow.Exactly. In fact, recently, our women's team went to Germany for a training camp alongside with the head of the federation as far as I remember, to "keep it close" with Germany. Current level of ice hockey in Germany is much better than Turkey, so I believe a few players of Turkish origin who are not good enough for Germany could prefer Turkey and make us even better. At the moment, any little step forward is important for us. A few sides notes I would like to share,
* In December, two junior teams of Buz Korsanları SK (Ice Pirates Sports Club) took part in Santa Claus Cup in Hungary. Turkish children taking part in an international ice hockey tournament? Well, this is something none of us could have foreseen.
* Division II games of group B in 2016 IIHF Women's World Championships will be played in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, at Ankara Sports Hall. The thing is, this place, with the capacity of over 10,000 spectators, will be designed specially as an ice rink for this event.
* Currently there are six olympic ice hockey halls in Turkey where official ice hockey matches & trainings are held. Names and cities with seating capacity in brackets,
Aşık Veysel Ice Rink, İzmir (3500)
Erzurum Ice Rink for 3000 people, Erzurum
Kocaeli BB Olympic Ice Sports Hall, Kocaeli (2000)
Belpa Ice Skating Hall, Ankara (1500)
Silivrikapı Ice Rink, İstanbul (1000)
Erzurum Ice Rink for 500 people, Erzurum
Well obviously the guys in Erzurum didn't bother much about finding a name for their rinks, naming them directly with their capacities... It's interesting that our biggest and probably the most modern ice hall is located in Izmir, a city along the Aegean sea, where it very very rarely snows and temperatures dropping below 10 C is considered as a sign of doomsday.
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Losing 4-2 to Bulgaria ATM. Although to be fair, Bulgaria has a lot of interesting prospects.
It is worth noting that some of the players on the senior (and I'm guessing junior) Turkish team were born in the US (at least according to Wikipedia articles on them, which only someone close to the team would bother to create). They are ethnic Turks living (and playing) in Turkey, and obviously not even close to good enough to really be brought up here, but still worth noting that some expat Turks are coming back.
hansomreiste
Registered User
I don't know any of our boys personally but yes, many Turks playing ice hockey are somehow related to another country. Some are Turkish citizens with Russian & Ukrainian parents, some lived in USA or Europe as a child and learnt skating there etc. Best players of our clubs are foreigners, for example. You can easily tell the difference between them: While foreigners are very quick and strong, our boys look very slow and fragile. This is because most of them started skating at the age of 15 or so at best and have not hold a hockey stick before their teens. Even Turks who started skating at the age of 5 in Turkey are nowhere near 3rd or 4th division of, let's say, Swedish league caliber; because we do not have people or infrastructure to jump further.
Great post, thanks for the information hansomreiste!!
Thank you, my pleasure! I could definitely say the economics in Turkey play a big role in our current situation, where only middle to rich class can afford ice hockey. Turkey is actually two different cultures: Western and Eastern parts are like day and night. For example, while you can have a decent life in Erzurum with 350 Euros, you'd probably starve to death in Istanbul. Or, when you can drink beer with your friends at beach or park in Izmir or Istanbul, you can be beaten up in Erzurum for drinking beer.
Don't get my words wrong; I am not saying that Eastern part is bad or people there suck, but things are just working differently. Vision of world, economics, living standards etc... Erzurum was invested in heavily as Universiade 2011 was held there and we now have more than three ice hockey teams based there. But as I said, only "the rich" has the chance to practice ice hockey regularly. Sadly, in Eastern parts of the country, many children can't even get a proper education at school, let alone ice skating... In this regard, I believe that ice hockey has to be somehow cheaper or our economy in general should get better and better. Though I don't believe the second one will happen anytime soon, as we are possibly having the worst times of Republic. This must have been answered already but again, exactly. Western part of the country has much higher living standards, so more families and children can take up ice hockey, tennis etc; whereas almost none of Eastern children have those standards. More importantly, our major cities are situated in West and this is an important factor. I am sure you could produce some talents even in the poorest neighborhoods in East with a basic ice rink, but why invest there while you can do this in big and prosperous cities? That's pretty much the mindset. Unless the governor is an ice hockey or sports fan in general, it's highly unlikely that you will have an ice rink in your town. Even so, I have to say that I am surprised with the amount of ice rinks being built in recent years.
To speak of ice hockey in general... You can watch our U20 and Super League games live at buzhokeyitv.com, a legal streaming portal powered by our federation. As I previously stated, starting from tomorrow, Super League will be also covered on TV, which is a huge step in my opinion.
If you watch a few games, you will see the level of play is terribly poor here; but that's not surprising, considering we are now just taking baby steps. In fact, the university I study at used to pick almost anyone who can skate as an ice hockey player to train them.
At the moment I can skate but I have never played ice hockey. Due to my ankle injury, I've been away from ice skating for a long time. This summer, I guess I will be in Kiev for two months and I would like to spend that time ice skating in this beautiful city - possibly with help of the Ukrainians who are much better at skating than me.
After these two months, I can probably become a Super League player. This should give you an idea. Seriously... I am not kidding. Learn skating properly, take a stick at your hand and voila, you can be a legit player for any Turkish ice hockey team.
Of course, this will be not the case in next couple of years. I am really hopeful that our next generation will make us see at least Division II and Super League growing even more.
Worth noting the IIHF does have a link to a live stream on their site, but it's not working that well (I have had a little audio but no video at all). Hopefully they get that fixed, as there usually isn't video of this tournament.
hansomreiste
Registered User
Terrible choke in last period, giving away a 2-0 lead to Mexico and losing it all. 
It was not like we deserved to win though, it was Mexico who attacked more and played better. Our goaltender, Tolga Bozacı, once had a .945 save percentage and we conceded only 1 goal in PP, which is something I would take as a plus, considering our 24 penalty minutes with 12 minors. Yet again throwing lead in such a manner is unaccaptable, especially when your defense is what keeps you in game.
I really have no idea at all about other teams but I guess Bulgaria may be a tough opponent. I am wondering how well Mexico and Bulgaria will do, besides Turkey. By the way, I also have to say that I was impressed with the attendance. Sure it was not rocking but obviously Mexicans were interested in their national team's game. I hope NHL expansion into Mexico will become a reality soon, which would be a huge boost for Mexican hockey.
It was not like we deserved to win though, it was Mexico who attacked more and played better. Our goaltender, Tolga Bozacı, once had a .945 save percentage and we conceded only 1 goal in PP, which is something I would take as a plus, considering our 24 penalty minutes with 12 minors. Yet again throwing lead in such a manner is unaccaptable, especially when your defense is what keeps you in game.I really have no idea at all about other teams but I guess Bulgaria may be a tough opponent. I am wondering how well Mexico and Bulgaria will do, besides Turkey. By the way, I also have to say that I was impressed with the attendance. Sure it was not rocking but obviously Mexicans were interested in their national team's game. I hope NHL expansion into Mexico will become a reality soon, which would be a huge boost for Mexican hockey.
Turkey losing to New Zealand tonight is going to hurt their chances for promotion. I'll be bold here and say if Bulgaria can beat Mexico tomorrow (not impossible, Bulgaria has come out strong while Mexico only has two 1-goal wins) they will have enough of a lead to hold onto promotion. Though still lots of games left, and anything can happen at this level.
hansomreiste
Registered User
I think the first place is now set in stone with Mexico beating Bulgaria 3-0, solidifying their chances of promotion. New Zealand and Iceland maybe can cause problems to Mexico but they've dealt with every obstacle very well so far. The last game against South Africa is an automatic 3-point, so I'd say it's all good and almost totally irreversible for Mexico.
I am now more interested in who will take the second spot: Turkey, New Zealand or Bulgaria? We, even after playing 4 games, are still the team with the lowest amount of goals received, only 6 goals in total. Remaining games are against Bulgaria and Israel... I don't think we can get 6pts here at all. Even 4pts would be nice. Though I won't be surprised with any outcome, after giving away a 2-0 lead to Mexico and losing to New Zealand. Typical Turkish mentality, the lads have no consistency or discipline to play at their best. Anyway, I guess you could tolerate this at this age, especially considering their skill level.
I am now more interested in who will take the second spot: Turkey, New Zealand or Bulgaria? We, even after playing 4 games, are still the team with the lowest amount of goals received, only 6 goals in total. Remaining games are against Bulgaria and Israel... I don't think we can get 6pts here at all. Even 4pts would be nice. Though I won't be surprised with any outcome, after giving away a 2-0 lead to Mexico and losing to New Zealand. Typical Turkish mentality, the lads have no consistency or discipline to play at their best. Anyway, I guess you could tolerate this at this age, especially considering their skill level.
Well I was totally wrong here. Going to be a good fight until the end for promotion.
Bulgaria take themselves out of the second place race with a 4-3 loss to Israel today.
hansomreiste
Registered User
Bulgaria take themselves out of the second place race with a 4-3 loss to Israel today.
I believe it all depends on tonight's game, Bulgaria-Turkey. First place is definitely out of reach considering Mexico will play against South Africa but Turkey, Bulgaria, New Zealand and Israel still have their chances for second place, which essentially means nothing but pride - though I am not sure if the guys care about this. Iceland has chances but their schedule is tough so I don't think they can blend in.
One thing is for sure about this tournament: Mexico was surprisingly good, probably thanks to being hosts - they had good support from stands as well. Except for RSA who are really poor, all teams pretty much look similar - little things make the difference at this level and Mexico seems to be handling it better than others.
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