World Cup: 2016 World Cup — Team Czech Republic

[Eye of Ra]

Milan Michálek? Hahahaha Jesus.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Pastrňák - Krejčí - Voráček
Palát - Plekanec - Hemský
Hertl - Sobotka - Frolík
Faksa - Hanzal - Michálek
Jaškin

Michálek - Šustr
Kempný - Polák
Jordán - Gudas
Nakládal

Neuvirth
Mrázek
Pavelec

Who will play on our PP? 5 forwards?

Hanzal should play 3C and Sobotka should be 4C.

Jaskin over Michalek.

Maybe not a lot of offense but they will be one of the most toughest defenses to play against with physical guys like Gudas Polak and Sustr on each pairing. Kind of scary actually.

Sustr is big, but not physical.

 

[Swipes]

Glad to see Hemsky and Faksa make it. They should play together. Jaskin? Ok, don't mind that. Not sure about Michalek though, I'd rather have Hudler. But I get that he wasn't picked, he hasn't had a good season. But neither has Michalek, but whatever.

Otherwise, looks good. Looking forward to it!

 

[Inno]

Where is King Elias heehee

 

[czechcanadian]

I actually think this team could do some damage. Our only real weakness is defence or offensively gifted defenseman.
But Gudas was pretty good on the powerplay in Philedelphia. He was played regularly on it and mostly in the playoffs. Polak or Kempny would likely join him.

Defensively they'll be completely fine.

Offensively it looks quite good. Voracek, Hanzal, Hertl, Hemsky, Palat, Plekanec, Krejci, Frolik are all really good players in the NHL. Would have liked to see Vrana though.

Wouldnt be surprised to see this team take a medal. Lets go boys! cant wait!

 

[Pandaman11]

Different roles.

Yes, Michalek's role is being useless

 

[Pandaman11]

Hertl - Plekanec - Voracek
Palat - Krejci - Pastrnak
Sobotka - Hanzal - Frolik
Michalek - Faksa - Hemsky
Jaskin

Gudas - Michalek
Kempny - Sustr
Jordan - Polak
Nakladal

Mrazek
Neuvirth
Pavelec

 

[tade]

Czech "B" Team.

Hudler-Zacha-Vrbata
Cervenka-Kovar-Vrana
Elias-Nestrasil-Pribyl
Simon-Filippi-Birner
Kaspar / Fleischmann / Sekac

Jerabek-Mozik
Simek-Kolar
Kindl-Kundratek
Zidlicky

Furch
Francouz
Salak

 

[moropanov]

How would this Czech team fare in best of 7 series vs Swe? Usa? Rus? Fin?

 

[Jablkon]

Am I right that on paper this is for the first time since 72 when BOB comp. started when we have to be worried about quality gap between us and other top nations, mostly because our horrible defence but also because of quite average offense?

I watched some matches from CC87 where Canada had quite a stacked team with Lemieux , Gretzky, Messier etc...Czech team was full of players who could possibly play in NHL, however there was no star in the team except Hasek. Still guys like Ruzicka, Hrdina, Pasek etc. was capable to play that type of hockey that canadian top Ds sometimes looked like pilons. That was exactly the reason why I was never concerned about czech hockey school even if Canada was always able to win that matches.

I dont know how they will prepare to this tourney but being honest when I read interview with MRazek today, where he said "we are going to enjoy it there", I was like "you dont know what is national team about". Weak team who is going to enjoy it there....nice.... This is the era of enjoyment, salary caps and arbitrations..... Dont know whether such an attitude can bring us any success.

They should all watch our match against russians from 81 CC. We had been loosing 0:4 after 30 minutes. No one from our team looked they enjoyed it but they were chasing russians all the way around and never missed the opportunity to hit them that entire building rooted for us.....Last time I saw that attitude in our team was CC04 and partially WC2010, both under special circumstances. It would be nice to see it from the 1st minute of this tourney....

 

[MNRube]

Since WC is already a gimmick tournament, I think it would have been fun to see a "Czechoslovakian" team.

Palat-Krejci-Jagr (
Hertl-Plekanec-Voracek
Hossa-Hanzal-Pastrnyk
Frolik-Sobotka-Gaborik/Tatar

Chara-Sekera
Gudas-Michalek
Marincin-Sustr

Mrazek
Neuvirth/Halak

 

[Scotty B]

Since WC is already a gimmick tournament, I think it would have been fun to see a "Czechoslovakian" team.

Palat-Krejci-Jagr (
Hertl-Plekanec-Voracek
Hossa-Hanzal-Pastrnyk
Frolik-Sobotka-Gaborik/Tatar

Chara-Sekera
Gudas-Michalek
Marincin-Sustr

Mrazek
Neuvirth/Halak

Wow! Never thought of that...Could it be done, say, with a neutral brain-trust picking the roster?

 

[MNRube]

Wow! Never thought of that...Could it be done, say, with a neutral brain-trust picking the roster?

Sure, that would make sense. Just have Jagr do it. I think they could compete with US/Sweden/Finland/Russia

 

[Booster*]

So the Czech team is the underdog according to most ratings, do you like that role? Does it fit your mentality as well as it does the finnish? No pressure, any success is more than expected, it should make it easier to just relax and play focused.

 

[Jablkon]

So the Czech team is the underdog according to most ratings, do you like that role? Does it fit your mentality as well as it does the finnish? No pressure, any success is more than expected, it should make it easier to just relax and play focused.

Well, this does not even look like underdogs, they look like bunch of loosers in that predictions. So I hope that makes them really p....ed and super motivated. Generally we like this position, we dont handle that good with position of medal contender when preassure is on us. (see last quarter in WHC against USA)

However the situation here is bit different. We were considered as underdogs in 98 in NA media. Still guys were pretty confident they could win it. This was valid basically every time till Van 2010. After last two OGs and not exactly bright situation in our hockey, we know we can not be ranked high and we would need really extra effort to succeed there. Still nothing impossible..

I would even say this is too much paper predictions....But it can just help us to be motivated, so not a big deal..

 

[Rexor]

Those nhl.com ratings are beyond insulting. If they think we're this bad, they should've invited Angola instead.

Czechs usually love being underdogs, the NHL didn't do us any favors by throwing the team against the U.S. and Canada though. I believe our chances would be somewhat better against Finland or Russia but playing North American teams on small ice is going to be tough.

 

[Wooren]

Those nhl.com ratings are beyond insulting. If they think we're this bad, they should've invited Angola instead.

Czechs usually love being underdogs, the NHL didn't do us any favors by throwing the team against the U.S. and Canada though. I believe our chances would be somewhat better against Finland or Russia but playing North American teams on small ice is going to be tough.

Agree. Those ratings would make a eventual win over Can/Usa even sweeter. We all know how likely that win is though...

The groups suck, it couldn't be more obvious it's all set for Usa v Can final. Put them in the same group so they can't meet in semis against the two weakest teams in the tournament (on paper) for easy advance. Lame

Honestly I was more excited for the Hlinka Memorial Cup than this tournament.

 

[Scotty B]

Agree. Those ratings would make a eventual win over Can/Usa even sweeter. We all know how likely that win is though...

The groups suck, it couldn't be more obvious it's all set for Usa v Can final. Put them in the same group so they can't meet in semis against the two weakest teams in the tournament (on paper) for easy advance. Lame

Honestly I was more excited for the Hlinka Memorial Cup than this tournament.

What were they supposed to do...put NA-u24 in same group as Can/USA? How about one of RUS or Sweden, so that 3 of the top 4 teams were in same group? Would that be any better?

Finland and Sweden are natural rivals who will meet for sure in round robin? Ditto Canada vs USA. Chances are, both those games will be must wins for somebody

I think tourney organizers did fine in picking the groups...But if you think you can do better...let's hear yours?

 

[Jablkon]

What were they supposed to do...put NA-u24 in same group as Can/USA? How about one of RUS or Sweden, so that 3 of the top 4 teams were in same group? Would that be any better?

Finland and Sweden are natural rivals who will meet for sure in round robin? Ditto Canada vs USA. Chances are, both those games will be must wins for somebody

I think tourney organizers did fine in picking the groups...But if you think you can do better...let's hear yours?

Are you serious? They should draw groups, thats all. But for sure they didnt...

 

[Swipes]

Those nhl.com ratings are beyond insulting. If they think we're this bad, they should've invited Angola instead.

Czechs usually love being underdogs, the NHL didn't do us any favors by throwing the team against the U.S. and Canada though. I believe our chances would be somewhat better against Finland or Russia but playing North American teams on small ice is going to be tough.

Yeah, they're annoying me too...

I mean, they keep releasing articles about "the best defense", the "best PP" "the best F" etc and we're always ranked at the bottom with barely any points. I mean we're not great, but that bad?

Thankfully the game isn't played on paper.

 

[Scotty B]

Are you serious? They should draw groups, thats all. But for sure they didnt...

When there's a sizeable number of competing teams, and when there's qualifying games to make things even fairer, trusting to the luck of the draw maybe makes sense...But let's say, they held a draw and one group wound up CAN, USA, RUS, & NA-Youngsters...

Ten times as many fans would be really PO'd...

Czechs aren't happy playing in the same group as Canada, USA...But that Yank team is weakened by missing youngsters ( + Kessel snub imo )= ripe for the picking, plus Team Euro is NOBODIES pick for the finals!

The OTHER group of RUS, SWE, FIN, NA-U24, is THE GROUP OF DEATH...So QUITCHER*****IN

 

[Swipes]

I wonder what happens if Krejci doesn't end up playing....do you guys reckon they call up Hudler?

 

[czech_mate]

Rumors are it'll be Andrej Nestrašil.

 

[Swipes]

Rumors are it'll be Andrej Nestrašil.

Oh really? I thought he was recovering from a nasty back injury or something. I'm not sure he'd be fit on time will he?

 

[Wooren]

I wonder what happens if Krejci doesn't end up playing....do you guys reckon they call up Hudler?

As czech_mate mentoined, Nestrasil would be likely the one. He recovered much better than expected and he would be fit for the World Cup. Either way, I really wish Krejci will be fit, he is our best player.

By the way, why couldn't we nominate Nestrasil and eventually replace him if he couldn't go? Was there some rule you can't nominate injured players or...?