World Cup: 2016 World Cup — Team Europe

[Hardyvan123]

No what I mean was, Slovakia can nearly fill an entire roster with player signed to NHL contracts. They have several guys in the AHL who have NHL contracts, making them part of the NHLPA.

Current slovaks in North America signed to NHL contracts:

Forwards:
Marian Hossa
Marian Gaborik
Tomas Tatar
Marko Dano
Tomas Jurco
Richard Panik
Marek Hrivik
Marek Tvrdon

Defensemen:
Zdeno Chara
Andrej Sekera
Martin Marincin
Martin Gernat
Erik Cernak

Goalies:
Jaroslav Halak

Currently on try-outs:
Lubomir Visnovsky
Tomas Kopecky
Andrej Meszaros
Peter Budaj

Martin Reway and Peter Cehlarik are probably going to be in North America under NHL contracts next year. I might have forgotten someone too.

If it's true the NHL only want players within the NHLPA in the World Cup, I think Slovakia should be allowed to participate with these players, and fill in the few remaining holes with slovaks playing in Europe. Likely a couple of the euro league players would impress enough on the world stage on the small ice surface, and get signed to NHL contracts. Then maybe they could fill an entire NHLPA roster next World Cup. Same thing with Switzerland.

Looking at that lineup it's easy to see that they would not be able to compete very well and why would people pay a lot of money to see this team?

No offense but a team Europe that can actually compete in this tournament makes a lot more sense for the NHL and NHLPA.

 

[Elvs]

Looking at that lineup it's easy to see that they would not be able to compete very well and why would people pay a lot of money to see this team?

No offense but a team Europe that can actually compete in this tournament makes a lot more sense for the NHL and NHLPA.

A team with Tatar, Hossa, Gaborik, Chara, Sekera and Halak could beat anyone. You get a couple of goals from them, another goal from some other player, and hope the others can keep the puck of their own net.

Most fans are casual and cares about countries, not players. Canadiens pay to see world junior games. European leagues fill their arenas with less talented teams than Slovakias international team. I'm sure Toronto wouldn't have problems filling an arena in the World Cup.

 

[xxxx]

A team with Tatar, Hossa, Gaborik, Chara, Sekera and Halak could beat anyone. You get a couple of goals from them, another goal from some other player, and hope the others can keep the puck of their own net.

No, it couldn't. They lost 1-7 to the US and 1-3 to Slovenia in Sochi. Are those the results that you see from a competitive team?

 

[Maverick41]

Personally, I would cheer harder for, and be more invested in a Swiss team, than a Team Europe with a couple of German players.

Which is a bit weird since I follow mostly just the German players in the NHL regardless of the teams they're playing for, but when it comes to international competition I just can't really care about such a fantasy team.

But if they make the promised changes for the next tournament and this is really just a one off, then it's not so bad.

 

[Elvs]

No, it couldn't. They lost 1-7 to the US and 1-3 to Slovenia in Sochi. Are those the results that you see from a competitive team?

2010 Olympics:
W 2-1 (SO) vs Russia
L 1-3 vs Czech Republic
W 4-3 vs Sweden (Quarter final)
L 2-3 (SO) vs Canada (Semi final)
L 3-5 vs Finland (Bronze game)

2014 Olympics:
L 1-7 vs USA
L 0-1 (SO) vs Russia

Outside of one big loss against USA, does that look like a nation that isn't competitive against the best nations in the world? Won against Russia and Sweden, and took games against Canada and Russia to the shootout.

The Slovenia game holds little value, unless you are argueing that Slovakia is at Slovenia's level in hockey. In that case I wouldn't know what to tell you. Slovakia had a bad tournament while Slovenia had an incredibly good one, trailing only one goal against both Russia and Sweden after two periods.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

2010 Olympics:
W 2-1 (SO) vs Russia
L 1-3 vs Czech Republic
W 4-3 vs Sweden (Quarter final)
L 2-3 (SO) vs Canada (Semi final)
L 3-5 vs Finland (Bronze game)

2014 Olympics:
L 1-7 vs USA
L 0-1 (SO) vs Russia

Outside of one big loss against USA, does that look like a nation that isn't competitive against the best nations in the world? Won against Russia and Sweden, and took games against Canada and Russia to the shootout.

The Slovenia game holds little value, unless you are argueing that Slovakia is at Slovenia's level in hockey. In that case I wouldn't know what to tell you. Slovakia had a bad tournament while Slovenia had an incredibly good one, trailing only one goal against both Russia and Sweden after two periods.

I'm not one to b easily optimistic about team Slovakia, but still I do believe that the performance in Sochi was heavily influenced by the off-ice issues in the form of the Satan vs. Chara feud and the surrounding media hysteria back home.

Then again with the current fight between the players and the federation, who knows what the off-ice situation will be next summer...

 

[xxxx]

2010 Olympics:
W 2-1 (SO) vs Russia
L 1-3 vs Czech Republic
W 4-3 vs Sweden (Quarter final)
L 2-3 (SO) vs Canada (Semi final)
L 3-5 vs Finland (Bronze game)

2014 Olympics:
L 1-7 vs USA
L 0-1 (SO) vs Russia

Outside of one big loss against USA, does that look like a nation that isn't competitive against the best nations in the world? Won against Russia and Sweden, and took games against Canada and Russia to the shootout.

The Slovenia game holds little value, unless you are argueing that Slovakia is at Slovenia's level in hockey. In that case I wouldn't know what to tell you. Slovakia had a bad tournament while Slovenia had an incredibly good one, trailing only one goal against both Russia and Sweden after two periods.

First, in 2010, Slovakia lost the semifinal in regulation time, not in OT or SO. But mainly, it all was 5.5 years ago and that team is not nearly as strong as it was. If Slovakia was as strong as back then, I'm pretty sure the NHL would have to make a room for them.

The game against Slovenia in Sochi doesn't say nothing else than that they lost to them.

 

[QnebO]

Some one arguing again that leftovers and u23 is better idea than Slovaks and Swiss?

Try to turn water into whine while you're at it.

 

[mattihp]

of course some non-NHL players will make the rosters. Russia will have some KHL players, and I'm pretty sure the Czechs, Finland, and possibly Team Europe too.

For the real countries the federations will pay for the insurances like last time around.

Will NHL pay the insurances for non-NHL players on a team invented by the NHL?

Makes no sense as the tournament's objective is to show off the NHL. Why add extra costs for something that decreases the value?

The team would be more competitive with Thoresen etc. sure. But it would not be such a huge difference that it is worth paying for it when they are already paying for insurances on NHLers through the PA...

 

[jeru]

Interview with Reidl on nhl.com, only found the german interview..

http://www.nhl.com/ice/de/news.htm?id=779411

the part that scares me, is this : .."Das sind rund zwölf Nationen. Unser Ziel ist es, möglichst viele Nationen im Team zu haben."

so it looks like that not only the quality of the players from these countries is important, is important as well to put as many nationalities as possible. As far as i understand this, if Satan and Krueger select the strongest 23-man rooster out of the 53 players available and the rooster would look like :10 slovaks, 10 swiss, 1 slovene, 1 austrian and 1 dane - they would not go with this Team to the World Cup - but put instead some french, beloruss, german etc. players in to represent as many countries as possible.

1st priority is NOT to put the best, strongest and most skilled Team out of the leftover europeans, but to represent as many countries as possible- ideally 12.

so, now tell me again that this Team will be better than the slovacks and/or swiss. pathetic

 

[Deutschland Dangler]

Interview with Reidl on nhl.com, only found the german interview..

http://www.nhl.com/ice/de/news.htm?id=779411

the part that scares me, is this : .."Das sind rund zwölf Nationen. Unser Ziel ist es, möglichst viele Nationen im Team zu haben."

so it looks like that not only the quality of the players from these countries is important, is important as well to put as many nationalities as possible. As far as i understand this, if Satan and Krueger select the strongest 23-man rooster out of the 53 players available and the rooster would look like :10 slovaks, 10 swiss, 1 slovene, 1 austrian and 1 dane - they would not go with this Team to the World Cup - but put instead some french, beloruss, german etc. players in to represent as many countries as possible.

1st priority is NOT to put the best, strongest and most skilled Team out of the leftover europeans, but to represent as many countries as possible- ideally 12.

so, now tell me again that this Team will be better than the slovacks and/or swiss. pathetic

Of course, this is all about marketing. They don't even pretend to try and make this legitimate.

 

[Maverick41]

Interview with Reidl on nhl.com, only found the german interview..

http://www.nhl.com/ice/de/news.htm?id=779411

the part that scares me, is this : .."Das sind rund zwölf Nationen. Unser Ziel ist es, möglichst viele Nationen im Team zu haben."

so it looks like that not only the quality of the players from these countries is important, is important as well to put as many nationalities as possible. As far as i understand this, if Satan and Krueger select the strongest 23-man rooster out of the 53 players available and the rooster would look like :10 slovaks, 10 swiss, 1 slovene, 1 austrian and 1 dane - they would not go with this Team to the World Cup - but put instead some french, beloruss, german etc. players in to represent as many countries as possible.

1st priority is NOT to put the best, strongest and most skilled Team out of the leftover europeans, but to represent as many countries as possible- ideally 12.

so, now tell me again that this Team will be better than the slovacks and/or swiss. pathetic

While I agree with what you are saying in general. I would add 1 Norwegian (Zuccarello) to list of players who should make the team if they were looking for the best possible roster.

But obviously they can't have too many Swiss and Slovak players on the team, even when they are better than candidates from other countries. Because if they did, even somewhat casual fans would be wondering why they didn't get their own teams, and of course, as it has already been pointed out, they hope that the more countries are represented the more countries will be interested in this tournament.

Naturally that won't work because in most of those countries hockey is such a marginal sport that only a tiny number of people will care about it. Really not worth the trouble.

 

[ForumNamePending]

First, in 2010, Slovakia lost the semifinal in regulation time, not in OT or SO. But mainly, it all was 5.5 years ago and that team is not nearly as strong as it was. If Slovakia was as strong as back then, I'm pretty sure the NHL would have to make a room for them.

The game against Slovenia in Sochi doesn't say nothing else than that they lost to them.

It's fair to say 5 years ago Slovakia was stronger than they are now but, Nah... if the NHL controlled the Olympics and ran it in the same fashion as their WCup is being run I think there's a pretty good chance the Slovaks don't get an invite in '10. It's easy to say after the fact that Slovakia had a impressive team in Vancouver, but heading into the tournament no one was expecting anything from them and most figured at best they were a tricky out in the QFs and at worst cannon fodder.

The '10 team featured only 13 NHLers (and outside of Hossa, Gaborik, Chara and Visnovsky they weren't exactly high end NHL players either) so right there, based on how the '16 WCup is being run, you got to figure the NHL wouldn't be all that interested in having Slovakia there. I'm sure the NHL would have much rathered had a NA U23 team featuring the likes of Crosby, Toews, Kane, Kessel and Doughty over a team with players like Lubos Bartecko and Milan Jurcina.

 

[Corax]

So, and now as we consolidate, I would I ask Admin to apply the same rules for trolling in Team Europe thread as if it was any other team.

And to these hockey coaches, you might not understand that team is not only about few stars on the team, it is also about how big holes the rest of team creates.

What does it matter that you top scorer is a star when you completely lose momentum being down 0:3 while having the weak part out on the ice? So the question is always how bad the worse players are.

With balanced teams, the coach has a question how to match lines of opposition.

With one line team, he can create classic checker line out of best defensive forwards, which on these tournaments are NHL stars capable of scoring 20+ goals,
and then he can put the offensive cannonade on the week lines. Because Slovakia has weak lines and I am talking not weak offensively but also weak for checking roles.

 

[Faterson]

the Satan vs. Chara feud

That feud is my last remaining hope that Slovak players will end up boycotting the Mickey Mouse Cup after all. Å atan is the GM, but that may end up being exactly the reason for Chára to refuse to join the team. Chára is a big pal with Hossa and Gáborík, as well as other players from the Trenčín area (like Tatar), so a boycott is still possible. Å atan wouldn't deserve such a treatment, but neither did the legacy of the formerly great Canada Cup deserve to be tarnished by such a clownish exhibition tourney.

 

[Faterson]

so it looks like that not only the quality of the players from these countries is important, is important as well to put as many nationalities as possible.

If that were so, and political correctness would turn out to be the main criterion for selecting the roster, that would give the perfect excuse to Šatan to resign his GM post well ahead of the event, which would be the ideal scenario to me.

Slovaks should just stay away completely from this travesty, in any shape or form. This is not how you treat the nation of hockey World Champions, and it's not like that was 100 years ago – some players from that 2002 gold team are still active players today, like Nagy, who could certainly be valuable even on a Slovakia team composed predominantly of current NHL-ers.

 

[xxxx]

First: I feel insulted as a Slovak hockey fan.
Second: The Slovak ice-hockey association should officialy prostest this tournament or something like that.
Third and mostly: I do believe, nonono, I do know, that the most of eligible slovak players - probably all of them - will boycott this tournament. Suddenly they start to be injured, families, whatever.

Book it.

Satan is the GM, haha. I'm pretty sure there will be a lot Slovaks going.

 

[Faterson]

Satan is the GM, haha. I'm pretty sure there will be a lot Slovaks going.

Before you laugh, read about the recent Šatan vs. Chára feud. I've just mentioned it above. The two weren't on speaking terms for something like 2 years. You, obviously, have never heard about it.

 

[ForumNamePending]

Before you laugh, read about the recent Šatan vs. Chára feud. I've just mentioned it above. The two weren't on speaking terms for something like 2 years. You, obviously, have never heard about it.

Wasn't Chara at the recent press conference? If so I would take that as a sign that he plans to participate.

 

[Faterson]

Yeah, officially, perhaps. There may be a spate of sudden "injuries" just before the event. There are ways of avoiding this travesty if it can't be done freely and openly.

 

[FiLe]

The thing we know is that some people who have posted in this thread will look very silly a year from now.

We just can't say yet who exactly they'll be. Still, I'd be inclined to listen the other European posters, who may be better educated about the old continent's mentality towards these games.

 

[Corax]

The thing we know is that some people who have posted in this thread will look very silly a year from now.

We just can't say yet who exactly they'll be. Still, I'd be inclined to listen the other European posters, who may be better educated about the old continent's mentality towards these games.

No one ever followed this in Slovakia. Very few people were following NHL in old days, people lived from IIHF tournaments.
I started to follow NHL just one year after World Cup, by downloading caped games from closed illegal sharing community that recorded games and posted them to share sides. Then ESPN360 came out as web service. This service was for hardcore people as even though they promised archives, it took another 2 years before they implemented them.
I can tell you, no-Slovak people we in these communities, maybe until 2007 when first people with Slovak flags started to appear.
In old days people in Slovakia used to think of NHL as crappy concept as players play only for money there. But do they? Or is there any pride to play for Atlanta Trashers Maybe Hossa was not trying at all

This concept might not survive, but I don't see NHL in the future doing a classification rounds. People should just enjoy the hockey, Team Slovakia would not make me proud anyway. I even don't care if some players don't come. But that Streit complains about the format comical. German team at World Cup? Woow, that would be a treat for real hockey fun.

 

[jeru]

But that Streit complains about the format comical. German team at World Cup? Woow, that would be a treat for real hockey fun.

Actually is probably a waste of time to arguing with you but...Marc Streit is SWISS! and he has all the rights to complain about this format. For the younger Swiss players, like Josi - Niederreiter-Hiller , they will join the team if they receive an inventation. If not, they will crack under Bettmann's pressure. These guys are not really "character heads" anyways, so solidarity means not to much to them.

Streit is another case. As Captain of the Swiss National Team he has some solidarity to his National Team Teammates. I would not be surprised if he will refuse to join Team "Europe". He has, comparing to the younger guys, nothing to loose.

 

[FiLe]

One thing I will be doing this spring with the WHC is cheering Slovakia and/or Switzerland to repeat the runs they had in '12 and '13. And it's an extremely long shot, I know, but it would be extra sweet if one of 'em actually managed to win it all.

I mean, imagine watching Bettman squirming while answering the question as to why the reigning World Champions (or even medallists) were not deemed to good enough to have their own team in this show.

 

[jeru]

I mean, imagine watching Bettman squirming while answering the question as to why the reigning World Champions (or even medallists) were not deemed to good enough to have their own team in this show.

Don't worry...he will explain that by the Size of the Ice and the lack of NHL players at the tournament. He was insulting to these 2 nations before, so nothing will stop him to do it again.