2018 Olympic Qualification Groups

[kabidjan18]

http://www.iihfworlds2015.com/en/news/olympic-qualification-set/
Group E is the group of death. Group F is the group of life, looks unfairly easy. NHL player involvement is not yet decided to my knowledge.

Click to read more...

 

[jonas2244]

Hm, the final qualification tournaments are in september (weren't they in February the last time?). Maybe NHL-players could play there, which would bring Denmark into consideration for a spot.

 

[garbageteam]

Group D is the bigger GoD IMO. Belarus unusually strong lately, Slovenia has proven that they can always surprise and Denmark at full strength is probably a top-10 country easily.

So the very first game is Bulgaria vs Georgia. This reminds me a bit of that extremely lengthy and convulsed process that FIFA has for its world cup.qualification.

 

[admire]

I still want to see if the teams allow them to go but if we are at full strength, we will qualify.

 

[Sanderson]

I'm not quite sure but didn't they wait one more year the last time around?

If I remember things correctly, the decision who automatically qualified for the Olympics and who would have to play the qualification tournaments came after the 2012 World Championship, meaning there was only one WCH between the decision and the Olympics. Using the same method, and with the next Olympics being in 2018, qualification shouldn't be set until after the 2016 World Championship, yet that isn't the case.

Why did they change this?

 

[Eagle Eye Cherry]

What are the groups? Who's in what group? The link didn't work for me.

 

[Moops]

Belarus-Slovenia-Denmark-Pre Qualifier
Latvia-Germany-Austria-Pre Qualifier
Norway-France-Kazhakstan-Pre Qualifier

 

[kabidjan18]

What are the groups? Who's in what group? The link didn't work for me.

Group D: Belarus, Denmark, Slovenia
Group E: Austria, Germany, Latvia
Group F: France, Kazakhstan, Norway

I think they did it because of complaints from teams like Germany who couldn't field their best team due to NHL commitments. What I don't like is the automatic entrance of team North Americans-playing-in-Korea. Oh well, can't change it now. And I think you can make the argument for group A though I think that's more of Slovenia's group of death but the argument can be made. Group F though is an obvious drop-off.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Group D: Belarus, Denmark, Slovenia
Group E: Austria, Germany, Latvia
Group F: France, Kazakhstan, Norway

I think they did it because of complaints from teams like Germany who couldn't field their best team due to NHL commitments. What I don't like is the automatic entrance of team North Americans-playing-in-Korea. Oh well, can't change it now. And I think you can make the argument for group A though I think that's more of Slovenia's group of death but the argument can be made. Group F though is an obvious drop-off.

Koreans will only have a few North American players. Last World Championships they had 3 born in North America. One who is a dual citizen but born in Korea.

 

[Eagle Eye Cherry]

I can't imagine korea's team being competitive at all at this tournament. They're gonna rely on Korean canadian players most likely. Like echl guys and so on.

Prolly get blown out like 30-0 each game. Imo, Korea shouldn't be in the main stage, perhaps the qualifier stage maybe.

 

[Eagle Eye Cherry]

Belarus-Slovenia-Denmark-Pre Qualifier
Latvia-Germany-Austria-Pre Qualifier
Norway-France-Kazhakstan-Pre Qualifier

So the winner of each group goes to the main tournament?

Do these qualify group games involve the teams playing each other once or twice?

I'm curious.

 

[kabidjan18]

Koreans will only have a few North American players. Last World Championships they had 3 born in North America. One who is a dual citizen but born in Korea.

Brock Radunske, Michael Swift, Bryan Young (he'll be back), and I actually called it a year ago, Mike Testwuide, and when the rolled out Testwuide they also said they intended to naturalized a goalie before the Olympics. Surprised they didn't naturalize Jeff Dimmen, he would be a good defenceman for them. Swift and Testwuide led scoring this world championships, and Radunske was fifth. Woo je sung who you mentioned is Canadian-Korean but he only got one point, a goal.

They play round Robin and the group winner advances.

 

[Jakk123]

I can't imagine korea's team being competitive at all at this tournament. They're gonna rely on Korean canadian players most likely. Like echl guys and so on.

Prolly get blown out like 30-0 each game. Imo, Korea shouldn't be in the main stage, perhaps the qualifier stage maybe.

I really doubt we are gonna see results like 30-0, but there are certainly gonna be blowouts against top6 teams.

 

[ThrashersfanSVK]

Why did they change this?

Intention was to allow NHL players to participate in qualification, as Denmark was hurt last time by the fact they didn't play with their NHL players in qualification. In this case it might be quite interesting if NHL players WILL play in qualifcation, however at Olympic tournament they WON'T play.

Anyway, we'll see whether NHL players will actually play in qualification as World Cup should be scheduled as well at the beginning of September 2016 and you never know whether NHL let them play in qualification of OG.

 

[airbus1094]

So the winner of each group goes to the main tournament?

Do these qualify group games involve the teams playing each other once or twice?

I'm curious.

It's a round-robin, each team plays each other once. Winner goes through.

 

[Moops]

Group D: Belarus, Denmark, Slovenia
Group E: Austria, Germany, Latvia
Group F: France, Kazakhstan, Norway

I think they did it because of complaints from teams like Germany who couldn't field their best team due to NHL commitments. What I don't like is the automatic entrance of team North Americans-playing-in-Korea. Oh well, can't change it now. And I think you can make the argument for group A though I think that's more of Slovenia's group of death but the argument can be made. Group F though is an obvious drop-off.

They base the groups off of post-IIHF 2015 world rankings, so they had the format set in stone before it was apparent that Germany would be in their particular group.

 

[Moops]

Intention was to allow NHL players to participate in qualification, as Denmark was hurt last time by the fact they didn't play with their NHL players in qualification. In this case it might be quite interesting if NHL players WILL play in qualifcation, however at Olympic tournament they WON'T play.

Anyway, we'll see whether NHL players will actually play in qualification as World Cup should be scheduled as well at the beginning of September 2016 and you never know whether NHL let them play in qualification of OG.

If I were a player, I think I'd rather represent my nation in an Olympic qualifier, than represent nobody in particular in a bigger but ultimately unwinnable tournament.

 

[garbageteam]

What are the groups? Who's in what group? The link didn't work for me.

You have to click "Continue reading" for the full details

 

[kabidjan18]

Just to try get these predictions rolling.
Assumed the presence of NHL players.
Denmark, Austria, Kazakhstan. I still feel every team in group E has a 33% chance to win...

 

[Namejs]

Group E is the toughest one also because the 4th team is going to be Hungary, which definitely has more skill than Japan or some of these other 3rd rate national teams. Hungary is also going to play in the Elite tier next year, so it's not going to be easy to qualify.

Although I wouldn't quite say that Austria is on par with Germany or Latvia, if all of their best players can come. Germany and Latvia are obviously going to be the 2 favorites there.

 

[RedLeaf099*]

Shame that Korea is taking one of the automatic spots.
Not really fair to Latvia, who i believe would have had it being ranked 9th overall.
Unless the rankings i saw were out of date.

 

[kabidjan18]

Group E is the toughest one also because the 4th team is going to be Hungary, which definitely has more skill than Japan or some of these other 3rd rate national teams. Hungary is also going to play in the Elite tier next year, so it's not going to be easy to qualify.

Although I wouldn't quite say that Austria is on par with Germany or Latvia, if all of their best players can come. Germany and Latvia are obviously going to be the 2 favorites there.

If you're barely worried by Austria, then Hungary isn't much to worry about. They played Austria in the world championship preparations and won both times, 4-2 and 4-3. Their championship was earlier so they had their entire championship lineup. Austria's EBEL playoffs hadn't finished yet so they were without players from the playoff teams. NHL players and their DEL and SHL goalies were not present but they did have one swiss league guy, the other who is their best defenceman was injured and didn't play in the championships. They showcased around 5 players under 20. The games were fairly close. I don't see any wild card teams really factoring, though perhaps Hungary could take a team to overtime and set up an unfavorable points situation for an unlucky team.

 

[EbencoyE]

Shame that Korea is taking one of the automatic spots.
Not really fair to Latvia, who i believe would have had it being ranked 9th overall.
Unless the rankings i saw were out of date.

Italy and Japan got automatic berths and they play in the same division as Korea. Would be even more unfair to the Koreans if they didn't get the same opportunity to play in their own Olympics.

Latvia, who barely avoided getting relegated into that same division with Korea, should have no problem qualifying if they are truly as good as you think.

 

[EbencoyE]

Group E is the toughest one also because the 4th team is going to be Hungary, which definitely has more skill than Japan or some of these other 3rd rate national teams. Hungary is also going to play in the Elite tier next year, so it's not going to be easy to qualify.

Although I wouldn't quite say that Austria is on par with Germany or Latvia, if all of their best players can come. Germany and Latvia are obviously going to be the 2 favorites there.

Austria can easily beat Germany as they often do, especially with their NHLers. Germany's NHL reinforcements will be far less effective I think. I'd say they both have about an equal shot at qualifying. Just depends on how Latvia does.

 

[EbencoyE]

I can't imagine korea's team being competitive at all at this tournament. They're gonna rely on Korean canadian players most likely. Like echl guys and so on.

Prolly get blown out like 30-0 each game. Imo, Korea shouldn't be in the main stage, perhaps the qualifier stage maybe.

ECHL players wouldn't be eligible to play for Korea unless they move there this year at some point and get citizenship after their necessary 2 years of playing there. Unless of course they're already Korean citizens who have played in Korea and are now playing in the ECHL - though I can't think of any.

The Asia League is about ECHL quality anyway, would make more sense to throw money at some AHLers instead.

I doubt we'll see many more naturalizations anyway though, besides a goalie which they desperately need as goaltending has always been their weakness.