2018 Olympic Qualification Groups

[RedLeaf099*]

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.

You totally took my comment out of context.

 

[EbencoyE]

You totally took my comment out of context.

How so? You said it was a shame Korea got an automatic spot, I said it would be a shame if they didn't. What was my misunderstanding?

Not every Olympics can be held in a country where the host is good enough to automatically qualify on performance. Just because the past two have doesn't mean Korea somehow robbed someone of a spot.

I don't mean to be overly defensive, but I feel Korea gets a lot of hate even though the teams have been decided the same way they always have.

 

[Urbanskog]

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.

Seriously? It's clear that Germany benefits the most from having the NHL'ers around.

 

[Bookker]

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.

Seriously? It's clear that Germany benefits the most from having the NHL'ers around.

+1
I think there is no discussion about that

 

[tony d]

Should be interesting. Still Korea's going to be an easy win for a lot of teams. Still as they are hosting the Olympics they should have a team in as many sports as possible.

 

[EbencoyE]

Seriously? It's clear that Germany benefits the most from having the NHL'ers around.

Yes, seriously. I would take Grabner, Vanek, and Nodl over some aging defensemen that will stand around on the blueline adding nothing much of value any day of the week.

Germany can't score goals at all - even with their NHLers. Doesn't matter who they have on the roster if the other team can score a goal or two they don't stand a chance. Germany's only hope would be a perfect performance from Griess or Grubauer.

 

[ozo]

Yes, seriously. I would take Grabner, Vanek, and Nodl over some aging defensemen that will stand around on the blueline adding nothing much of value any day of the week.

Germany can't score goals at all - even with their NHLers. Doesn't matter who they have on the roster if the other team can score a goal or two they don't stand a chance. Germany's only hope would be a perfect performance from Griess or Grubauer.

Nodl is 9th best scorer on his team in Austrian league

 

[EbencoyE]

Nodl is 9th best scorer on his team in Austrian league

Whoops, sorry I meant Raffl.

Though even Nodl is probably better than most of the German roster. Just look at the CHL, Austrian teams were great while German teams were a joke. Austria surpassed Germany a long time ago and it's just going to get worse because German hockey is a joke. How they continue to stay in the top division is quite the miracle. Austria just had bad luck of being in the tougher group while the worse Danes get to stay up.

 

[ozo]

Whoops, sorry I meant Raffl.

Though even Nodl is probably better than most of the German roster. Just look at the CHL, Austrian teams were great while German teams were a joke. Austria surpassed Germany a long time ago and it's just going to get worse because German hockey is a joke. How they continue to stay in the top division is quite the miracle. Austria just had bad luck of being in the tougher group while the worse Danes get to stay up.

I figured that it was an honest mistake, but you are really going overboard with your Germany hate. As bad as you think their hockey is, it clearly is better than Austrian. If consistently better WC finishes isn't enough, then U18 and U20 also suggests that their kids are superior to Austrian ones. Also I'd take Tobias Rider over any of Austrian forwards in the NHL, if not him, then probably Draisaitl in a year or two.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Whoops, sorry I meant Raffl.

Though even Nodl is probably better than most of the German roster. Just look at the CHL, Austrian teams were great while German teams were a joke. Austria surpassed Germany a long time ago and it's just going to get worse because German hockey is a joke. How they continue to stay in the top division is quite the miracle. Austria just had bad luck of being in the tougher group while the worse Danes get to stay up.

Have you seen the rosters of the Austrian teams in EBEL? Just like DEL in Germany, the level of EBEL teams is by no means a reflection of the level of Austrian hockey, it's rather a reflection of the North American imports that the teams can pay. There were only 8 Austrians in the top 50 of scoring this year:

http://www.eliteprospects.com/league.php?leagueid=Austria&season=2014

Doesn't mean that the Austrians can't beat Germany of course, but EBEL is hardly an argument in this.

 

[Namejs]

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.

Austria is weaker than both Germany and Latvia. It doesn't mean I'm 'barely worried', it just means they definitely don't have a 1 in 3 chance of qualifying.

As for Hungary, it's highly likely they're not going to qualify, but they're better than the other pre-qualification teams.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

Austria is weaker than both Germany and Latvia. It doesn't mean I'm 'barely worried', it just means they definitely don't have a 1 in 3 chance of qualifying.

As for Hungary, it's highly likely they're not going to qualify, but they're better than the other pre-qualification teams.

Probably yes, however looking at their pre-qualification group, they're in a group with Poland and them losing to Poland isn't absolutely out of the question.

Group G could be rather interesting if the Italians continue to play with mainly home grown players as they did last WC IA, their advance might not be a sure fire thing either.

 

[Namejs]

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.

We barely avoided getting relegated, that's interesting.

Korea got destroyed by teams like Ukraine and Hungary the last time they made it to Div IA. Even trying to compare them with Latvia is ludicrous.

The last time Latvia met Korea we defeated them 28-0.

 

[Namejs]

Whoops, sorry I meant Raffl.

Though even Nodl is probably better than most of the German roster. Just look at the CHL, Austrian teams were great while German teams were a joke. Austria surpassed Germany a long time ago and it's just going to get worse because German hockey is a joke. How they continue to stay in the top division is quite the miracle. Austria just had bad luck of being in the tougher group while the worse Danes get to stay up.

[Mod]

Austrian hockey is not even close to German hockey, if we're talking about their national teams.

 

[Bookker]

Whoops, sorry I meant Raffl.

Though even Nodl is probably better than most of the German roster. Just look at the CHL, Austrian teams were great while German teams were a joke. Austria surpassed Germany a long time ago and it's just going to get worse because German hockey is a joke. How they continue to stay in the top division is quite the miracle. Austria just had bad luck of being in the tougher group while the worse Danes get to stay up.

Like everyone said, again, Germany is way better than Austria.

I don't know from where this anger against Germans come from [Mod]

 

[AwesomePanthers]

If Norway doesn't win that group..

 

[GKJ]

If NHL players go, and they will go, will the teams in the final qualification round be able to use NHL players? In that scenario, it's hard to see Denmark not making it out of that group.

 

[Namejs]

I don't mean to be overly defensive, but I feel Korea gets a lot of hate even though the teams have been decided the same way they always have.

They get a lot of hate, because they aren't good enough for the Olympics and shouldn't play there. Buying mercenaries from abroad surely doesn't help either.

Bringing up Japan as a comparison doesn't make any sense, as they only played in the qualification round. Bringing up Italy doesn't make any sense either, as they were a part of the Elite tier at that point and had a number of top 10 finishes and play-off berths in the Elite tier a few years before the Olympics in Torino. If my memory serves me well, they actually beat the US in the late 90s or early 2000s.

 

[Namejs]

If NHL players go, and they will go, will the teams in the final qualification round be able to use NHL players? In that scenario, it's hard to see Denmark not making it out of that group.

Even if all of their NHL players are going to be available, it's not going to be a walk in the park for Denmark. They're not THAT good. It's going to be very close and it's hard to tell whether they're even going to be the favorites in the game against Belarus.

 

[kabidjan18]

There's no doubt that Austria has better quality NHL players, but that's comparing 7 German NHLers (including David Wolf) to 3 Austrian and 3 German AHL players to maybe none and that's before we consider Leon Draisaitl so I totally get where you're coming from and it's not that ridiculous but Vanek, Grabner, and Raffl usually play on the same line, nicknamed the power line or something to that effect and one line can only play what, a third of the game, so you're probably not right and it's not too close either. Austria is definitely getting help with Michael Wolf retiring and Austria has done favorably recently against Germany but still, it's not an even battle without big contributions from big players. Those who quote Nodl's stats do remember right that he was injured for a while and played less games than 8 of his teammates...I'll leave it at that. I didn't notice the point long ago where Austria passed Germany, recently it's been getting closer but long ago it wasn't close at all.

 

[airbus1094]

If Norway doesn't win that group..

We'll give a fight especially with our NA imports of bochenski dawes and dallman (I hate the fact that they're playing on the NT, but they definitely improve the team). That Nor-Kaz game will be exciting.

 

[kabidjan18]

We'll give a fight especially with our NA imports of bochenski dawes and dallman (I hate the fact that they're playing on the NT, but they definitely improve the team). That Nor-Kaz game will be exciting.

I really feel like Norway is fading. It would be the weakest team in Group E, and arguably Group D as well. That's why it's the group of life. I would say Kazakhstan wins that one.

 

[slovakiasnextone]

I really feel like Norway is fading. It would be the weakest team in Group E, and arguably Group D as well. That's why it's the group of life. I would say Kazakhstan wins that one.

Kazakhstan is the one who is fading and only the NA imports are what gives them a chance. Their team at this year's WC had an average age of 29,32 years.

The core of Norway's team isn't getting any younger either but the up and comming players they have are far superior to Kazakhstan. 24 year old forward Andreas Martinsen just signed a contract with the Avs recently, I don't think we will see that happening with any Kazakh player anytime soon. Also, Mats Zuccarello should be playing for them as well.

Of course doesn't mean that beating Kazakhstan and France will be a walk in the park for Norway either, but I'd say they are slight favourites to win the group.

 

[Apari]

I really hate the fact that there's only 3 games in the final qualifying stage. I would've liked to see a home and home against every team in the group or only once against everyone and then 2 best teams would play a best-of-three series... It would've been much more fair system but I'm not sure if there was enough time and will to do it? It would've been a week long qualifying.

 

[GotTheMovesLikeJagr]

Kazakhstan is the one who is fading and only the NA imports are what gives them a chance. Their team at this year's WC had an average age of 29,32 years.

The core of Norway's team isn't getting any younger either but the up and comming players they have are far superior to Kazakhstan. 24 year old forward Andreas Martinsen just signed a contract with the Avs recently, I don't think we will see that happening with any Kazakh player anytime soon. Also, Mats Zuccarello should be playing for them as well.

Of course doesn't mean that beating Kazakhstan and France will be a walk in the park for Norway either, but I'd say they are slight favourites to win the group.

And don't forget other talents, like 19-year old defenseman Mattias Nørstebø. So a group of talented young guys in their early-mid 20s (Nørstebø, Martinsen, Ken André Olimb, Trettenes, Volden, Søberg)guys in their late 20s-early 30s (Holøs, Haugen, Zuccarello, Tollefsen, Thoresen, Mathis Olimb) would probably (and hopefully) win that group. But they have to play disciplined and not underestimate neither France nor Kazakhstan.

We'll get a chance to test ourselves against the latest Kazakh team at the next IIHF World Championship. Probably a good thing since we haven't played them since we last beat them at the 2009 Olympic qualification tournament (which, coincidentally, also comprised of France).