So a couple of Canadians and a Russian scored for the team with Swedish goaltender and Belarusian head coach.
WC: 2019 Division I, II, III
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Both games in wich Romania will have problems. Ukraina is not so easy to win, especially becouse now for the first time ont this tournament Romania is favorite....and Netherland will have one full line from Tilburg...so not so easy tasks. Romania will lose some points for sure...Still Poland or Japan is favorite to me..
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I wouldn't read into Lubys starting that game at all. Kazakhstan is recognized by everyone as the toughest team in the group. Austria also rests its starting goalie against say Canada or Sweden when we do play them to have our starters fresh for the closer games. Also, Lubys' stats from Jr. B SM-Sarja were not good, he had the 14th best SVS in a league with 16 teams. It just merely happens to also be true that he struggled even more in the Jr. A SM-Liiga this season as a backup. There also seems to be some confusion about the years these events took place. He played in the top U18 league as a U18 player, a 17 year old. He played this year, 2018-19, in the U20 league, as a U19 player. He has one more year left of senior eligibility.
Having known a lot of players personally who played against either Jr. B or Jr. A teams, I can say very definitely that while they are certainly adequate as junior leagues, they cannot be compared even in part to senior leagues, and the junior players therein cannot be compared even in part to senior league players.
Whatever your views on statistical variance, what we have so far is far too small a sample size to make any judgment, even about whether or not some individuals are in better condition mentally, physically, or otherwise. If the coaching staff does have such information, they'll make that decision.
Having known a lot of players personally who played against either Jr. B or Jr. A teams, I can say very definitely that while they are certainly adequate as junior leagues, they cannot be compared even in part to senior leagues, and the junior players therein cannot be compared even in part to senior league players.
Whatever your views on statistical variance, what we have so far is far too small a sample size to make any judgment, even about whether or not some individuals are in better condition mentally, physically, or otherwise. If the coaching staff does have such information, they'll make that decision.
While enjoying what we have shown in this competition thus far, yes I am preoccupied with post-Dalton and so-called Golden Generation era. Our U-20 program was relegated to D2B; U-18 hasn't had much success. And adding salt to wounds, the Army hockey program was terminated. In Korea every male is required to serve for minimum of 18 months (I fulfilled my duty at the Republic of Korea Air Force for 2 years) unless getting exempted under certain circumstances (i.e. winning medals at the Olympic Games). Without the Army team our younger players will have to spend 2 years off the ice. The Army team laid good foundation to our recent success: the core of this Korea team is consisted of those who had played for this team while being on the service. I know Korea Ice Hockey Association working their a-off on so-called the post-Pyeongchang initiative. I do hope it is well-planned, well-executed so we can stay at this level longer and promote the popularity of the game in the country.
That being said, promotion should be huge boost for our effort.
That being said, promotion should be huge boost for our effort.
SoundAndFury
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Must remind you of good all days, doesn't it?
In other news, Hungary is too much for us. I'm not surprised, the skill gap is just too much and they are playing for their lives.
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This reminds me of the Hungary-France game from 2016. When a team knows they're well overmatched, they collapse their defense and look to score on well-selected counter-attacks, whereas when they believe they might have a shot at victory against a team that they feel is closer to their own strength they open up their playing style and it can lead to brutal losses.
SoundAndFury
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Yeah that's more or less exactly what happened. We tried playing the game while, sadly, we should have tried to go for some miracle 2-1 win in OT. Knowing Poland will still be in 1B next year sucks even more.
SoundAndFury
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Well, he had very similar stats at both Jr. B and Jr. A to Radek Haas for example, who is almost a full year older, has already made his Liiga debut and is likely going to go to the WJC play, well maybe not play but travel to, for Czechs. Again, I'm not saying Lubys is NHL level talent but all signs are there he is going to develop into a solid pro goalie.
We had similar experience in the Olympic Games last year when going against Switzerland. Technically they were the weakest opponent on paper so we thought we had better shot against them considering we had played reasonably well against Czech Republic. So we opened up a bit and played more aggressive offensively. But the outcome was flat-out brutal, losing 0-8.
The Worst One
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This is really just grasping at straws in my opinion, and I hope the best for your guy. However, this sounds like something I'd tell a player who is down on his luck to get him believing again.
In Haas you found one example. A player who did perform better than him in SVS. A player who is the same year as him, even is separated by roughly 9 months. That player's team chose to give him some senior games, knowing that he'd struggle and he did, because they were well out of playoff contention. It's also unclear why the Czechs would employ him in net when they have Dvorak and Dostal.
Most guys who rank outside of the top say 10 in the league in their U19 and U20 seasons not only do not become pros but actually quit the sport not long after they stop being juniors, and many even within the top 10 do likewise. Notable exceptions always exist, and you can find them and they can be encouraging and heartwarming. It can and does happen that someone blooms late, but to say "all signs are pointing to" an exceptional case is being a bit optimistic. The fact is simply par for the course with any junior league. Senior level Goalies can be 20-42, and a team only needs two. So all the junior goalies over an 20 year period compete for two spots, and there are imports to compete with as well, and exports to NA. But even setting aside his SVS or how he ranks within against other goalies in his year, if he can't win and hold the starting role, the numbers themselves are basically irrelevant. You say all signs are there that he is going to develop into a solid pro goalie. If by pro you mean AlpsHL, by all means. If by pro, you mean Liiga, any discussion then without him first winning the starting spot on his team is a non-starter.
Romania & Lithuania next year in 1A and Slovenia & Poland in 1B would be kinda... interestering.
SoundAndFury
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Well this game showed two things:
1) With Tilburg guys the Netherlands would be very different and it would have made for a way better tournament.
2) It still makes for a very entertaining last round because the Netherlands can definitely take points away from Romania and they will need to to stay up. So it will be a race til the end.
Because the teams take 3 goalies and that 3rd spot seems to be his. So far.
Regarding grasping at straws, sure, none of this is hard data if you disregard his international play. It was just to paint the picture that:
1) exceptions exist because junior stats, especially when it comes to goalies, are VERY unreliable. Husso was 17th in Sv% his last season in U20 and he became HIFK's starter next year. Hrachovina was 19th that same year. He wasn't even his team starter, he was a backup to the guy who led the league in Sv% and currently plays in Mestis. And that's in his D+1 year. I agree with your math when it comes to the forwards but regarding goalies, there is so much more in play.
2) Lubys' international play shows he could play at low end pro league already. He hasn't really had a bad game playing for men's NT. Liiga or not, his development would have to stagnate terribly for him not to become a starter in the leagues like France, Denmark and such. Or Poland, or Kazakhstan.
Edit: I mean examples are everywhere, I clicked Andreas Bernard just because his name is now on the EP front page and he had .893 Sv% in U20 Liiga at the age of 20.
1) With Tilburg guys the Netherlands would be very different and it would have made for a way better tournament.
2) It still makes for a very entertaining last round because the Netherlands can definitely take points away from Romania and they will need to to stay up. So it will be a race til the end.
Because the teams take 3 goalies and that 3rd spot seems to be his. So far.
Regarding grasping at straws, sure, none of this is hard data if you disregard his international play. It was just to paint the picture that:
1) exceptions exist because junior stats, especially when it comes to goalies, are VERY unreliable. Husso was 17th in Sv% his last season in U20 and he became HIFK's starter next year. Hrachovina was 19th that same year. He wasn't even his team starter, he was a backup to the guy who led the league in Sv% and currently plays in Mestis. And that's in his D+1 year. I agree with your math when it comes to the forwards but regarding goalies, there is so much more in play.
2) Lubys' international play shows he could play at low end pro league already. He hasn't really had a bad game playing for men's NT. Liiga or not, his development would have to stagnate terribly for him not to become a starter in the leagues like France, Denmark and such. Or Poland, or Kazakhstan.
Edit: I mean examples are everywhere, I clicked Andreas Bernard just because his name is now on the EP front page and he had .893 Sv% in U20 Liiga at the age of 20.
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I’m really curious how Slovenia want to reverse the situation around in hear future considering they have less than 1k junior players and no good generation coming.
SoundAndFury
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They will clone Kopitar. 20 times.
Seriously though, they can't reverse it in the near future and I don't think they are particularly concerned about it. Everyone knows the winter is coming for the Slovenian hockey and it's more of a question if they come up with some kind of long term solution or will just settle roughly where they should be - on the yoyo between 1A and 1B. I mean the country with 2 <barely> professional teams shouldn't really be aiming for Elite.
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SoundAndFury
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Latvian league has been gradiously turning more professional, teams like MOGO and Kurbads aren't far away from Olympia/Jesenice in that department. If we were to count Latvia has 1 professional team, we'd have to say Slovenia has none.
DIVISION I GROUP A
Round 3 results:
Lithuania - Hungary 1:4
Belarus - Slovenia 4:1
Korea - Kazakhstan 1:4
Current standings:
1. Belarus - 9 pts
2. Kazakhstan - 9 pts
3. Korea - 6 pts
4. Hungary - 3 pts
5. Slovenia - 0 pts
6. Lithuania - 0 pts
Round 3 results:
Lithuania - Hungary 1:4
Belarus - Slovenia 4:1
Korea - Kazakhstan 1:4
Current standings:
1. Belarus - 9 pts
2. Kazakhstan - 9 pts
3. Korea - 6 pts
4. Hungary - 3 pts
5. Slovenia - 0 pts
6. Lithuania - 0 pts
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HungryFrank
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Tičar, Jeglič, Sabolič & co. had top development possible in this region when Jesenice and Olimpija were in EBEL. Lot of minutes in a strong league with experienced players around them.
