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WC: 2019 Division I, II, III

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Rob said:
Why is that?
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Best Dutch players, with very few exceptions, play for Tilburg Trappers in German Oberliga. Their season isn't yet over as they will play for the league title tomorrow. That has forced them to start the WC with what they had leaving 5 spots open for Tilburg guys who will join the team on Wednesday (hopefully).

You can read a wider discussion just above your post, starting with one at #177.
 
Noticeable players at the Div 1 Group A Worlds:
Geoff Platt, David Rodman, Dainius Zubrus, Nick Bailen, Dustin Boyd, Anze Kopitar,
Martin St.Pierre, Maxim Sushko, Matt Dalton, Alex Plante, Henrik Karlsson,Brandon Bochenski
 
GeorgeLeafer12 said:
Noticeable players at the Div 1 Group A Worlds:
Geoff Platt, David Rodman, Dainius Zubrus, Nick Bailen, Dustin Boyd, Anze Kopitar,
Martin St.Pierre, Maxim Sushko, Matt Dalton, Alex Plante, Henrik Karlsson,Brandon Bochenski
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Pretty random selection of names? :)
 
GeorgeLeafer12 said:
Noticeable players at the Div 1 Group A Worlds:
Geoff Platt, David Rodman, Dainius Zubrus, Nick Bailen, Dustin Boyd, Anze Kopitar,
Martin St.Pierre, Maxim Sushko, Matt Dalton, Alex Plante, Henrik Karlsson,Brandon Bochenski
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Checked where Zubrus plays these days and turns out he hasn't played for anyone but the Lithuania national team in the last two years.
 
I remember that laast year before their tournamen on home ice there was an article on Zubrus and Kasparaitis somewhere stating that Zubrus lives in the USA (Florida I think) and plays from time to time in a beer league together with friends. Obviously he's still in a pretty good shape. And you can't loose your hockey sense I guess.
 
The Tallinn-arena has a capacity of 6000 people but even in Estonia's games there have been less than 2000 people watching.
 
Zubrus said immediately after retirement he took a break from hockey, gained some weight, etc. and when he came back to the gym felt very out of shape so decided not to do it again. Hence he regularly works out and, I assume, plays rec hockey from time to time.

Regarding Tallinn arena, I think that puts to bed "Estonia - the great hockey market" narrative.

Korea, meanwhile, is leading against Slovenia :huh:
 
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Just shows how vital goalkeeping is at lower levels. Dalton could get them promoted all by himself.
 
ozo said:
Just shows how vital goalkeeping is at lower levels. Dalton could get them promoted all by himself.
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Well, it's a pretty simple arithmetic. A mediocre goalie will have a 0.900 SVS%. A real good one at this level is going to have a 0.940+.

If both teams are identical and both make 30 SOG, the expected score is going to be 3-2 (1.8)

If your goalie is bad, your offense must be by a goal or two more productive than your counterparts.

If your opponent plays with defensive traps and a lot of forechecking and is quite well conditioned physically along with having a great goalie, you're basically f***ed if you don't have some elite skill in your forward corps.

It's why teams like Latvia or Germany also have chances against the big teams at a higher level.
 
Hungary is really bad. Their players have extremely low hockey IQ, I can see why they got destroyed by Korea, and this game is probably going to get worse.
 
Yeah Hungary is almost shockingly bad, all things considered. So now there's hope they lose all the games and we somehow beat them as well. If they play as bad as against Korea there is hope.
 
I like Gallo and the one wearing #16 (Hari or something?). Creates 90% of their scoring chances. Gallo especially, think he has some potential. 22 y.o and already experience in SHL. The rest of Team Hungary - my goodness
 
Belarus coaching staff made a lot of head-scratching decisions. Looking at their goalies:
Milchakov was a back-up in Plzen, he has played only 1 of the 14 playoffs game in Czech league.
Osipkov was a back-up in Yunost, he has played only 5 of the 14 playoffs games in Belarus. The starting Yunost goalie Brikun wasn't even invited to the camp.
 
Slovenia can forget about promotion.

This year's tournament is going to be the opposite to last year's; very predictable.
 
I am shocked by Hungarian team, negative shocked. The nation with so much money in ice hockey cant do anything on this level....Disaster

They definitly is not a nation for collective sports

About Slovenians...the time for them is gone...they will not play elite division in next 5 years minimum. I really dont see bright future for them. Sad but true.

Lithuania is going down for sure. They are not ready yet for some suprise in this division. For them it is must to form one team which will be playing some good league, for example Belarus league or even Latvian league.
 
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Predictions for Korea's demise seem a tad premature. All of their 10 goals scored weren't from naturalized players either as far as I can tell.
 
aonb said:
I like Gallo and the one wearing #16 (Hari or something?). Creates 90% of their scoring chances. Gallo especially, think he has some potential. 22 y.o and already experience in SHL. The rest of Team Hungary - my goodness
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Like I wrote earlier, their top 6 is probably better than that of Belarus. And yet as a team, these guys are just a mess.

garbageteam said:
Predictions for Korea's demise seem a tad premature. All of their 10 goals scored weren't from naturalized players either as far as I can tell.
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Not at all surprising as none of the guys they brought are forwards. Dalton was and still is the most important player they managed to get and as long as he's there Korea will stick around at this level. However, their junior teams have been absolutely terrible recently and as soon as Dalton and the old generation retires the downfall will begin. So 3-4 years.

I would go as far as saying Dalton retiring or missing the tournament for some reason would get them relegated. Their goaltending would go from solid KHL goalie to the guy who is at D2A level just like that. Then again, they would probably simply get another import goalie. I just wish the next one wouldn't be as good as Dalton but someone closer to the usual Asia league level.
 
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Judging by the shot counter one period in against Ukraine, Dutch have no chance to survive.
 
ozo said:
Judging by the shot counter one period in against Ukraine, Dutch have no chance to survive.
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They are still playing only 3 lines of all amateur players.. But yeah, Tilburg guys could not even bother coming if they didn't make it to this game.
 
Korea too good for Division 1, not good enough for Division A?.
After the 2020 Worlds, they'll gonna get relegated again, back to the Division 1. (hope not)

Interesting to see if GB gets relegated or not.
 
Lithuania 5 SOG through 40 minutes of play (and only one of them, on breakaway, was dangerous at all). That's something. Entire game looks like never ending powerplay for Kazakhstan. Bochenski and company sucks at finishing though
 
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