WJC: 2022 IIHF WM U20 D1A in Hörsholm, Denmark ( december 12 - 18)

[A Bundy]

Cute guesture by Norway to make a little puppy with their 2nd period shot shart. Not returned though.

 

[A Bundy]

I like how you're having discussions with imaginary people with opinions that haven't been voiced here.

I clearly get that these jabs are directed at me, but it seems a little desperate on your part.

As it was acknowledged here before by the very person who is now retrospectively acting smart, no one knows anything about how good most of the Kazakh players are and that would be the case both if they were decent or quite shite.

Since there was nothing to go by, it is a little cocky to just assume they are better than Norway and without a fighting chance.

Somehow no one was saying these things before the match, apart from one Norwegian fan who was clearly wrong before.

And I will clearly be wrong again. I blame my bias. I might as well go for it: Latvia - Denmark will be much closer than Denmark - Belarus. Belarus will beat Latvia on Wednesday in regulation by one goal and it will come down to a grand finale between Belarus and Norway in the last game. The game will be decided by goaltending, but this time around Stensrud is ready. The game will be loopsiden and mostly occur in Norway's end, but Norway had the superior PP in this tourney and capitalizes. With a Norwegian one point lead and two minutes left of the game Belarus knows that they need at least one point or Latvia will progress on internal three-way goal differenc and pulls their goalie. Norway scores an empty netter. Boom.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I like how you're having discussions with imaginary people with opinions that haven't been voiced here.

I clearly get that these jabs are directed at me, but it seems a little desperate on your part.

As it was acknowledged here before by the very person who is now retrospectively acting smart, no one knows anything about how good most of the Kazakh players are and that would be the case both if they were decent or quite shite.

Since there was nothing to go by, it is a little cocky to just assume they are better than Norway and without a fighting chance.

Somehow no one was saying these things before the match, apart from one Norwegian fan who was clearly wrong before.

Oh no, hurt feelings galore once again.

For starters, everyone seemed to agree Norway is clearly ahead of Kazakhstan weeks before the tournament. At least from people who were active in this thread, that includes me. Maybe you should re-read the thread instead of throwing "retrospectively acting smart" and "no one was saying" around.

Your reply to my remark about Kazakh players is also dubious as I wrote U18s and meant it, because since Kazakhstan is under the KHL umbrella there are a few pretty well-informed posters about the region and by the time some outstanding prospects turn 18-19 some of us would have probably heard about it, even if they are based in Kazakhstan. So be it pure conjecture, complete informational vacuum around this Kazakh team by itself did tell some things.

How good/bad/average exactly the Kazakh team is was obviously pretty hard to tell in this fog of war state but the ballpark was always somewhere below Norway and probably above Hungary. Well turns out they are way below Norway and pretty close to Hungary, that much we had to wait for the games to be played to know.

 

[kabidjan18]

Oh no, hurt feelings galore once again.

It's an annual tradition really. The half dozen guys in the world who care about mid-major hockey getting together and hurting each other's feelings, but all somehow walking away with positive memories of the event.

 

[A Bundy]

Preparing for Latvia - Denmark (as one of about six neutral fans around the word) and figurued they might change goalies after their first option's rather dysmal permance against Belarus, but the back up is somewhat of an enigma. He really takes back-up literaly according to his eliteprospects stats. Wonder if he actually has skates. Thor Baden at eliteprospects.com

 

[SoundAndFury]

I actually thought Danish goalie played fairly well as long as it mattered... The save on Pinchuk's one-timer to keep the score 0-0 was outstanding.

 

[Namejs]

It's an annual tradition really. The half dozen guys in the world who care about mid-major hockey getting together and hurting each other's feelings, but all somehow walking away with positive memories of the event.

That's about right.

I guess I'm getting too old for this though, not enough free time to get caught in these kinds of arguments.

Any thoughts on the Romania game? Not an expert on Div 2, but it sure looks like a rag tag bunch of nobodies. 15 people with Hungarian citizenships as well, that's new?

I can't exactly see a reason why they should be considered the favorites against Korea. Anyone willing to elaborate?

 

[Namejs]

And I will clearly be wrong again. I blame my bias. I might as well go for it: Latvia - Denmark will be much closer than Denmark - Belarus. Belarus will beat Latvia on Wednesday in regulation by one goal and it will come down to a grand finale between Belarus and Norway in the last game. The game will be decided by goaltending, but this time around Stensrud is ready. The game will be loopsiden and mostly occur in Norway's end, but Norway had the superior PP in this tourney and capitalizes. With a Norwegian one point lead and two minutes left of the game Belarus knows that they need at least one point or Latvia will progress on internal three-way goal differenc and pulls their goalie. Norway scores an empty netter. Boom.

I think the odds on Latvia are crazy, 1.12? They aren't that bad, are they? So I tend to agree with you regarding the Denmark-Latvia game.

I do expect a lot of goals though.

 

[kabidjan18]

That's about right.

I guess I'm getting too old for this though, not enough free time to get caught in these kinds of arguments.

I tell myself that every time haha.

That said, I was ribbing you there but it was just that. I don't actually think you were wrong-headed or something, it was just a joke. I didn't know too much of what to expect from that game either but when I tuned in I saw that the flow of the game was heavily favoring Norway.

Any thoughts on the Romania game? Not an expert on Div 2, but it sure looks like a rag tag bunch of nobodies. 15 people with Hungarian citizenships as well, that's new?

I can't exactly see a reason why they should be considered the favorites against Korea. Anyone willing to elaborate?

Romania has actually been the talk of the town recently haha. They have infamous organizational skills.

 

[A Bundy]

I think the odds on Latvia are crazy, 1.12? They aren't that bad, are they? So I tend to agree with you regarding the Denmark-Latvia game.

I do expect a lot of goals though.

I don't think Denmark has a chance, but I wouldn't want to put money on that either I think Denmark is pretty bad, but playing at home with Eller as a coach I expect he comes up with some tactics that can make it look a bit better. If not Denmark should seriously start worrying about Hungary.

 

[wingerdinger]

So what do you know about the Norwegian Development system? And are you talking about Zuccarello or Granath?

I know their is a struggle for ice time in Norway, that besides Zuccarello they haven't produced a legit nhler in my lifetime. But it was more about how much I rate Belarus' development system. I like systems that collect all the countries biggest talents in a national program. Where the kids are encouraged to work on long term skill sets that will help them excel in the long run at higher levels. They're not on teams that have to win, and mitigate risk and sacrifice development for results.

Eye of Ra keeps saying Norway's league is better because it has more imports. Thats a fallacy. More imports just means it's a nicer country to live in with western standards, then these ex-soviet nations. And if anything shows that the league is more inhospitable to youth development.

 

[A Bundy]

I know their is a struggle for ice time in Norway, that besides Zuccarello they haven't produced a legit nhler in my lifetime. But it was more about how much I rate Belarus' development system. I like systems that collect all the countries biggest talents in a national program. Where the kids are encouraged to work on long term skill sets that will help them excel in the long run at higher levels. They're not on teams that have to win, and mitigate risk and sacrifice development for results.

Eye of Ra keeps saying Norway's league is better because it has more imports. Thats a fallacy. More imports just means it's a nicer country to live in with western standards, then these ex-soviet nations. And if anything shows a that the league is more inhospitable to youth development.

Yes, we lack a good national program and I miss that part. We can learn a lot from other nations there, and it looks like the federation is actually trying now with the new management on board. Rudulf Balcers is actually a Norwegian product, but unfortunately half of our legit NHL production came with a Latvian passport. Depending on your age, another one: Espen Knutsen at eliteprospects.com

 

[Dima_BLR]

Lars Haugen is a very good goalkeeper,

he played in the KHl in Dinamo Minsk

and in the Belarusian championship

The BLR league has greatly deteriorated recently, so I wouldn't mention Haugen playing there in this context. It's simply water under the bridge. There were good old times when Yunost could (and did) beat the best Russian teams or KHL's Dinamo Minsk but it's simply impossible now. However, the league is still good enough for young players to develop up to some point.

 

[wingerdinger]

Yes, we lack a good national program and I miss that part. We can learn a lot from other nations there, and it looks like the federation is actually trying now with the new management on board. Rudulf Balcers is actually a Norwegian product, but unfortunately half of our legit NHL production came with a Latvian passport. Depending on your age, another one: Espen Knutsen at eliteprospects.com

Nice pull on knutsen. And Im glad to hear that Norway a least considering a national program. I do root for all countries to improve their development capacities, or hockey is never going to grow.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Any thoughts on the Romania game? Not an expert on Div 2, but it sure looks like a rag tag bunch of nobodies. 15 people with Hungarian citizenships as well, that's new?

I can't exactly see a reason why they should be considered the favorites against Korea. Anyone willing to elaborate?

Not really new, hockey is kind of a Hungarian diaspora sport in Romania, their senior team, the one that won D1B, had 12 Hungarian dual-nationals. And 3 Ukrainians and a Slovak. But that's a topic for another day.

Regarding their favorite status, Korea just sucks recently. Their hockey is just at legitimately worse state than the Romanian one. They need a good (by their standards) generation to beat Romania and once again, looking at the friendly results (they lost to us 4-0) this doesn't seem to be it.

I think the odds on Latvia are crazy, 1.12? They aren't that bad, are they? So I tend to agree with you regarding the Denmark-Latvia game.

Well they got crushed by Belarus 9-1 yesterday, 4-0 by Norway in a friendly days before the tournament and lost 4-2 to Latvia in November when the Latvian roster had like 5 players from this team. Not much hope there.

 

[wingerdinger]

Yeah it seems like all the hockey players from romania come from the same town, that is made of mostly hungarians. And if any of them are good enough they choose to represent Hungary.

 

[SoundAndFury]

2 goals on 8 shots by Hungary, Belarussian goalie sucks, who is that guy

 

[filip85]

That's about right.

I guess I'm getting too old for this though, not enough free time to get caught in these kinds of arguments.

Any thoughts on the Romania game? Not an expert on Div 2, but it sure looks like a rag tag bunch of nobodies. 15 people with Hungarian citizenships as well, that's new?

I can't exactly see a reason why they should be considered the favorites against Korea. Anyone willing to elaborate?

Actually that's nothing new. Don't be suprised if some of these players refuses to play for Romania at senior level in order to pursuit possibility to play for Hungary. I always called Romania "small Kazakhstan".

 

[hockey20000]

these div1a games on youtube by the way for anyone who doesnt know yet just type in insports channel

 

[ozo]

2 goals on 8 shots by Hungary, Belarussian goalie sucks, who is that guy

You joke, but he really is not covering himself in glory.

 

[SoundAndFury]

You joke, but he really is not covering himself in glory.

He has to be not in his best shape the way the last couple of months have gone for him.

 

[hockey20000]

denmark have any shot vs latvia?

 

[SoundAndFury]

denmark have any shot vs latvia?

Short answer is no. Longer answer is noooooooooo.

 

[Valdemar]

Latvia is huge favorite against Denmark. Our birth years 2001-2003 are really weak in talent unfortunately. I just hope it will not be another blow-out again like yesterday. We just need to do our best and hope it will be enough to avoid relegation the next couple of years.

 

[A Bundy]

Kudos to Denmark that they actually take the trouble of hosting these events. Norway haven't hosted an IIHF competition for as long as I can remember. Cannot understand why either. Home ice advantage, and the arrangement doesn't look unsurmountable compared to any other tournament. The streaming is the same as virtually all games of any interest in Norway, the BitCoin venue pretty standard (to be nice) and the guy running the clock hopefully not overpaid either.