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WC: 2022 IIHF World Championship Division 2 (group A: 24–30 April and B: 18–23 April).

Netherlands - Spain game much closer at the end that what it looked like at the beginning.
 
Just watching the stream of the Spain/Netherlands game and noticing that more than half of the Spanish team are wearing full cages. The IIHF requires players under 18 to wear cages, so I assumed this meant that there were a lot of underagers on the Spanish side, but their roster shows that there isn't a single player under the aged of 18 on the team. Anyone know if the Spanish federation has a specific rule about full cages or is this an individual player's choice?

I have to say I am impressed at the development of the Spanish program. They're hanging with the Dutch, who, not that long ago (okay, within the last couple decades) were at least threatening to advance to Division 1 and higher.
 
jonas2244 said:
Are spectators not allowed or is there just no interest in seeing ice-hockey games?
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Not allowed due to safety, (but not COVID related) reasons. While there is a beautiful new 2,000 seat hall in Sisak, unfortunaetly politics prevent it from playing there, which is shame, as hockey is by far most popular and attended sport there and they are Croatian champions for the 1st time in their long (club founded in 1930) history. :(
 
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with that level of engagement China might go through this division, but D1B, not so sure. Lot of holiday vibe on that team. Trying to make unnecessary flashy plays would be understandable, but they seem like they put up a few pounds, playing out of sync.
 
HungryFrank said:
with that level of engagement China might go through this division, but D1B, not so sure. Lot of holiday vibe on that team. Trying to make unnecessary flashy plays would be understandable, but they seem like they put up a few pounds, playing out of sync.
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Looking how far Korea went with couple of Asian League level NA players, this team no doubt can reach elite tier as well, especially with BLR and RUS being absent. After all, this pretty much is a KHL team.
 
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ozo said:
Looking how far Korea went with couple of Asian League level NA players, this team no doubt can reach elite tier as well, especially with BLR and RUS being absent. After all, this pretty much is a KHL team.
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With all the ringers this team is far too talented to be in Div2. If they're serious and keep all their players they'll likely coast through D1B next year too. I can see them being a Div1A elevator team bouncing up and down between 1B or even an oddball Elite appearance like Hungary or Korea pulled off. Trouble will be consistency as this will depend on whether the players have interest in continuing to play in these tournaments - and afterwards how they will replace them.

But I do think the fact that the Kunlun players actually (surprisingly) remained on the team will upend the dynamics of the nations within the Division 1 space that has been fairly static over the past decade.
 
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