WJC: 2022 Switzerland roster talk

[Hinterland]

Knak not listed is bad but I'm much more worried that none of the top2 goalies are listed. With Henauer and Pasche I don't think we'll win a game. Goaltending is absolutely key at those tournaments because the level varies a lot.

 

[swissdude]

Considering that the spengler cup has been cancelled because 17 players of HCD tested postive and according to the GM all of them have been double vaxxed or even boostered and when the first 2 cases occured they have been isolated properly I fear that this will happen to some other teams as well and and WJC could end in farce if it can be finished at all

 

[Speyer]

Is Patenaude really that much better than Pasche though? I thought Pasche wasn't that bad at last years U18's. The team kind of let him down there with taking so many penalties wich resulted in a lot of PP goals. The way I remember it a lot of them were very good shots and hard to save. But my memory is a bit fuzzy on that tournament so maybe I am wrong. I have seen a few games of Patenaude as well, he kind of seemed like a "jekyll and hyde" type of player to me, sometimes he had truly spectacular saves but he also let in a few softies. He certainly has the size advantage compared to Pasche though. About Henauer I really don't know much at all.

Goaltending is always a bit of a crapshoot for us. Unless we have an above average Goalie like JVP or Conz on the roster we have to hope that whoever plays can get hot and string a few good games together...

 

[Hinterland]

Is Patenaude really that much better than Pasche though? I thought Pasche wasn't that bad at last years U18's. The team kind of let him down there with taking so many penalties wich resulted in a lot of PP goals. The way I remember it a lot of them were very good shots and hard to save. But my memory is a bit fuzzy on that tournament so maybe I am wrong. I have seen a few games of Patenaude as well, he kind of seemed like a "jekyll and hyde" type of player to me, sometimes he had truly spectacular saves but he also let in a few softies. He certainly has the size advantage compared to Pasche though. About Henauer I really don't know much at all.

Goaltending is always a bit of a crapshoot for us. Unless we have an above average Goalie like JVP or Conz on the roster we have to hope that whoever plays can get hot and string a few good games together...

I don't know but from what I remember Patenaude has always been solid for Switzerland internationally. His stats are a bit misleading I think. Henauer has a lot of pro experience for his age but he hasn't looked good in the SL so far. I'm no expert and could be completely wrong but I think Patenaude and Galley were frontrunners to get into games this year and these are also the guys I have most trust in. The fact that both of them aren't listed on the initial roster is worrying at least to me.

 

[Hinterland]

Just took a closer look at the players listed already and besides the Knak and the two goalies the only important player not on that roster is Chanton. He would also be a huge loss of course but at least the rest seems to be there. They'll have to add some more players today so we'll see. If they add both Chanton and Knak as well as at least one of Patenaude and Galley then we should be fine.

 

[BigBadBoar]

Just took a closer look at the players listed already and besides the Knak and the two goalies the only important player not on that roster is Chanton. He would also be a huge loss of course but at least the rest seems to be there. They'll have to add some more players today so we'll see. If they add both Chanton and Knak as well as at least one of Patenaude and Galley then we should be fine.

It is still possible they are going to add other players before the first game.

 

[Hinterland]

Crap. Just noticed Hofer isn't on the initial roster either. One of the players not getting the icetime he deserved last year but should be a top line forward this year and is easily the best righty on the team. Yet another tough loss if they can't add him to the roster.

 

[jonas2244]

According to IIHF it's only one player. I guess we'll see tomorrow. Given the circumstances it's understandable that Bayer didn't regist all players for the intial registration.

 

[Hinterland]

Hofer and Galley added among others but apparently no Knak, Chanton or Patenaude on the roster. That's best forward, the nr.1 goalie and a top4 defenseman gone. Tough.

 

[jonas2244]

And that's the final roster with 22+3. No more additions possible.

The communication from Swiss Icehockey is mediocre at most.

 

[jonas2244]

Knak is the one with the positive test. So Chanton is a "healthy" scratch.

Ok, some additional infos from the website:

Patenaude and Fust are not injured but not exactly healthy ("angeschlagen").
Chanton had a positive test back in Switzerland and didn't even travel to Canada.
Vincent Despont was injured during preparation in Canada.

So the 25 left are basically the ones that are healthy.

 

[Hinterland]

Knak is the one with the positive test. So Chanton is a "healthy" scratch.

Ok, some additional infos from the website:

Patenaude and Fust are not injured but not exactly healthy ("angeschlagen").
Chanton had a positive test back in Switzerland and didn't even travel to Canada.
Vincent Despont was injured during preparation in Canada.

So the 25 left are basically the ones that are healthy.

Despont and Fust I'm not sure if they're great losses. Size wise maybe and Despont would have been a righty as well. But losing three of the most important players with Patenaude, Chanton and Knak is gonna cripple this team badly.

 

[Speyer]

Losing Knak is a huge blow. I have no Idea who is going to carry the offense now. At this level only Allenspach has shown that he can do that to a certain degree. Hopefully Canonica has improved over the last year. If he wants to get drafted as an overager he certainly needs to step up now.

"Losing" Fust on the other hand is probably going to improve the team. I have no idea why he was on the roster in the first place. Maybe to give folksy interviews on TSN.

 

[Speyer]

double post

 

[Hinterland]

Losing Knak is a huge blow. I have no Idea who is going to carry the offense now. At this level only Allenspach has shown that he can do that to a certain degree. Hopefully Canonica has improved in the last year. If he wants to get drafted as an overager he certainly needs to step up now.

"Losing" Fust on the other hand is probably going to improve the team. I have no idea why he was on the roster in the first place. Maybe to give folksy interviews on TSN.

I honestly think Fust was on the team because he's big. Our teams are usually very small so Fust does add something there. He also had a few good moments last year but I agree that he's not moving very well and his skill level is mediocre at best. Patenaude, Chanton and Knak are the three real losses but those are gonna sting. In this tough group we probably can't afford to lose those three.

 

[Speyer]

Well, we were likely to lose every game with or without them but its certainly not improving our already slim chances at an upset.

 

[swissdude]

well at least we won't be relegated this year. Is there any way to see the game without upc/sunrise subscription? Had only a crappy TSN stream to follow CZE-CAN game

 

[Hinterland]

With Knak out, I'd expect Hofer or Sidler to captain the side. Curious to see who's gonna get the second "A". Allenspach or Meier maybe. Meier could be a very important player anyway now with Chanton out. Last time I checked I believe he was 4th in ice time in entire the SL with well over 22 mins per game.

 

[Hinterland]

We've had to endure a lot of piss poor coaching in Switzerland but this has to be up there with the worst I've ever seen:



1.) Derungs and Galley scratched. Not the biggest fan of them but if healthy, they have to be in the lineup at the very least.

2.) Faceoffs. Allenspach won more than 50% over last years WJC20 and he's done the same for Zug this year. Small sample size maybe but he also won 45,6% in the SL last season. Henry and Bächler are both well below 40% this season but Bayer somehow seems to think it would be great idea to have those two take faceoffs. Bächler won 0 of 4 and Henry 4 of 12. Somehow, Allenspach took just one faceoff, Biasca got none. I'm not sure how good Biasca is at faceoffs but there's no excuse for Allenspach not getting any. I understand that, with Knak out, Bayer wants a true top line but you can't use two, potentially three of your top faceoff guys on the same line. That's just dumb.

3.) Ice time. Why the f*** did Bayer think it would be such an amazing idea to reduce Hofer's and Meier's TOI's to 8:36 and 7:55 respectively? On the other side, Nussbaumer was on pace for 19 or 20 mins when he got injured. It's beyond ridiculous. How can you come up with all of this?


Please fire the two fools and let Wichser coach the team. I'm done with that bs. Paterlini may have played the wrong goalie but other than that, he was so much better than the current clowns, I don't even know where to start. Wtf have we just watched. If the shitshow continues like this I might have to stop watching in order not to lose it completely. Wtf.

 

[Hinterland]

Also, since best player is awarded by the team...does Bayer really think that Pasche was outstanding yesterday or is this just next level trolling by him?

 

[Speyer]

Also, since best player is awarded by the team...does Bayer really think that Pasche was outstanding yesterday or is this just next level trolling by him?

Probably to boost his confidence after the shaky start. He has been better in the second and the third period however.

Besides better goaltending we need more out of our forward group. I expected more from Canonica and Henry. Outside Fahrni no forward has impressed offensively even though some of the bottom six guys have filled their role adequately. Defense has been solid outside of Nussbaumer but could chip in more offensively as well. Delémont made a few good defensive plays and has been a positive surprise. Meier was not very visible but apparently didn't have much icetime either. Kind of weird if you factor in that he has the most pro experience on the roster by far...

 

[Hinterland]

Probably to boost his confidence after the shaky start. He has been better in the second and the third period however.

He didn't have to do anything special though. Routine saves only and the goal he gave up in the third was also rather soft. I know it came from close range but also from a bad angle and Pasche got caught five hole. A good goalie is gonna stop that. The only goal you can't fault him for was the first because it was a ridiculous bounce off Garessus but even there he didn't look good because he lost his net and was struggling for ages to find it again until just before the puck went in.

If I'm coaching, I have zero confidence in Pasche to give the team a chance to win going forward. And I didn't have high expectations for him going into the tournament.

 

[Speyer]

He didn't have to do anything special though. Routine saves only and the goal he gave up in the third was also rather soft. I know it came from close range but also from a bad angle and Pasche got caught five hole. A good goalie is gonna stop that.

Yes that goal was certainly not unstoppable but after the first I feared a blowout with a few more softies from Pasche. He also made a few good safes in those periods wich I would classify above "routine safes". Nothing extremely amazing though as you pointed out correctly. Goaltending has a lot to do with mental fortitude however, so its not completely dumb for the staff (and the team) to "talk up" his performance.

You could say in some aspects of coaching even a guy like Bayer can have a method to his madness

 

[jonas2244]

I'm still waiting for @Hinterland to apply for the job and show us how he could go through the final with this team.

Anyway, this is the place where we're currently at. A solid group of D-men with one really good prospect (Bichsel) and another already drafted hopeful (Zanetti) and some more which will have long careers in the NL. And a group of forwards where no-one will very probably ever play NHL and I guess the rate of players without games in the NL (or just a few) will be higher than in the past years. And goaltending, yes, I mean Pasche wasn't great, but he wasn't that bad either. Had a rough start which can happen and got better as the game got on. It's junior hockey, if you cannot accept that such things can happen you're at the wrong place. Especially goalkeepers who are known to take more time to develop and have probably the hardest job mentally out there.

Edit: And yes, I agree, Bayer is not the right guy and it was a huge mistake to fire Paterlini.

 

[Hinterland]

I'm still waiting for @Hinterland to apply for the job and show us how he could go through the final with this team.

Anyway, this is the place where we're currently at. A solid group of D-men with one really good prospect (Bichsel) and another already drafted hopeful (Zanetti) and some more which will have long careers in the NL. And a group of forwards where no-one will very probably ever play NHL and I guess the rate of players without games in the NL (or just a few) will be higher than in the past years. And goaltending, yes, I mean Pasche wasn't great, but he wasn't that bad either. Had a rough start which can happen and got better as the game got on. It's junior hockey, if you cannot accept that such things can happen you're at the wrong place. Especially goalkeepers who are known to take more time to develop and have probably the hardest job mentally out there.

I don't want to make the final. I'd be happy with an average coach like Paterlini who played the wrong goalie but did a solid job apart from that. What we're getting since is nothing short of a tragedy. Nobody in his right mind would reduce the ice time of his most experienced winger and defender to 8mins each. Noah Meier is averaging way over 22mins in the SL which is good for 4th leaguewide. He's playing heavier minutes than all of the imports on a nightly basis. It's really not rocket science that he could be good for 20-25 mins at a WJC20 as well. Instead, Bayer was gonna play friggen Nussbaumer for 20mins if he didn't get injured. It's not rocket science to figure out who's the better defender. Hofer I'm sure averaged about double yesterdays TOI in last years WJC20. I'm really not expecting much but Bayer is a grade a moron.

Re goaltending it was always gonna be a mission impossible without Patenaude. I said ahead of the tournament he's the one player we can't afford to lose. So we lost vs Russia because of the softies Pasche let in but I also understand that the other two probably wouldn't have been much better.

Bad goaltending isn't a given at WJC20's though. We've had some great goaltending over the years. Fatton last year for example. He was rocksolid and surely would have won us yesterday's game. We can only dream of such goaltending this year. I don't fault Pasche for anything. Nobody expected him to be ready for this. Still, you have to make a change and play somebody else...especially back to back.