Euro Hockey Tour: 2023-24 season

[Hockeyfrilla]

Finland wins Beijer Hockey Games! Team Nocco 2nd place.

 

[Speyer]

You cannot expect any miracles with this roster, can you? Look at the D-core. Glauser is a WC-candidate. Fora should not be. Stadler was surprisingly ok, the rest shoud not be near any WC-squad. Same for Fora who just gets worse every year.

And on offence, well, Rochette is an interesting guy. Scherwey is a special player but isn't the Scherwey he was 2-3 years ago. Senteler, Moy, ok.

Now you can talk about selection policy. But the truth is, you cannot select the best players for all 3 tournaments. And especially on D we're pretty thin in Europe. And if we don't ice the best possible teams we're pretty bound to loose.

The losses this week or even this year are not the core issues. Those are the complete lack of success in the knockout stage in the last six(!) years and the complete lack of a "performance culture" (Leistungskultur) within the federation.

The much more important discussion than Fischer or the men national team is how to get better at junior level. Because this would solve this discussion.

I was, together with @Hinterland, one of the first posters on this board that argued that our lackluster junior system is the main issue of Swiss hockey in general. However this issue hasn't caught with the mens national team yet. At least not regarding the WC's and the Olympic games. Fischers teams in every WC since like 2018 have been very good, sometimes even among the best, due to NHL reinforcements. In the Olympic tournaments he usually had fairly deep "NLA-teams" at his disposal as well.

All in All those are two different problems that both hurt our hockey in different ways. One should not be used to distract from the other. Unfortunately thats exactly whats Fischer seems to be doing right now. Hopefully he wont be successful in making this narrative his own.

 

[Czechboy]

Not our best tourney. No biggie as I didn't like the roster that much before it started.

Rulik is going to North America after the trade deadline. Hope that includes the AHL!

 

[Lambo]

You cannot expect any miracles with this roster, can you? Look at the D-core. Glauser is a WC-candidate. Fora should not be. Stadler was surprisingly ok, the rest shoud not be near any WC-squad. Same for Fora who just gets worse every year.

And on offence, well, Rochette is an interesting guy. Scherwey is a special player but isn't the Scherwey he was 2-3 years ago. Senteler, Moy, ok.

Now you can talk about selection policy. But the truth is, you cannot select the best players for all 3 tournaments. And especially on D we're pretty thin in Europe. And if we don't ice the best possible teams we're pretty bound to loose.

The much more important discussion than Fischer or the men national team is how to get better at junior level. Because this would solve this discussion.

And Weibel said one thing during intermission which I would agree (this is rare). Better play EHT and loose most of the games than playing France or Denmark or Austria.

But a "Deutschland-Cup" with Germany, Slovakia Switzerland and.....e.g. Latvia would be also a possibility.

 

[jonas2244]

But a "Deutschland-Cup" with Germany, Slovakia Switzerland and.....e.g. Latvia would be also a possibility.

Would be, but playing Sweden/Finland/Czech Republic is still the better option in my opinion.

I mean you can replace Fischer and there are fair reasons to do so.

But that wouldn't change having a hard time at those tournaments. So the main reason for replacing Fischer should be not being able to keep up the game in the Quarters and not some losses at EHT.

There is a good possibility that we can have a solid roster at the WC again. The Devils not fulfilling their promise, the Blackhawks, the Coyotes far away from the Playoffs, Nashville and the Kings maybe with a Wildcard but not looking ready for a depp playoff run.

 

[SwissFan12]

Would be, but playing Sweden/Finland/Czech Republic is still the better option in my opinion.

I mean you can replace Fischer and there are fair reasons to do so.

But that wouldn't change having a hard time at those tournaments. So the main reason for replacing Fischer should be not being able to keep up the game in the Quarters and not some losses at EHT.

There is a good possibility that we can have a solid roster at the WC again. The Devils not fulfilling their promise, the Blackhawks, the Coyotes far away from the Playoffs, Nashville and the Kings maybe with a Wildcard but not looking ready for a depp playoff run.

We need Josi so badly, he hasn't been there since 2019

 

[Speyer]

Would be, but playing Sweden/Finland/Czech Republic is still the better option in my opinion.

I mean you can replace Fischer and there are fair reasons to do so.

But that wouldn't change having a hard time at those tournaments. So the main reason for replacing Fischer should be not being able to keep up the game in the Quarters and not some losses at EHT.

I mean no one argued on here he needs to go because of the EHT. But for me its as good an excuse as any for me if loosing six(?) quarter finals in a row wont do the trick.

There is a good possibility that we can have a solid roster at the WC again. The Devils not fulfilling their promise, the Blackhawks, the Coyotes far away from the Playoffs, Nashville and the Kings maybe with a Wildcard but not looking ready for a depp playoff run.

Yes its kinda stupid luck how much nhl participation we had in the last few years. It has to end at some point though. Devils are bound to be good again next year if they can stay healthy and get better goaltending. And Chicago wont stay in the doghouse forever either with Bedard on the team. We should have made more out of our comparatively strong rosters in the last few years. Josi is also getting up there in age. He is still an outstanding player but nobody knows for how long. Thats why its so important to get rid of Fischer ASAP to give our "golden generation" a better chance to actually win gold.

 

[SwissFan12]

I mean no one argued on here he needs to go because of the EHT. But for me its as good an excuse as any for me if loosing six(?) quarter finals in a row wont do the trick.


Yes its kinda stupid luck how much nhl participation we had in the last few years. It has to end at some point though. Devils are bound to be good again next year if they can stay healthy and get better goaltending. And Chicago wont stay in the doghouse forever either with Bedard on the team. We should have made more out of our comparatively strong rosters in the last few years. Josi is also getting up there in age. He is still an outstanding player but nobody knows for how long. Thats why its so important to get rid of Fischer ASAP to give our "golden generation" a better chance to actually win gold.

I mean, the comment from Weibel saying it's better to play against the top country and lose every game than playing against France or Latvia shows the looser mentality that will prevent us to really grow.

Yes we are lucky to be on the EHT, playing against better country, so man, show some pride...

We need someone who can electrify this team and not be satisfied with those kind of excuses...

Yeah it's okay to lose games against better country but it's not okay to lose 11 games in a row.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Tim Heed is a good player. Much rather have him and Joel Persson in WC than the likes of Tömmernäs and Pudas.

 

[Speyer]

I mean, the comment from Weibel saying it's better to play against the top country and lose every game than playing against France or Latvia shows the looser mentality that will prevent us to really grow.

Yes we are lucky to be on the EHT, playing against better country, so man, show some pride...

We need someone who can electrify this team and not be satisfied with those kind of excuses...

Yeah it's okay to lose games against better country but it's not okay to lose 11 games in a row.

Just to be clear, I agree with your comment and I don't think its fine to lose 11 games in a row. I just dont think this would have to be an automatic reason for a coach to get fired in a vacuum. But with Fischer you already have the lack of success on the tournament level and the complacency as well as the tendencies of an "old boys club" within the coaching staff (including the junior national teams) and the federation in general. So the losses are more of a symptom of whats already rotten in the federation than the main reason to finally get a coaching change.

 

[jonas2244]

About elctrify the team, I think one of Fischers strength is the team-aspect of the job. He was able to get the best possible roster at the WC for the last few year, nobody seems to have excuses not to play after long seasons. The players seem to like him and I mean his "regular season" record at the WC is pretty impressive, especially in the last years. I'm not sure if there is a better option around for that aspect. And with that I think the team played pretty solid last weekend (didn't see the Sweden game). This roster just isn't any better.

But yeah, the main critics is his tactical approach and he isn't able to respond to difficult situation in playoff games with a good approach.

 

[Speyer]

So the federation gives the wizards apprentice (despite his complete lack of success) a new contract that contains some mystery-clause which enables them to buy him out of this new contract if he fails to reach some not yet disclosed goal in the next WC. And all that despite the fact that the old contract was still valid for this tournament. Now thats a whole other level of dilettantism. Even if you live in bizzaro world and actually like Fischer as a coach this goes against any notion of business sense. Does Schärer think Fischer is going to take over the Oilers if he doesnt lock him up in time? Who are these people running our federation?

 

[Hinterland]

About elctrify the team, I think one of Fischers strength is the team-aspect of the job. He was able to get the best possible roster at the WC for the last few year, nobody seems to have excuses not to play after long seasons. The players seem to like him and I mean his "regular season" record at the WC is pretty impressive, especially in the last years. I'm not sure if there is a better option around for that aspect. And with that I think the team played pretty solid last weekend (didn't see the Sweden game). This roster just isn't any better.

But yeah, the main critics is his tactical approach and he isn't able to respond to difficult situation in playoff games with a good approach.

The players seem to like him? You mean the ones him and his fellow clowns didn't execute via media? Those things should be done behind closed doors. Giving salty interviews or releasing salty statements to bash players not doing exactly whatever the f*** you want (even if it's as dumb as it gets) is just bad style and childish behaviour. Him cutting Paterlini in order to install a dummy coach and run the team himself was probably the worst gong show I've seen in all of sports. Should have never been hired. He was a (sore and pathetic) loser in Lugano already. You wouldn't find a worse coach no matter how hard you try.

 

[Speyer]

About elctrify the team, I think one of Fischers strength is the team-aspect of the job. He was able to get the best possible roster at the WC for the last few year, nobody seems to have excuses not to play after long seasons. The players seem to like him and I mean his "regular season" record at the WC is pretty impressive, especially in the last years. I'm not sure if there is a better option around for that aspect.

I think this supposed advantage of Fischer as a coach is extremely overstated. I might sound like a broken record on this topic but I don't mind repeating myself as there are still a lot of people believing in this narrative. I think our NHL players mainly report for the WC because winning Gold gives you a lot of prestige in Switzerland and not because Fischer is the coach. And because the player base is good enough to finally win a gold medal at this point. Also, guys like Hiller, Gerber, Streit and Josi regularly reported for Kruger, Simpson and even Hanlon as well. The fact that there were no Olympic Games with NHL-participation in Fischers tenure definitely contributed to the good turnout at the WC too. Then the tournament is now played later in the year than it used to be. This makes it so much easier to still join the NT if you get eliminated in the first or even second round of the NHL playoffs. So there are number of factors who are, at least in my view, much more important for the more consistant NHL-participation at play than Fischer.

And as @Hinterland pointed out correctly some of Fischers antics are even hurting the team quality. Fiala and Malgin missed tournaments for petty reasons. They both made up with him after that. But in Bichsel's case we might be looking at a new "Reto von Arx Situation" which would be terrible for the future outlook of the team as he is currently the nations most promising prospect.