WC: 2023 Czech Team

[Goodman68]

How do you like our chances?

10-20-70
And I'm an optimist

 

[Mirinho]

How do you like our chances?

I'd like to be 1st or 3rd in the group I don't want to play vs FIN. And it's almost sure FIN will be 3rd in their group, so they'll play with 2nd team from our group.
I don't mind if we lose today and finish third. I'll be happy if no one gets hurt
But if we win today, we still have a chance to be 1st in our group

 

[martygod12]

Lets just play a two decent games And not get thrashed either by Swiss or Canada.

 

[Czechboy]

I enjoyed the game and was happy with it. The 4th goal was stupid from us.

I feel it showed we can keep up with anyone in the tourney. We did get a lot of good looks on the Swiss today.

I don't think Sobotka should be the 1C... he's played great but unless Cervus is specifically asking for him I think it's a bad idea. He was on for all 4 against so defensive prowess didn't work.

Langhammer played well... shame he didn't get more on the first shot but he definitely didn't cost us the game.

If they play Hrubec against Canada I will lose my f***en mind!

As things go along, I don't think our quarter final opponent is important... they will all be equally hard for us but I do think we have a chance to beat any of them and cause an upset.

 

[Czechboy]

They're showing the Ambuhl goals.. both times it was Sobotka's missed assignment.

 

[Czechboy]

Had no idea... seems unfair they get to play Fiala and Mayer against us.haha

 

[martygod12]

Still meh, I just cant root for Swiss if they are swinging superstar team agaisnt weaker top5 teams.

I hate it cause there is definitely gonna be a lot of salt going on right now in czech hockey public. I can see it already "Swiss are better then us" "the train has left for us" "Swiss and germans already better then us in hockey, we are at the level of Austria and other shits"

Just so much thrashing our hockey and praising theirs is gonna get on as usual which is completely ridiculous. Of course you cant predict anything. But having us at full strenght we would very likely see a completely different match.

9:1 at u20 says it all.

 

[Czechboy]

Still meh, I just cant root for Swiss if they are swinging superstar team agaisnt weaker top5 teams.

I hate it cause there is definitely gonna be a lot of salt going on right now in czech hockey public. I can see it already "Swiss are better then us" "the train has left for us" "Swiss and germans already better then us in hockey, we are at the level of Austria and other shits"

Just so much thrashing our hockey and praising theirs is gonna get on as usual which is completely ridiculous. Of course you cant predict anything. But having us at full strenght we would very likely see a completely different match.

9:1 at u20 says it all.

I think if we played best on best against the Swiss that it'd probably be a very close 3:2 game.

 

[tade]

Still meh, I just cant root for Swiss if they are swinging superstar team agaisnt weaker top5 teams.

I hate it cause there is definitely gonna be a lot of salt going on right now in czech hockey public. I can see it already "Swiss are better then us" "the train has left for us" "Swiss and germans already better then us in hockey, we are at the level of Austria and other shits"

Just so much thrashing our hockey and praising theirs is gonna get on as usual which is completely ridiculous. Of course you cant predict anything. But having us at full strenght we would very likely see a completely different match.

9:1 at u20 says it all.

We would most likely still see very tight match. Switzerland is currently definitely on par with Czech team in terms of "best-on-best".

I don't care what people here, who watch only WHC or at max Czech extraliga, say. It's good to see that Swiss star players respond to calls of their national team, and it's also great for the tournament - the more star players come, the better.

 

[Goodman68]

Still meh, I just cant root for Swiss if they are swinging superstar team agaisnt weaker top5 teams.

I hate it cause there is definitely gonna be a lot of salt going on right now in czech hockey public. I can see it already "Swiss are better then us" "the train has left for us" "Swiss and germans already better then us in hockey, we are at the level of Austria and other shits"

Just so much thrashing our hockey and praising theirs is gonna get on as usual which is completely ridiculous. Of course you cant predict anything. But having us at full strenght we would very likely see a completely different match.

9:1 at u20 says it all.

You are stressing too much. Anyone who at least watched that match knows that they have almost the strongest selection there. By the way, the 1:9 is also nothing authoritative for determining the strength of national men's selections. I already wrote it here, some of our players look like a wreck, others have health problems, Zacha is not a Czech... And although the Swiss had weak drafts, with our problems, wouldn't the Swiss be at least a balanced team right now on paper? It's a very good team.

 

[Czechboy]

We would most likely still see very tight match. Switzerland is currently definitely on par with Czech team in terms of "best-on-best".

I don't care what people here, who watch only WHC or at max Czech extraliga, say. It's good to see that Swiss star players respond to calls of their national team, and it's also great for the tournament - the more star players come, the better.

Couldn't agree more. If we don't and they win Gold here with this team I'd be real happy for them. They got silver a few years ago and I'm sure would love to win it. They got a great chance with this squad!

I will say though that they are playable. It'll be hard to win it for them but they definitely could! Germany is not a great matchup for them tbh. Germans have been battling all these close games and are battle tested.

 

[Elias40]

Still meh, I just cant root for Swiss if they are swinging superstar team agaisnt weaker top5 teams.

I hate it cause there is definitely gonna be a lot of salt going on right now in czech hockey public. I can see it already "Swiss are better then us" "the train has left for us" "Swiss and germans already better then us in hockey, we are at the level of Austria and other shits"

Just so much thrashing our hockey and praising theirs is gonna get on as usual which is completely ridiculous. Of course you cant predict anything. But having us at full strenght we would very likely see a completely different match.

9:1 at u20 says it all.

Posting the WJC result here is absolutely stupid. In youth, the Swiss are clearly worse, but their league is of higher quality than the Extraliga. So they may be bad in the juniors, but their late bloomers in the NT are excellent. Precisely because of the style of play in the NL.

 

[tade]

Couldn't agree more. If we don't and they win Gold here with this team I'd be real happy for them. They got silver a few years ago and I'm sure would love to win it. They got a great chance with this squad!

I will say though that they are playable. It'll be hard to win it for them but they definitely could! Germany is not a great matchup for them tbh. Germans have been battling all these close games and are battle tested.

Same. I would not mind seeing this Swiss team with the gold medal. Looks like Riga is flooded with Swiss fans, I would be happy for them, they are making great atmosphere. Feels like this is the year for them (I said the same in regards to Boston couple weeks ago, lol). Well... pretty much anyone but Finland!

I think, overall, it was solid game tonight, especially when we consider quality of our team. They were close to making it 3-3. Kubalik is terrific, dangerous nearly every shift, but there's absolutely no scoring depth. Spacek, Tomasek, Kaut are disappointments, they provide nothing and are overwhelmed on this level.

 

[Czechboy]

Same. I would not mind seeing this Swiss team with the gold medal. Looks like Riga is flooded with Swiss fans, I would be happy for them, they are making great atmosphere. Feels like this is the year for them (I said the same in regards to Boston couple weeks ago, lol). Well... pretty much anyone but Finland!

I think, overall, it was solid game tonight, especially when we consider quality of our team. They were close to making it 3-3. Kubalik is terrific, dangerous nearly every shift, but there's absolutely no scoring depth. Spacek, Tomasek, Kaut are disappointments, they provide nothing and are overwhelmed on this level.

With Sedlak done, we only have 3 forwards who have scored a goal. Kubalik, Cervus and Flek has 2! The other 9 guys have yet to bury one. You'd think those guys would've been able to find a goal against some of our weaker opponents at the very least!

I think our biggest issue is our Centre depth. Last year it was Hertl and Krejci. This year it is Sobotka and Spacek. I'd honestly consider moving Zohorna up into Top 6 and see if he can't help create space for a winger to score. I love Spacek but he's not doing enough and seems overwhelmed. Didn't see that coming as I thought he'd take this glorious opportunity and run with it!

I keep waiting for Smejkal and Chlapik to heal up and heat up with a few goals. Feel like they are the depth scoring we could use. Maybe they are saving it for Thursday!

 

[Czechboy]

To me it is blatantly obvious who should be starting the next 2 games.lol Vejmelka sat for a long time and let in a stinker in the first period. The other goal was an own goal from Knot (never to be seen again unfortunately).

I cannot wait till they find a way to make Hrubec the starter on Thursday.lol

 

[martygod12]

Posting the WJC result here is absolutely stupid. In youth, the Swiss are clearly worse, but their league is of higher quality than the Extraliga. So they may be bad in the juniors, but their late bloomers in the NT are excellent. Precisely because of the style of play in the NL.

Well its easy to have a high quality league if you can overpay tons of foreign players, who are making the quality there. In the top 50 of NL scoring leaders there is half maybe even 30 foreign players.

As for wishing them gold, I rooted for them at the start of the tourney, but hearing or reading everywhere 5times per day, how superb and level above they are and how they are going for gold starting to be kinda annoying and I am past this.

As I said its easy to be level above if you have almost the best you can field and are playing against our "fun" selection of team of those who have left after 100 injuries and like maybe team F of Canada.

But in the end I am just salty, still cant get over how unfortunate the luck was to us this year and how many stupid decision the staff made towards team selection. You are looking forward to WCH whole year (at least I am) and than you have to watch this barebones of a team, its annoying.

 

[BigBadBoar]

Well its easy to have a high quality league if you can overpay tons of foreign players, who are making the quality there. In the top 50 of NL scoring leaders there is half maybe even 30 foreign players.

As for wishing them gold, I rooted for them at the start of the tourney, but hearing or reading everywhere 5times per day, how superb and level above they are and how they are going for gold starting to be kinda annoying and I am past this.

As I said its easy to be level above if you have almost the best you can field and are playing against our "fun" selection of team of those who have left after 100 injuries and like maybe team F of Canada.

But in the end I am just salty, still cant get over how unfortunate the luck was to us this year and how many stupid decision the staff made towards team selection. You are looking forward to WCH whole year (at least I am) and than you have to watch this barebones of a team, its annoying.

I agree the Swiss are lucky this year that they have almost the best team they possibly could. Basically just Josi and Suter are missing. If the Czechs had Pastrňák, Krejčí, Hertl, Zacha, Nečas, Chytil, Palát, Kämpf, then Hronek, Rutta, Gudas in the defense, the game would certainly look very much different. That is not to say this Swiss team is not very good, it is and would be pretty competitive even in a best-on-best tournament, that's for sure. I just would be careful with saying "Switzerland is a bigger hockey nation than Czechia now". This WCH tournament is always a lot about what a squad can the individual nations bring together. Until there is a real World Cup of hockey or an Olympic tournament with the NHL participation, and we all probably do hope at least one such tournament will take place in the near future, it is difficult to compare real strength of hockey nations based on their national teams' performances. I am enjoying the WCH every year, it is always fun, you can see the players from not-so-elite teams trying to surprise the favourites and so on. But the composition of the top tier teams is always very much a crapshoot, and often doesn't say much about the state of the hockey game in the countries.

 

[Elias40]

Well its easy to have a high quality league if you can overpay tons of foreign players, who are making the quality there. In the top 50 of NL scoring leaders there is half maybe even 30 foreign players.

As for wishing them gold, I rooted for them at the start of the tourney, but hearing or reading everywhere 5times per day, how superb and level above they are and how they are going for gold starting to be kinda annoying and I am past this.

As I said its easy to be level above if you have almost the best you can field and are playing against our "fun" selection of team of those who have left after 100 injuries and like maybe team F of Canada.

But in the end I am just salty, still cant get over how unfortunate the luck was to us this year and how many stupid decision the staff made towards team selection. You are looking forward to WCH whole year (at least I am) and than you have to watch this barebones of a team, its annoying.

Only money is not enough, many things have changed for the better in NL. It used to be only a league for older Canadian players who no longer wanted to fight for low NHL contracts and so preferred to take an offer from the NL. Tactics were also adjusted a lot, they started working much more on the individual quality of the home players. And today, the essential element of the Swiss game is great skating and playing at a higher tempo. Imports have added different styles of play, it's not just older Canadian players and the old dump and chase style anymore either. Today there are more Swedish and Finnish players, matches often end with results like 6-4 or 7-5.

So seeing only money behind the rise of NL is not true. A lot of work was done by the Swiss themselves, even though their team at the WJC is aiming not to be relegated, they still have their team there. How much they have moved forward is shown, among other things, by the choice of Peter Forsberg to become the ambassador of the club EV Zug. In addition, he has a son in Zug, so he does not live in Sweden but in Switzerland, and he did not choose Zug by chance.

And as for the money, there is one club in the Extraliga...that hasn't won the title since 2007. And every year they put a lot of money into it, yet they still can't win the title... and small teams like Slavia, Zlín, KV, Litvínov... and Sparta still nothing, maybe only two finals. So you can have all the money you want, but if you don't have a concept or a vision, you're doomed to just throw money out the window.

I am still adding the average number of goals per match in Euroleagues.

NL - 2132 golov za 364 zapasov (5,857 pg)
SHL - 2004 golov za 364 zapasov (5,505 pg)
Liiga - 2317 golov za 450 zapasov (5,149 pg)
TELH - 1937 golov za 364 zapasov (5,321 pg)
DEL - 2453 golov za 420 zápasov (5,838 pg)
Tipos Extraliga - 1712 golov za 300 zápasov (5,707 pg)

 

[Old Man Jags]

Has it ever happened that after 6 games, two Czechs led the entire tournament in points (Kubalik and Cervenka)?

 

[Czechboy]

So we can still finish 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

Realistically, this means US, Finland or Sweden.

Anyone have a preference for our quarter final? They all sound like a nightmare to me.lol

 

[BigBadBoar]

So we can still finish 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

Realistically, this means US, Finland or Sweden.

Anyone have a preference for our quarter final? They all sound like a nightmare to me.lol

It doesn't matter, all 3 team are pretty equal in strength. If you want a medal, you have to beat such teams. It will all be about details, just as usual.

 

[Czechboy]

It doesn't matter, all 3 team are pretty equal in strength. If you want a medal, you have to beat such teams. It will all be about details, just as usual.

That's where I'm at too.. Canada game doesn't even mean much at all tomorrow. Our quarter is going to be a 1 goal game.

 

[Old Man Jags]

So we can still finish 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

Realistically, this means US, Finland or Sweden.

Anyone have a preference for our quarter final? They all sound like a nightmare to me.lol

We are not the favourite against any of them but we have some chances against all of them. The US might be hardest to deal with based on the games in this tournament so far (both the Americans’ and the Czechs’ games).

 

[Czechboy]

We are not the favourite against any of them but we have some chances against all of them. The US might be hardest to deal with based on the games in this tournament so far (both the Americans’ and the Czechs’ games).

It feels like Finns and Sisu (with Rantanan), Sweden is a juggernaut and US have been playing unbelievable. Those are our choices.lol

 

[BigBadBoar]

That's where I'm at too.. Canada game doesn't even mean much at all tomorrow. Our quarter is going to be a 1 goal game.

Exactly. Tomorrow's game will be just a preparation game for the QF.