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WC: 2023 IIHF World Championship Division I

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Nosswor said:
I don't know what's up with this British side though. They've moved away from simple hockey and are trying to massively overcomplicate things. I'm not sure if they came down thinking that this tournament would be a laugher, and that they're considerably better than the other teams bar Italy. The entire "success" of the British team since 2018 has been based on simple, clinical attacking play, usually on the rush. Now they're trying to pull off things that players with far greater talent than them wouldn't be able to do.
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I think the change of approach is understandable.
All very well and good focusing on quick transitions when you're probably not going to be given much respect, as GB weren't during the first season they came back up to IA and their time in the top flight.
But by now I think it's much less of a secret how dangerous a side GB are when taken lightly, and I think a bit more guile's needed to open up IA defences that will have themselves adapted to try to contain GB's strong attacking lines.
 
Eye of Ra said:
Why is Scott Conway not playing? He had a crazy season...90 points in 51 games in EIHL
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No publicly announced reason, but if the EIHL rumour mill is to be believed, there was a lot of off-ice drama in Belfast this year (it's part of the reason why Lewis Hook isn't on the team).

Conway refused to play in the February international break citing a need for rest. Guess nothing really changed after that.

Peter Russell is known for not always selecting the top-scoring Brits if they don't fit his model of play (or if they're bad in the room). It's why guys like Luke Ferrara and Ciaran Long have never really had a run in the national team despite being producers at the EIHL level.
 
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Im having some old school moment here....going through some estonian players....

Imagine all this players in their prime right now....i bet Estonia would have been top team in 1A with this team...if mixing the oldies with the current ones...

Conrad Mölder
Villem Henrik Koitmaa

Lauri Leheasalu
Dmitri Rodin
Alexander Agnevshcnikov
Kaupo Kaljuste
Gennadi Rozkov
Vjatseslav Kulpin
Roman Potsinok

Toivo Suursoo
Alexander Petrov
Andrei Makrov
Robert Rooba
Eduard Valiullin
Mihail Kozlov
Robert Arrak
Ivan Loginov
Erik Embrich
Kristjan Kombe
Igor Ossipenkov
Maksim Ivanov

Not in order...

Did i forget any great estonian?
 
I have watched dozens if not hundreds of Estonian NT games and I still don't know half of the players so I'm assuming this list is biased toward the old timers big time since the Estonian level has been generally rising, not dropping since the Soviet era. Also this team would have next to no chance to do anything meaningful at 1A level. I mean compare these forwards to Slovenia's and forwards are actually the strength of this team.

Also like I said, I don't know half of the guys but Alexei Sibirtsev deserves a place on the All-Time Estonian team, the man was a horse for them throughout the years.
 
Agreed, they're better player production away from D1A and by no means missing a "golden generation".
 
Nosswor said:
I don't know what's up with this British side though. They've moved away from simple hockey and are trying to massively overcomplicate things. I'm not sure if they came down thinking that this tournament would be a laugher, and that they're considerably better than the other teams bar Italy. The entire "success" of the British team since 2018 has been based on simple, clinical attacking play, usually on the rush. Now they're trying to pull off things that players with far greater talent than them wouldn't be able to do.
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They were pretty bad on their own side of their blueline, especially in the third period. The third goal was a result of a a defender watching as a big juicy rebound came out and the fourth goal was a save your goaltender had to make.

But at this point, surely they just have to not step right upon their dicks and they will get promoted, right? There is no excuse for them to lose to Lithuania and Romania, right?
 
MeHateHe said:
But at this point, surely they just have to not step right upon their dicks and they will get promoted, right? There is no excuse for them to lose to Lithuania and Romania, right?
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If Poland beats Italy tomorrow - not exactly impossible, according to bookmakers Poland is somehow a favorite - GB - Italy game is going to decide everything. It's not quite that easy.
 
Or Poland beats Italy but somehow manages to lose to Romania at which point Italy & GB might both still be promoted already before they play one another.
 
jonas2244 said:
The LTU-coach waited way too long to pull the goalie.
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Hard to say. With the tournament playing out like this, goal differential is what will have to save us even if we do get a win against Korea therefore the price of allowing an empty netter was quite significant. I did think so too at the time but in hindsight, allowing ENG would have made the loss so much worse.

Edit: and now ENG wouldn't have mattered anyway so it's back to being mistake, I guess :laugh:
 
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Albatros said:
Congrats to Korea, Lithuania is in a very deep hole now.
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We are in the same-sized hole ever since we lost to the weakest team in the division. Just like before this game, we need a win against Korea. If anything, the fact that it's not a must-win game for them anymore works in our favor.

Yes, in theory, Koreans could have lost today but everyone understands the chances of that happening were tiny. And other than that, a solid Korean win was the best outcome.

Italy - Poland, meanwhile, looks pretty even. The goals have been absolute bombs.
 
Bitty but entertaining game so far between Poland and Italy - Poles maybe slightly having the better of it but level at 1-1. Poland carrying on some of their momentum from the 3rd period v GB and causing especially Italy's lower lines problems; Italy's biggest goal threats so far look like their D-men... Trivellato fired a laser top corner straight from a face-off from their equaliser and they've been going for repeats ever since.
 
SoundAndFury said:
We are in the same-sized hole ever since we lost to the weakest team in the division. Just like before this game, we need a win against Korea. If anything, the fact that it's not a must-win game for them anymore works in our favor.

Yes, in theory, Koreans could have lost today but everyone understands the chances of that happening were tiny. And other than that, a solid Korean win was the best outcome.

Italy - Poland, meanwhile, looks pretty even. The goals have been absolute bombs.
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The difference being that as the Koreans got full 3 points also Lithuania needs a regulation win. Or if they somehow beat Italy or Great Britain (or under circumstances even both) they'll still need to win Korea as well anyway.
 
Poland 3-2 up with 20 minutes to go... have to say as a GB fan I think this Italy team is as weak as I've ever seen it, beyond their first two pairs of Ds I think we're better than them and should be winning come judgment day; Poland have outworked their opponents and deserve their scoreboard advantage in my view.
 
Albatros said:
The difference being that as the Koreans got full 3 points also Lithuania needs a regulation win.
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Yes, it's really quite straightforward. We need a regulation win against the opponent we have won against in regulation in the 2 most recent games. Is that a really big hole? Is it really a much bigger hole than the shootout win working for us as well? Does someone prepare for a game to win it in SO?

What happened today was by far the most predictable outcome and actually changes very little. Everyone understood things playing out the way they are was a very real possibility even before the tournament, Korea hammered Romania just like they did last year. Now we need to beat Korea, just like we did last year. It's not some kind of fantasy scenario and the difference between the situation before and after today is marginal, one win against a very beatable opponent still solves everything.
 
aquaregia said:
Poland 3-2 up with 20 minutes to go... have to say as a GB fan I think this Italy team is as weak as I've ever seen it, beyond their first two pairs of Ds I think we're better than them and should be winning come judgment day; Poland have outworked their opponents and deserve their scoreboard advantage in my view.
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Have to agree. Even objectively, these teams are very close, Italy has a definite edge on D but Poland probably does have a slight one on F. And Poles have been slightly better in the first 30 minutes, even if helped big time by the idiotic penalty Traversa took. Still a lot of game left to play though in the game of 2 equal opponents.
 
SOG after that major penalty were 9-15 Poland, now it's 31-20 Italy. I feel it's safe to say Italians are tilting the ice in the 2nd half. They just either manage to break through, or they don't.
 
Mike Keenan is going to be throwing some garbage cans in the Italian dressing room today
 
Well done Poland. This was a historical chance to get promoted to Elite and they took it. I really don't see Italy digging itself out of this in this game or the tournament overall.
 
Yep, well done the Poles - have to say I was a bit skeptical of their ability to challenge for top-2 before the tournament began but they've proven themselves on the ice so far!
 
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