Three of my fav posters arguing/discussing/making good points. Yikes. You all make great points.
I actually feel better about the team now after reading it all.lol.
1. Badinka is only half at fault. This is a pissing match but to even suggest he's not good enough for this team is crazy. He is exactly what Czech hockey needs. Dvorak didn't play last year but got invite after declining. Jiricek didn't play at all and is on the team based on 4 games played since last year's tournament. And I don't mean NT games.. I mean CHL games.
2. This d is stronger than last year's D. That squad already had galvas, port and koci. I'll argue they are all better a year later because they are older, stronger and more experienced. This could be flawed logic and maybe they're regressed but I'll take the 19 and 18 year old versions of them over the 18 and 17 year old versions.
View attachment 942927
Dvorak is better than alscher or hamara (who were excellent).
Fibigr is definitely of a similar quality to guys from last year and I would put him on par with Cibulka and Cech.
If jiricek plays.. he should be at least as good as last year. I'd argue better because he's older but this much time off is a risk.
I don't know enough about the rest of the guys. Oh wait.. I like rocak. I meant the two euros. I assume they are big and hard working. Really have no idea though.
The wildcard is Jiricek here. 2 good games in CHL this weekend. Then a good camp. Our pool is not that stacked so he could get 4 more games in before the quarters. Get him ready for the killer crossover.
No Mrtka pisses me off but right now our potential D is
Galvas Dvorak
Fibigr Jiricek
Koci Port
Rocak
This is a nice Top 6. I say better than last year.
3. Our forward group looks better to me. No Kulich but Sale feels like he is ready for the Kulich spot. Only forward I question is Simek but no guarantee he plays a game. And I'm not knocking Simek, I'm just not sure what they are hoping for from him? Offense? PK? Cerna Prace? PP? I'm not seeing size or points so I'm not sure what is expected.
A lot of our bottom 6 guys being .ppg in CHL is tremendous.. this is depth I dream of.
I'm actually not even sure who the top 6 is.lol It's that even to me. I'd keep Holinka and Jecho together and add a guy (I would've added Benak but they cut him). Cihar and Novotny have some offensive upside. Zidlick and Petr are having very good seasons for undrafted bottom 6 type guys. Sale is doing amazing and they almost didn't release him. He may get a NHL game in this season. Sikora, Kos, Mastalariskiy are all excellent. Hradec is a big body C. It's a very nice forward group. I have no idea how they mix them up.
4. Our goaltending is sublime. I'm not saying they'll win it for us but I have no issues at all here. Starting Hrabal as an 18 year was genius. He now has the experience as a 19 year old. Give him every start but Kazakhistan (which I'm attending but Kavan is from Brno and I like Milota so I don't care). Let him know he's the guy. Run with him. We still have guys like Matecha and Strebatik as well.