WJC: 2025 Czech Team

[Goodman68]

Yeah but it was completely unnecessary to add that he is not "dominant" enough. Publicly diminishing his quality, that will certainly not help in comunnication between them towards future NT tournaments and next WJC possibly.

So I have no problem with that at all. Journalists ask him the reasons and he tells them. Why should he hide something, or even lie. And I don't understand at all these "dances" around a player whom I criticized for his game already in the U17 category (he didn't play well in the national team even then and my posts about problems with forechecking are still here), his performances were always below expectations and last year he was in representation before the World Cup literally embarrassing. Now he's offended. And the coach is supposed to walk around carefully so that he doesn't accidentally offend him and somehow touch his ego? Laughable. I'm 100% behind Augusta and we can easily play badly in the championship..

 

[czechcanadian]

You also forget that we were extremely lucky in the QF against Canada, so we very well could have ended in QF last year. The team outperformed itself with the bronze.

Still looking at lineup again, there were Hamara, Alscher, Cibulka and Galvas in the back, Ales Cech was playing in ELH full time, so I would not say D the were much weaker then this year.

In the net was Hrabal so that was the same.

Offense were maybe a bit weaker, but you forget there was still Kulich and Sapo, backed up with Sale and extremely productive CHL players Becher, Rymon and Melovsky who have really standed out in their age group at that tournament. We completely lack those kind of players this year. The Euro part of offense is looking really good, but the CHL part is kinda weak imo. Most of those players are barely at ppg. in their teams, which is really just not that great for CHL. Topped out with tiny and unproductive Simek who is below average at CHL even at age 19.

Yeah seeing the lineup again and if Jiricek makes it and boosts our D, the team actually doesnt look that bad, 95% was an exaggeration, but still a chance for medal is not very high this year.

And no Badinka, Benak and Mrtka are just stupid decisions.

I’m not forgetting but I know there was luck. Still, they played relatively well and like I said earlier, had a big chance to make Final.

Becher and Melovsky were excellent and a nice surprise. Even Bareš was a good energy player.
But after that it really dropped off in terms of production and sustained pressure.

I think we have more offensive depth this year and I like the defense more as well. Even if Jiricek doesn’t play.

Hrábal a year later isn’t the same. Of course he may still fail but in theory he should be much better and much more confident. Hopefully he’s worked on the glove hand!

So I’m not necessarily saying we’re getting a medal but I’m looking at the glass half full where as you are looking at it half empty.

 

[martygod12]

So I have no problem with that at all. Journalists ask him the reasons and he tells them. Why should he hide something, or even lie. And I don't understand at all these "dances" around a player whom I criticized for his game already in the U17 category (he didn't play well in the national team even then and my posts about problems with forechecking are still here), his performances were always below expectations and last year he was in representation before the World Cup literally embarrassing. Now he's offended. And the coach is supposed to walk around carefully so that he doesn't accidentally offend him and somehow touch his ego? Laughable. I'm 100% behind Augusta and we can easily play badly in the championship..

I give up you are right I am wrong.

 

[martygod12]

I’m not forgetting but I know there was luck. Still, they played relatively well and like I said earlier, had a big chance to make Final.

Becher and Melovsky were excellent and a nice surprise. Even Bareš was a good energy player.
But after that it really dropped off in terms of production and sustained pressure.

I think we have more offensive depth this year and I like the defense more as well. Even if Jiricek doesn’t play.

Hrábal a year later isn’t the same. Of course he may still fail but in theory he should be much better and much more confident. Hopefully he’s worked on the glove hand!

So I’m not necessarily saying we’re getting a medal but I’m looking at the glass half full where as you are looking at it half empty.

I just have worries about the D, we are looking to have really weak 3rd pair and if Jiricek wont play really weak half of the defense. I fear that top teams will make complete practice dummies out of players like Koci, Volas, Port.

 

[Czechboy]

I just have worries about the D, we are looking to have really weak 3rd pair and if Jiricek wont play really weak half of the defense. I fear that top teams will make complete practice dummies out of players like Koci, Volas, Port.

Just wait till they keep Volas and cut Galvas.lol

 

[Czechboy]

I’m not forgetting but I know there was luck. Still, they played relatively well and like I said earlier, had a big chance to make Final.

Becher and Melovsky were excellent and a nice surprise. Even Bareš was a good energy player.
But after that it really dropped off in terms of production and sustained pressure.

I think we have more offensive depth this year and I like the defense more as well. Even if Jiricek doesn’t play.

Hrábal a year later isn’t the same. Of course he may still fail but in theory he should be much better and much more confident. Hopefully he’s worked on the glove hand!

So I’m not necessarily saying we’re getting a medal but I’m looking at the glass half full where as you are looking at it half empty.

A 19 year old NCAA starting goalie that went in round 2 and played as an 18 year old seems very promising to me. I really like the other 2 goalies as well.

Last year Becher and Melovsky were the big surprises... we have some great candidates for that... from the pros like Kos, Holinka or Sikora OR from the CHL guys like Petr and Zidlicky. I feel like they have some potential to have a really good tournament as 19 year old leaders.

I'm quite excited about the whole thing.

Must win Quarter - that's all I care about. 4 semis in a row at this would be tremendous!

 

[Czechboy]

No idea if Dvorak will say no again. No idea if coaches will invite Badinka.

G - Hrabal. Matecha and Milota. My guess is that both Milota and Matecha get drafted.
D - Port, Dvorak, Jiricek, Galvas, Figigr, Badinka, Koci, Svozil
F - Sale, Stancl, Mastalarisky, Zidlicky, Benak, Jecho, Sprynar, Felcman, Kos, Curran, Petr, Perez, Holinka

Who'd I miss? Rocak? Novotny? Lukas Fischer is stilll listed as Czech? Simek?

I will say, I was pretty damn close. This is from page 1 and almost a year ago.
2 out of 3 on the G's.. Kavan instead of Matecha.
6 out of 8 on the D. I had Badinka. For now I'll count Jiricek as on team. I did ask about Rocak. I had no idea who Volas is in fairness, still really don't.lol I was way off on Svozil.lol
10 out of 13 on forwards - had Benak, Curran and Perez wrong. FTR.. I think it was a mistake not to take those 3. But I like the F core and think it is a strength for us this tourney.

 

[Czechboy]

My guess at the roster:

Stancl-Holinka-Sale
Kos-Felcman-Petr
Mastalirsky-Jecho-Hradec
Sikora-Curran-Zidlicky

Dvorak-Jiricek
Koci-Port
Galvas-Badinka
Fibigr

Hrabal
Milota

You did tremendous!

Curran youre one missed forward (again, I thought he should've gone).

Badinka your one missed D. Definitely a political reason and not a skill one.


19 out of 21!

 

[czechcanadian]

I feel like Hrabal is our X-factor. Do you agree?
If he plays up to his potential we could go far.

I feel like we don’t talk about that enough.

Does anyone else agree or disagree? Who else would be the X-factor player?

 

[czechcanadian]

2025 World Juniors Preview: Can Team Czechia keep medal streak alive?

With a silver and a bronze over the past two years, the Czechs are hoping to finish on the top...

www.dailyfaceoff.com

Good article written here by Steven Ellis.

 

[Czechboy]

I feel like Hrabal is our X-factor. Do you agree?
If he plays up to his potential we could go far.

I feel like we don’t talk about that enough.

Does anyone else agree or disagree? Who else would be the X-factor player?

100%.. it bugs me that everyone remembers him as an 18 year old shitting the bed in 2 games because they forget he is now 19 and had a year to improve. Also, he was the main reason we took Canada out. He seems better against the US and Canada .. I think he is more a North American style goalie. Slovakia, for instance, seems to snipe the living shit out of his glove every time we play them.lol This one is on small ice and he's a year older and I do think him/Milota is as good agoalie tandem as anyone has this tourney. I'll go so far as to say if he were Canadian, he'd be their starter.

To me, the X factor is our forwards. I'm writing my own article and after Sale it all looks extremely similar in good ability. 2 to 12 are all damn good. I project Petr on line 1 and he's not drafted and .ppg in CHL. So is Zidlicky. How does a .ppg 19 year old compare to 10 points in 30 FInnish league games? Cihar has low totals but better numbers than Kulich at same age. Novotny should be a first rounder, so what does he show and where do they put him. How about a guy like Felcman playing in the NLA? That is not easy for a 19 year old import. Stancl is who I think leads our scoring. I feel like we have every single league in the world represented on our roster.lol

 

[Czechboy]

2025 World Juniors Preview: Can Team Czechia keep medal streak alive?

With a silver and a bronze over the past two years, the Czechs are hoping to finish on the top...

www.dailyfaceoff.com

Good article written here by Steven Ellis.

Really enjoyed the writeup. Quite fair. This line was something I've been thinking about a lot lately:

On paper, this feels like a Czech team that could have easily dismantled the groups we saw from about 2005 until the COVID-19 pandemic.

That is very true. We made one semi between 2006 and 2021.lol And that was the Varada led 'bronze generation' crew with Zadina, Necas, Kaut etc.

He included a line about Galvas too.

I get that Galvas may not be a NHL Dman one day. It drives me crazy but I get the logic. However, logic be damned, at a U20 event I expect him to stand out and show the world that, amongst teenagers, he's one of the best Dman in the tourney. He's undrafted and I view him as a first rounder.lol

 

[Statsy]

It seems wild to me that in the modern NHL where we see so many undersized dmen excelling with their ability, that someone wouldn't use a late round pick on a guy that people were talking about like he's a first or second rounder heading into the draft. Maybe they found something unsavory about him off the ice??? I honestly have no idea.