WJC: 2025 WJC U20 Division I Group A

[Fjorden]

It's somewhat ridiculous to see both goalies of the main competitors as some phenoms rather than keep your top players responsible for a complete lack of execution. And to even further convolute it into the "our goaltending hasn't been good enough".

Anyway, here is the performance of all the drafted players after 4 games:

Gregor Biber	Austria	1+3, 4 points
Vasili Zelenov	Austria	1+3, 4 points
Jan Golicic	Slovenia	1+2, 3 points
Ludvig Lafton	Norway	1+2, 3 points
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard	Denmark	0+3, 3 points
Stian Solberg	Norway	1+0, 1 point
Michael Brandsegg-Nygård	Norway	0+0, 0 points

Is there really anything else to say? Even Ludvig Lafton, with the very same coach, teammates and opposing goalies falls perfectly in line with the rest of the group. 2 Norwegian first-rounders, meanwhile, with an absolute stinker of a performance.

And I was really sympathetic towards them at the start, like Solberg had to play 3 games in 3 days with travel from Sweden to Slovenia in between. Again, no practices with the team, no nothing. The game against Austria was really bad for him but it was understandable. However, the way they still perform towards the end of the tournament, after the rest day and very manageable game against Hungary, I'm lost for words. Especially about Nygard, he has even less of an excuse and even more terrible of a stat line.

The danes have a coach with lots of experience from the highest Danish division, metalligaen. the austrian have a coach with extensive experience from ICEHL. The danes have a goalie that plays many games in Hockeyallsvenskan, and the Austrian have a very good goalie with a solid record from Swedish j20. So they do have more quality than Norway when it comes to coaching and, goalkeeping.

The players you mention have not played up to their standards in this tournament.
But both needs a system, and a good gameplan to take out their potential, That is the coach's task, they've not delivered, and we could use some new coaching resources for the coming years.

 

[Webster]

It's somewhat ridiculous to see both goalies of the main competitors as some phenoms rather than keep your top players responsible for a complete lack of execution. And to even further convolute it into the "our goaltending hasn't been good enough".

Anyway, here is the performance of all the drafted players after 4 games:

Gregor Biber	Austria	1+3, 4 points
Vasili Zelenov	Austria	1+3, 4 points
Jan Golicic	Slovenia	1+2, 3 points
Ludvig Lafton	Norway	1+2, 3 points
Oscar Fisker Mølgaard	Denmark	0+3, 3 points
Stian Solberg	Norway	1+0, 1 point
Michael Brandsegg-Nygård	Norway	0+0, 0 points

Is there really anything else to say? Even Ludvig Lafton, with the very same coach, teammates and opposing goalies falls perfectly in line with the rest of the group. 2 Norwegian first-rounders, meanwhile, with an absolute stinker of a performance.

And I was really sympathetic towards them at the start, like Solberg had to play 3 games in 3 days with travel from Sweden to Slovenia in between. Again, no practices with the team, no nothing. The game against Austria was really bad for him but it was understandable. However, the way they still perform towards the end of the tournament, after the rest day and very manageable game against Hungary, I'm lost for words. Especially about Nygard, he has even less of an excuse and even more terrible of a stat line.

Did you even watch the games? Solberg played great against Austria, he even got the reward for Norway's best player in that game. He's a defenseman you know, his most important job is not to score goals, and defensively he was just fine.

MBN didn't play as much as he normally would, he needs some rest. Even though he didn't have to join them, he did it anyway because he wanted to stay with the boys for a while.

This has been a crazy year for both Solberg and MBN after they were picked in the 1st round in the NHL draft, almost no time off. I think you should wait to evaluate them after they have settled down and played a normal year.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Did you even watch the games? Solberg played great against Austria, he even got the reward for Norway's best player in that game. He's a defenseman you know, his most important job is not to score goals, and defensively he was just fine.

Yes, turnovers at the start of the third period that led to the Austrian breakaways were especially fine. Have you watched the games?



One of his "fine" moments, for example.

This has been a crazy year for both Solberg and MBN after they were picked in the 1st round in the NHL draft, almost no time off. I think you should wait to evaluate them after they have settled down and played a normal year.

Are you implying it's different for all the drafted players (Texier, Bokk, Bjorkstrand, Protas, Rossi, Molgaard) who have played in this tournament before? I'm not stating anything revolutionary here, it's all based on precedent. And it's almost unprecedented, Teddy Blugers in 2013 was the only similar case I found although he arrived from NA (so add the jetlag) and only played 3 games. He also was a famously long-term project and didn't exactly wow in his junior career. Not to mention pre-2022 guys faced quite a bit stronger field too.

But that's what I hate in general. Both Fjorden and you, your attitudes seem to be "let's just blame the things we are supposed to blame, have prepared to blame since before the tournament in case it went wrong and turn a blind eye to what actually happened on the ice because these kinds, the holy cows of Norwegian hockey, can do no wrong".