GDT: Czechs vs Swiss (U18)
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I am only reading the boxscore here, but it seems this would have been what our game against Czechia would have been like if they had been able to capitalize on their chances in the 1st period.
Really happy for the Czechs.
Really happy for the Czechs.
Czechboy
Náš f*cken barák!
- Apr 15, 2018
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PanniniClaus
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- Oct 12, 2006
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Czechboy
Náš f*cken barák!
- Apr 15, 2018
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Czechboy
Náš f*cken barák!
- Apr 15, 2018
- 30,108
- 27,714
I think they were in trouble... imagine if Russia, Belarus and Slovakia were here?
Czechboy
Náš f*cken barák!
- Apr 15, 2018
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My Czech feed changed to National team playing Finland.. I get it but that's when Kulich scored his next goal. Back to TSN.. glad it isn't button on commentary.lol
Anyone know why no one talks about Bares? He's having a hell of a tourney and I don't even think he's in draft rankings but I think this is his draft year (could be wrong)
Anyone know why no one talks about Bares? He's having a hell of a tourney and I don't even think he's in draft rankings but I think this is his draft year (could be wrong)
kudla
Registered User
Well I am the first to admit that Swiss junior hockey has been on the decline for years but this years team is making it look a bit worse than it is. First of all with Bichsel, Dionicio and Taibel and Müller some of the best 04 players weren't available. Also some of the better 05 players like Braillard and Gruber weren't on the roster for some reason. In addition to that the 04 class, outside of Bichsel one of the weaker classes we had in recent memory, especially depth wise.
Czechboy
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I'm hoping the trend reverses a little (if it is indeed a trend).
Swiss remind me a bit of early 2000 Czechs right now. Great senior team and a threat. But we kept losing junior after junior while doing well at senior. It didn't become painful till a decade later.
I also loved that Swiss hockey went from a more counter attack model to being aggressors with some elite talent! Hope Meier is going to the World's. He is unreal.
What worries we most is that we discuss foreigners in the Swiss league and the forced retirement of Raphael Diaz and Simon Moser much much more than how we could make progress in closing the gap in Junior hockey. It's always gonna be tough to compete with the best in a tournament which includes players born in 2 years but if you want to be a hockey nation you need to produce prospects at a certain rate and currently even Austria is better in creating prospects than we do.
I think the issue is, like Czechboy pointed out ,that this is a long term process that the senior team won't feel for a few more years. Meier, Fiala, Hischier, Siegenthaler among others are still improving in the NHL as of this season and even Josi had a career year at age 31. Meier and Hischier (and Fiala until recently) play also for pretty weak teams and were available often for the NT in the recent past. On top of that we can still rely on above average NLA players from those strong 90's birth years like Malgin, Hoffman, Andrighetto, Corvi, Haas etc. So most of the time we will have a competitive roster at the WC and can get out of the group stage comfortably. And thats really all swiss hockey media and most of the fandom care about. When the U20 or U18 teams get humiliated, no one in Switzerland will even take notice, even though this has implications for the future of the senior NT as well.
I guess reforms won't be pursued from the federation side until the player base has weakened to a point where it clearly hurts the performance of the senior team. And this will probably happen in a few years. I mean wich player born in 2000 or later even has the potential to have a significant role in the NT in the future? Moser, and Bichsel are the only surefire candidates in my book. Then there are a bunch of potential candidates like Nussbaumer, Henauer, Aebischer, Berni, Holenstein, Knak, Fahrni, Delémont, Meier and Canonica that come to mind. And most players from that second group might end up just as decent or even below average NLA players instead of NT material. I feel like we are not just lacking in producing high end prospects for the NHL. Its also the lack of producing very good NLA players, like the ones i mentioned above, that I find concerning.
I wouldn't expect much from the clubs in that regard either. As long as the player base is getting worse for every club at the same rate, they will just continue the bidding wars for the best swiss players and imports on the market. Maybe some smaller teams like Rapperswil or Ambri can continue to carve out a niche for themselves as good places for young prospects but for the rest of the league the outlook looks pretty bleak. Most teams are just not willing to give young prospects significant ice time and use them on the special teams. Yes this might make the respective team a bit worse short term but could pay dividends long term if that prospect turns into a "star-player". The playoff finals are emblematic for this right now. Zürich doesn't have a player younger than 25 on their roster and Zug relegates Allenspach to a very limited role on the fourth line. In the meanwhile Noah Meier and Valentin Hofer are bored in the Swiss League.
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Sigrist is 23 and Sopa is 21 (but not getting minutes). But that doesn't change much. And with more foreigners the Top-teams will have even less young players which means we won't see them far in the playoffs. How they suppose to get better?
But yeah, I agree on all of it, future doesn't look bright. Especially high-end talent on the offensive side of the game is not in sight.
But yeah, I agree on all of it, future doesn't look bright. Especially high-end talent on the offensive side of the game is not in sight.
Yeah I thought Sigrist was a 97 birth year as well and forgot about Sopa alltogether because he plays so little. But its not like that matters as you pointed out. Both would need way bigger roles for it to matter.
Young players surely won't get better by mickey mouse solutions like a U23 league that some hockey people are suggesting right now. If you haven't made it at the NLA level at that age you just never will.
Maybe its also a cultural problem. For scandinavian coaches and fans implementing young players into the pro teams seems like the most natural thing ever. I followed Lian Bichsels season in Sweden a little bit this year. Early in the season he had some absolutely terrible defensive mistakes that led to goals against. In Switzerland no coach would have kept him on the first team after this. But the coach of Leksands just knew this has to be expected from a young player took the blame on himself and even increased Bichsels role towards the end of the year. Such an approach seems just unthinkable in our league right now.
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Such an approach to young players is very similar to that in the Czech Republic. Coaches are not willing to tolerate mistakes, even if they are young players, and it is logical that they will definitely make some mistakes.
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