GDT: Game 8: Czech Repulic Vs Germany | 9AM EST 3PM CET | GER 4 - 3 CZE

[PG Canuck]

Oh now all of a sudden you are a Canadian-German? Why weren't you gloating about that the last two decades?

They won a game against f***ing Czech Republic. This wasn’t the Gold Medal against Canada here.

I cheered for them at the Olympics, I’ve cheered for them at World Cups in soccer. I don’t really need to prove to you that I am German

 

[Star Ocean]

quarterfinal game involving the Czech = much more $$$ then germanys

Yeah how about those Canada cup refs.

 

[Chainshot]

It takes awhile for a reputation to build and then it takes awhile for it to recede.

The average hockey fan only pays attention to international hockey on an infrequent basis.

The narrative will be how the plucky underdog Germans upset the hometown traditional hockey power Czech team.

I agree that it's a false narrative, and anyone who watched the Germany-USA game would understand that even further.

That said, the German national team is usually a disciplined, defensive team and seeing the rise of their skill and speed is awesome. The more countries with good programs, the better.

 

[Czechboy]

How about that 1998-2001 period though? Good times.

Glorious.. Defending Olympic champs, back to back Junior champs and back to back to back world championships.

That's all gone now.lol

As a sidenote... I've never been a huge fan of the TSN calls on international hockey as they don't seem that knowledeable on European hockey. My least favourite thing is when Miller explains that those were the 'Hasek years'. He says it at EVERY single Czech game during the World's.. without fail for about 5 years now. He's made this comment at least 100 times. Of all the medals listed above.. Hasek won one of the them. He never went to the worlds and he wasn't a junior.lol Sorry, had to get that rant out.

 

[Czechboy]

They won a game against ****ing Czech Republic. This wasn’t the Gold Medal against Canada here.

I cheered for them at the Olympics, I’ve cheered for them at World Cups in soccer. I don’t really need to prove to you that I am German

I always laugh.. fandom is not like marriage. You can cheer for 2 teams, hell cheer for 3! It's not 'cheating'.

 

[Lampedampe]

They won a game against ****ing Czech Republic. This wasn’t the Gold Medal against Canada here.

I cheered for them at the Olympics, I’ve cheered for them at World Cups in soccer. I don’t really need to prove to you that I am German

You follow hockey and soccer and you're Canadian - German? Man that's some shameless glory hunting right there

 

[NyQuil]

Yeah, I get you. Your points are more than fair, it's just a difference in opinion. As an ex player/ref, I prefer when penalties are called more than not because it allows the game to remain under control and not escalate too much in emotion (where cheap shots start to emerge). But I know that as a fan it's much more exciting when games flow without stoppage and also when there are more emotions.

It's definitely not easy.

I get just as angry about "game management" and "equalizing calls" which happens in the NHL a lot.

You'll be down 5-1 thanks to 3 PP goals, and they hand you 2 PPs in the last 5 minutes of the game which amount to nothing so as to try and compensate. First of all, teams don't commit infractions evenly. Secondly, the timing of a call can be as critical as the call itself. If you're upset about the officiating, they'll say, well, look at the number of penalty minutes, or the number of calls.

If my team has had one or two more PPs over the other team, and then we score to go up 2-0, I just count the shifts for the make-up penalty to come our way. Reffing the score is a real thing.

NHL refs do fairly well on high-sticks and hooks, slashing to the hands. They do far worse on charging, boarding, cross-checking, interference and tripping, which are often seemingly arbitrary and handed out depending on what's happening in the game.

So, that being said, when I watch IIHF tournaments, I see plays that in no universe I'm familiar with get called for penalties, which rarely happens in my mind in the NHL. Plays that I just cannot comprehend the thought pattern behind the call. Where a guy loses his footing with no one around and a penalty gets called. I think the difference is that the mistakes at the IIHF level are so glaring that they are often beyond belief. Like "what the hell are they possibly thinking?" type of calls.

 

[Czechboy]

That said, the German national team is usually a disciplined, defensive team and seeing the rise of their skill and speed is awesome. The more countries with good programs, the better.

Agreed.. they flat out ouplayed us and were better. More skill and speed.

In a way, good it happened at home in front of the Czech federation... maybe a few heads will roll.

 

[NyQuil]

As a sidenote... I've never been a huge fan of the TSN calls on international hockey as they don't seem that knowledeable on European hockey. My least favourite thing is when Miller explains that those were the 'Hasek years'. He says it at EVERY single Czech game during the World's.. without fail for about 5 years now. He's made this comment at least 100 times. Of all the medals listed above.. Hasek won one of the them. He never went to the worlds and he wasn't a junior.lol Sorry, had to get that rant out.

The positive way of looking at it is that there is a strong belief among many Canadians (and we are a proud bunch) that Hasek is the greatest goalie of all-time.

So our ignorance is rooted in respect.

 

[NyQuil]

That said, the German national team is usually a disciplined, defensive team and seeing the rise of their skill and speed is awesome. The more countries with good programs, the better.

It's a bit reflective of their traditional approach to football, which was defensive-minded, until Voller and Klinsmann came along and changed things up in the early to mid 2000s.

 

[Realgud]

It's definitely not easy.

I get just as angry about "game management" and "equalizing calls" which happens in the NHL a lot.

You'll be down 5-1 thanks to 3 PP goals, and they hand you 2 PPs in the last 5 minutes of the game which amount to nothing so as to try and compensate. First of all, teams don't commit infractions evenly. Secondly, the timing of a call can be as critical as the call itself.

If my team has had one or two more PPs over the other team, and then we score to go up 2-0, I just count the shifts for the make-up call to come our way. Reffing the score is a real thing.

NHL refs do fairly well on high-sticks and hooks, slashing to the hands. They do far worse on charging, boarding, cross-checking, interference and tripping, which are often seemingly arbitrary and handed out depending on what's happening in the game.

So, that being said, when I watch IIHF tournaments, I see plays that in no universe I'm familiar with get called for penalties, which rarely happens in my mind in the NHL. Plays that I just cannot comprehend the thought pattern behind the call. Where a guy loses his footing with no one around and a penalty gets called. I think the difference is that the mistakes at the IIHF level are so glaring that they are often beyond belief. Like "what the hell are they possibly thinking?" type of calls.

Great post all around tbh, I agree with you. Cheers to you my guy.

 

[GKJ]

If it wasn't clear after the USA game, appears the Germans need to be taken seriously. Nice to see.

 

[joey16]

Agreed.. they flat out ouplayed us and were better. More skill and speed.

In a way, good it happened at home in front of the Czech federation... maybe a few heads will roll.

That's never going to happen. Probably they would come up with some excuse like we got unlucky that we got our best player injured or something like that.

 

[NyQuil]

Definitely a wild game and thoroughly entertaining.

 

[Czechboy]

That's never going to happen. Probably they would come up with some excuse like we got unlucky that we got our best player injured or something like that.

You're right... they'll say the Lauko injury was the difference while totally missing how bad our D was.lol It's an old boys club.

 

[joey16]

You're right... they'll say the Lauko injury was the difference while totally missing how bad our D was.lol It's an old boys club.

Yeah, I really hate that the defense issue isn't even talked enough here. Zaruba and company should be all over this always in at least one intermission every game of NT. This problem is here literally for more than a decade.

 

[Pieck]

People don’t seem to like the penalty music but it’s kind of amusing at times. Like when Schutz was losing his mind over his 4th or 5th penalty with the music playing in the background, it just seemed so fitting

 

[NyQuil]

People don’t seem to like the penalty music but it’s kind of amusing at times. Like when Schutz was losing his mind over his 4th or 5th penalty with the music playing in the background, it just seemed so fitting

This is true.

It seemed like the music for a bloopers compilation.

 

[Czechboy]

Yeah, I really hate that the defense issue isn't even talked enough here. Zaruba and company should be all over this always in at least one intermission every game of NT. This problem is here literally for more than a decade.

Since I'm griping (note: not about German's, they played great and totally deserved the W)... whenever I watch Czech feed and go to intermission it's prerocrded crap videos and Extraliga talk. Rarely do I see/hear much great analysis on the state of Czech Junior hockey and this is during Czech Junior games.lol

 

[Gereth]

Congratulations to Germany. They were definitely better today. These were 17y guys doing most of the work. That's quite impressive. PP felt like a punishment for Czechs. They weren't able to figure out anything besides a hopeful shot from a blue line the whole game. Passing was awful in general.

PS: I had a good laugh while reading conspiracy theories about IIHF trying to rig this game.

 

[Pieck]

If the Czechs, Germans, and Russians don't get any points (or get an equal number of points) from now until the 31st - a totally reasonable scenario - the Russia-Germany game on that day could be interesting
Russia would be out if they don't win in regulation, or win by 1 goal, scoring less than 4
Germany would be out if they lose by multiple goals
Czechs would be out if Russia wins by 1 goal, scoring more than 4
And if Russia wins 4-3 it gets complicated

Which means the late goals by the Czechs today could end up being really important

 

[NYRFANMANI]

can't believe I missed this one.

Peterka rising over Reichel it this point. Very impressive from the replays I watched.

Seider and Stützle are too obvious.

 

[Canada4Gold]

If the Czechs, Germans, and Russians don't get any points (or get an equal number of points) from now until the 31st - a totally reasonable scenario - the Russia-Germany game on that day could be interesting
Russia would be out if they don't win in regulation, or win by 1 goal, scoring less than 4
Germany would be out if they lose by multiple goals
Czechs would be out if Russia wins by 1 goal, scoring more than 4
And if Russia wins 4-3 it gets complicated

Which means the late goals by the Czechs today could end up being really important

Russia 4-3 would be hilarious. People always say, oh you have to run up the score because goal differential is a tiebreaker. But given that h2h and then h2h goal differential and h2h GF is the first 3 tiebreakers you never see additional games outside the tie ever breaking anything so losing to a great team or beating a terrible team 10-0 never matters. If that happened how much you lost to Canada and the USA would decide which I've never seen before.

 

[Bure80]

The Czechs "WERE" a hockey power. They have been mediocre for 15+ years especially at the U20.

The question for me is why. Im German who lifes near the Czech border. Hockey still has the support from the fans. What happen in the Czech youth system?
Maybe it has the same reason as the downfall of sport here in the Ex GDR. Sport was organized from the communist party. After the fall of the wall there was not really a structure in sports.
We had not the sport clubs Western Germany had. Maybe something similar happen in the Czech sytstem. Germany should have used some of the GDR sport system. But thats another story.

 

[Canada4Gold]

If the Czechs, Germans, and Russians don't get any points (or get an equal number of points) from now until the 31st - a totally reasonable scenario - the Russia-Germany game on that day could be interesting
Russia would be out if they don't win in regulation, or win by 1 goal, scoring less than 4
Germany would be out if they lose by multiple goals
Czechs would be out if Russia wins by 1 goal, scoring more than 4
And if Russia wins 4-3 it gets complicated

Which means the late goals by the Czechs today could end up being really important

On a related note, the Spengler cup has a similar situation, except it's only a 3 team pool. If Davos beats Canada 4-1 then... coin flip? I don't see what else there is to break that tie