WC: General Talk '14 — France

[TollefsenFan]

France depend so much on the first line. Da Costa, Roussel and Bellemare are all great players.

 

[Babula]

Actually with Da Costa, Bozon and Roussel it looks like they have more future NHLers than Latvia so I don't thing your argument is very valid.

1st line can score only, quality of team is not about number of NHLers. I just want to say Latvia is still a better hockey country than France. But France is definitely able to play top division longer term.

 

[SoundAndFury]

1st line can score only, quality of team is not about number of NHLers. I just want to say Latvia is still a better hockey country than France.

Exactly, that's why my point indeed was that that argument doesn't mean anything.

 

[rduck1]

In the 00's they were mostly in DIV I. Since '08 they've been at the top level every year. Now they've started really challenging even the top teams and have made the playoff rounds while teams like Slovakia, Switzerland and possibly Finland won't. Hopefully they will be able to maintain their place at the top level for a long time to come.

They've made great strides I think. They have lots of players in high-level European and American leagues now, and even some NHL level talent with more to come. The sport has great potential to grow there now as well, with the increasing successes and hosting the WHC soon.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

No other answer than yes, it is on the rise. But France wont be any better than now in the near future. Their team is fairly old and there's not many good players out there outside this team. But with the success they're having now and Roussell doing well in the NHL France hockey will continue to rise, albeit just slightly.

 

[StanAjax]

They're not old.

Only Huet (38), Amar (34) and the "elder" line of Desrosiers (33) - Meunier (35) - Y. Treille (33) are above 30 years old.

Huet is a key piece, sure. Amar too. But Roussel, S. Da Costa and Auvitu are 24. Bellemare and Besch are 29.

The Bellemare - S. Da Costa - Roussel line will be there for many years. And they're already better than Desrosiers, Meunier and Y. Treille ever were.

There's still a lot to do to develop hockey and produce better players in the future, but it's not far fetched to consider that this team will be able to compete with Latvia, Norway, Denmark or Germany for the occasional 1/4 final spot in the coming years.

 

[ForumNamePending]

A lot of this stems from the fact that French hockey is indeed trying to improve itself. It was only in 2006 that the French Ice Hockey Federation was finally spun off from the French Ice Sports Federation and allowed total independence. I don't think its coincidence that the resurgence of French hockey began around then, too. And considering that they actively sought (and won) the bid for the 2017 World Championship to be held in Paris (and Cologne), they are making efforts to make hockey bigger in France.

On top of that they have also managed to turn their Cup final into an event that routinely sells out a 13-14 thousand seat arena. Considering the national federation has been around for less than a decade and they probably aren't working with a huge budget they have managed to accomplish a lot both on and off the ice.

 

[Jussi]

Young French players can comfortably go play in the QMJHL

But it's not like they're doing so.

 

[Esope]

It's a kind of "One Time Wonder", but french hockey is definitely improving. It's amazing what they've done since 2008.

The french league is structuring and should go professional in the next coming years. All teams are financially controlled and no bankruptcy happens anymore. This stability helps. They have more focus on young players development than in the past and they should produce more good players in the future. They won't be as good as the Swiss in the youth teams, but they are on a good way.

The number of drafted players and the results of the youth teams are a bad indicator when you want to try to predict the future of the french national team. French players tend to improve very late, as soon as they have to compete against very good players in better leagues. Roussel, Da Costa, Bellemare were never drafted. Today they are dominant and far much better players than a lot of drafted Canadians, Americans, Czech, Slovaks, etc...

Future of France: Bozon (if he recovers), Guillaume Leclerc, Malo Ville, Maurin Bouvet and probably some other guys I've never heard about. Ritz, Chakiachvili are good and still young, I hope that they will find a team in Sweden or Finland (Allsvenskan, Mestis) à la Bellemare/Fleury/Auvitu in order to improve.

What about Xavier Ouellet, Nicolas Kerdiles, Robin Gusse or Maxime Sauvé?

 

[namttebih]

I can't believe that no one has mentioned this yet, but Huet has been standing on his head. Throw in their backup and we may not be having this discussion right now.

 

[thom]

Tv ratings in France are nill-most kids play in northern regions since 1930s and growth has been stagnate along with Italy.Most french have no idea who Sidney Crosby is this is a fact not opinion.Pop.of France is about 65 million and ice is what you put in your glass for most

 

[ForumNamePending]

I can't believe that no one has mentioned this yet, but Huet has been standing on his head. Throw in their backup and we may not be having this discussion right now.

Given that France is tied for 4th in goals scored and Huet at .903 is only 8th in save% (among goalies who have played enough to qualify) I would say there is more to the team's success than just a goalie standing on his head.

The backup goalie in their single game posted a .941 save %.

Source

 

[NicolasH]

I can't believe that no one has mentioned this yet, but Huet has been standing on his head. Throw in their backup and we may not be having this discussion right now.

Our backup goalie lost 2-1 against Sweden this year and won against Russia last year. He's good.

 

[NicolasH]

Our backup goalie lost 2-1 against Sweden this year and won against Russia last year. He's good.

Ok... jinx !

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

They're not old.

Only Huet (38), Amar (34) and the "elder" line of Desrosiers (33) - Meunier (35) - Y. Treille (33) are above 30 years old.

Huet is a key piece, sure. Amar too. But Roussel, S. Da Costa and Auvitu are 24. Bellemare and Besch are 29.

The Bellemare - S. Da Costa - Roussel line will be there for many years. And they're already better than Desrosiers, Meunier and Y. Treille ever were.

There's still a lot to do to develop hockey and produce better players in the future, but it's not far fetched to consider that this team will be able to compete with Latvia, Norway, Denmark or Germany for the occasional 1/4 final spot in the coming years.

Fair enough, not old. What i meant is their current team doesn't have players who would develop much anymore. So in other words this team wont see any huge performance boosts in the future. They need some world-class fresh blood out there - and there's not much of that for France.

 

[Patman]

I prefer Hockey East for development... Amar, Meunier, Y Trielle at Lowell.... S DaCosta at Merrimack

Lowell has a well regarded U20 coming in next year

Of course, I say this, I'm a Lowell alum :p

 

[StanAjax]

Fair enough, not old. What i meant is their current team doesn't have players who would develop much anymore. So in other words this team wont see any huge performance boosts in the future. They need some world-class fresh blood out there - and there's not much of that for France.

Hmm, Roussel and S. Da Costa can still improve. There are a couple youngsters that have smaller roles too that should improve (Chakiachvili, Ritz for example).

Then, there's Tim Bozon who's expected to be at least as good as Roussel / Da Costa.

Of course, we don't have a lot of depth. France is not going to be a perennial quarter-final contender and jump into the top 8 soon. Even catching Latvia and Norway will be a long way. And Denmark has a better development program too.

But this is a good generation that should be able to make a couple nice surprises in the future like they're doing this year. If they can help grow the sport in France, great. We have already seen small progress recently (outdoor game in Grenoble, domestic games aired on basic TV channel...).

 

[Eye of Ra]

swedish reporter interview with raux about french hockey, about 20 minutes, in english: http://www.tv4.se/exklusivt-ekwall/avsnitt/exklusivt-ekwall-del-1-174238