Hello guys, this is my first post in years. I only read your posts, which I'm always really excited about, so thanks for always keeping me (and others as well) updated about the German national teams and prospects. Obviously, a special thanks to Maverick, whom I'm really grateful for all the work he has put into these threads over the last couple of years.
I want to give you guys my opinion on the Hlinka game yesterday vs. Czechia. I started watching the game about halfway through the first period. Unfortunately, I always had to fight with lags due to a bad stream quality. There were rarely any periods of the game where I was able to watch more consecutive minutes of the game without the stream suddenly stopping for a few seconds (sometimes even minutes). So take the following notes with a grain of salt. I also have to admit that my "scouting abilities" are way worse than yours; you guys are far better at judging the skill (vision, stickhandling, skating, etc.) and the upside of a talent than I am. So this is just my opinion:
Overall: There were some shifts from the team in general that were really good. Good offensive plays, good zone entries, etc. But in a larger picture, Germany was just outskilled (sometimes by a huge margin) by the Czechs. I was always really excited about this '07 group (and I still am), but yesterday was a perfect example to see the difference in overall skill between the top nations (where I would consider this year's Czech team) and ours. There's especially one point where I could see a HUGE difference: the skating. I'm going to go to the individual players later on, but except for Willhöft and Händel (maybe Kessler), all good German players, like the Griva twins, Lewandowski, and Bleicher, are so much worse in their skating abilities than the Czech players. It just caught my eye right away.
About the individual players (in my opinion, there wasn't a single German player who was really dominating in that game, so keep that in mind):
Dustin Willhöft: I swear to god, if that kid was just 4-5 cm taller, he would make such a huge impact (off course it's not only about the size, he needs to get stronger as well). Good skating, good passing plays, overall one of Germany's best players yesterday. Good pass on Lewandowski's goal. And the goal he scored was a beauty. But there's one thing that's really concerning me: Sometimes due to his good skating, he had a bit of room, overskated opponents but was then just "checked" by the Czech defender and separated from the puck in a fairly easy way - and that's due to his lack of size. It was so disappointing to see a player who has huge potential in so many areas, but because he is just 5'7", defenders were sometimes just giving him a little push and he was struggling to even stay on his feet. Disappointing because in all other areas there's a possibility to improve, but you obviously can't "improve" your size. Still, one of my favorite German prospects.
David Lewandowski: He was nearly invisible in the first 35-40 minutes. Also because the Germans took a lot of penalties and he wasn't (at least as far as I can remember, I'm not 100% sure though) on a penalty kill unit. In the third period, he had two really good situations where he unfortunately got one off the post on a nifty move against the goaltender. He also had a good chance where he beat two or three opponents, creating a good scoring opportunity. You could really see his potential; there were flashes of great skill displayed, but not at a consistent level.
Carlos Händel: Not really that noticeable in the offensive zone, he had some good defensive plays where he created more room for himself from an attacking Czech player, sometimes a bit too risky (I think you guys know what I mean, as Händel likes to dangle in his own zone a bit too much sometimes). But I like the confidence and the IQ at this moment, trying to slow the play down rather than forcefully trying a pass to, for example, the neutral zone, just to "create something." These situations sometimes remind me of Seider and Stützle. I also like his skating a lot - very smooth.
Griva twins: I just simply don't like their skating... they seemed so slow compared to the Czech players. Which is unfortunate because they have great vision. Most of the good offensive plays on the team came from the Griva twins and Zwickl line (Zwickl, who I liked too, had good pressure in the offense, uses his size very well, and has good vision too). I think they do have some upside but really need to improve their skating. One thing that also caught my eye was their defensive awareness. They made bad decisions which sometimes also led to a goal for the Czechs. They definitely need to work on their defense.
Max Bleicher: Honestly the most disappointing German player - also because I have high hopes for him. He tried to get some offensive plays going, but most of them were in vain. Bad shots, overhandling the puck on the blue line at a power play, etc. He also made a lot of mistakes in the defensive zone as well. Maybe he just had a bad day - at least I hope so. I saw a couple of games from EV Füssen in the Oberliga last season, and I always thought his best ability is his defense... I couldn't see that yesterday.
I don't want to go through all of the other players; it would just be too much. Schneider and Späth were on the player list for the game, but I can't remember seeing them on the ice. Maybe it was exactly at the moment the stream was lagging, but as far as I can remember, they weren't getting any ice time - I don't know why.
So like I said before, take all of that written with a grain of salt as I'm not that skilled in scouting young players. And this is also all based on this one game.
I'm trying to post more in the future.
