Ah they are kids and don't have the prep time the other teams do for this tourney, expecting gold here every year at this thing has to be tempered. I'm just glad they kept at it and made the in the dying minutes comeback to make bronze possible.
What a bad take. They almost won it in the OT, not to mention Canada had to pull their goalie for that last minute push to tie it.
It’s not a bad take at all. I think the U18 project forgot that defenseman should be good skaters too cause clearly that’s a huge weak point. Not playing Klecka is also a dumb decision.
I don't think any of the top guys for next year have showed the all around game this kid has.
Seems a bit overly harsh. It's a small country with 5.447 people. GDP per Capita is at $21,391 USD, so it's not particularly wealthy for an expensive sport like Ice Hockey. Populartity wise, Hockey clearly ranks behind Association Football and is more on par with other stuff. People make a big deal about how Finland is small and thus isn't going to be consistent at the Junior level every year, but Slovakia is around the size and has the other things I mentioned that indicate they won't be as good. It is probably just not that realistic to expect there to be any sort of magical formula that will produce numerous high quality defensemen that are capable of playing at the highest levels every birth year.
When they gained the O-zone they had literally no play. The individual skill of Dman how to cycle, how to make a pass or 1 on 1 was nowhere to be seen. Slovakia play how to win in OT was an odd-man rush only. And they blew it.
He was damn good in this tourney! Gorgeous goal. LIke another poster said.. Slovakia takes Canada to OT twice in big tourneys and Bedard and Cellebrini work magic.
