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IIHF Division I, II, & III discussion?

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BladesofSTEELwFIRE

BladesofSTEELwFIRE

Registered User
Feb 15, 2010
1,570
3
I don't see a thread for discussing teams in Divisions I, II, & III.

I believe the Division I teams for next year are:

Group A

Italy
Austria
Slovenia
Japan
Ukraine
Poland

Group B

South Korea
Lithuania
Croatia
Great Britain
Netherlands
Estonia
Click to read more...
 
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Japan and Korea will be facing off! You don't see Asian teams meeting too often in Division I. It will be a good test for Korea with 2018 coming up but Japan should win handily.
 
IIHFjerseycollector said:
well, in 2013 Japan, Korea and Kazakhstan are all asian teams that played against each other

http://www.iihf.com/competition/345/
Click to expand...

I wouldn't count Kaz as a typical asian country, it's closer to Russia than anything else. Japan and Korea also played last year with Japan winning 4-2. I would love to see Japan get promoted to the elite, they've come close and gotten 3rd a few times but can't seem to be able to close that final gap. It'll be interesting to see what Korea will do to prepare for the olympics.
 
Yeah I thought that about Kazakhstan too. Closer to Russia.

Just like how we have several black players in the NHL now I wondered in a similar manner we could have a Japanese kid born in Japan but raised in North America who got real good at hockey where he could be in the NHL and also help Team Japan.

It may happen one day but not many Japanese emigrate over here compared to other groups.
 
If Japan were to produce a NHLer, he would never get to play for Japan, as D1 tournament is played too early.
 
ozo said:
If Japan were to produce a NHLer, he would never get to play for Japan, as D1 tournament is played too early.
Click to expand...

The NHL regular season has ended by the time the IA tournament begins, so in case his team wouldn't make the playoffs he could very play well in the tournament.
 
ozo said:
If Japan were to produce a NHLer, he would never get to play for Japan, as D1 tournament is played too early.
Click to expand...
Not really. The NHL season tends to end around April 10th while the Division IA/B tournaments tend to start a week and a half later (or at least have over the last few years). As long as his team misses the playoffs he'll easily be able to play.
 
Are there any other men's IIHF games besides the different divisions at the Worlds? Are there international IIHF single game friendlies like they have in soccer?
 
Always like reading about these different nations who have hockey teams, some interesting nations for sure.
 
BladesofSTEELwFIRE said:
Are there any other men's IIHF games besides the different divisions at the Worlds? Are there international IIHF single game friendlies like they have in soccer?
Click to expand...

Yes, quite a few actually.

I'm not sure if you're just asking about teams from lower divisions, so I'm gonna mention even those played by elite nations.

For starters you have the tournaments like Euro Hockey Tour (Sweden, Russia, Finland and Czechs) and Euro Hockey Challenge (a series of friendly games played between top 12 Euro team from IIHF ranking in the weeks leading up to the Worlds), Switzerland, Slovakia, Belarus, Norway etc. also play small tournaments during IIHF breaks such as Arosa Challenge or Slovakia Cup.

Then there's the Euro Ice Hocke Challene which is a series of tournaments, which features some of the lower ranked teams from elite level and Division I teams:

http://www.eihc.eu/view/eihc

Most of the games are played during the official IIHF breaks and leading up to the Worlds.

There are some excpetions as well though, for example France sends a u25 (or might be u23 team) that plays pre-season games with Slovak league teams or Poland has also sent a NT to pre-season club tournaments.

But I don't think there's a lot of the friendlies bellow the Division IB level, if for no other reason because we're talking about countries where hockey is a fringe sport and the federations don't have enough funds for these kinds of events.

EDIT: Also as has been mentioned there is teh Challenge Cup of Asia for the Asian teams that don't play the Worlds, but that's more like their version of the Worlds than friendly games.

And if I remember correctly there was an international tourney in South America featuring NTs last summer, which included some team from Canada as well.

And of course, this system differs a lot from the one FIFA has as the differences between the level of play in hockey and in soccer differ hugely. You may see a football team of let's say Luxembourg play against one of the better football teams and while the score won't be all that pretty, it won't be that bad either. If let's say Finnish NT played the Luxembourg hockey NT we would talk about them losin by dozens of goals and I'm no even trying to exaggerate (and that woud be Finland playing with their Euro selection, while in the FIFA friendlies it's hardy unusual to see the best players playing, we'll hardly see that in hockey due to the NHL vs. international hockey rift).
 
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BladesofSTEELwFIRE said:
Are there any other men's IIHF games besides the different divisions at the Worlds? Are there international IIHF single game friendlies like they have in soccer?
Click to expand...
These guys are giving correct answers but they're not exactly addressing what I think you're going for. The answer is not really. Yes, there are friendlies before the world championships, there are also some 50% roster 80% effort tournaments, but if you're thinking about friendlies like in football the answer is no. The simplest reason is that the schedules of hockey leagues across the world are not synchronized by the IIHF like they are by FIFA in football. There are weeks in the year for FIFA where all the leagues simultaneously take a 10 day-ish break except for some South American leagues and maybe the MLS as well and during that time period national teams get together, practice maybe 3 sessions and play a friendly to keep the team familiar. There isn't anything like it in hockey though. The NHL for one hates interruptions to the schedule, and that almost ensures teams in international tournaments won't really be full strength. The European leagues are somewhat more consistent with their schedules but there still is nothing like in football where all the major leagues don't schedule games for 10 days for the sheer purpose of allowing international teams to congregate. A lot if it has to do with there being less demand for international hockey. Friendlies are generally to prepare for the world championships, there aren't friendlies just to keep the continuity of the national team high and treat the local fans.
 
kabidjan18 said:
These guys are giving correct answers but they're not exactly addressing what I think you're going for. The answer is not really. Yes, there are friendlies before the world championships, there are also some 50% roster 80% effort tournaments, but if you're thinking about friendlies like in football the answer is no. The simplest reason is that the schedules of hockey leagues across the world are not synchronized by the IIHF like they are by FIFA in football. There are weeks in the year for FIFA where all the leagues simultaneously take a 10 day-ish break except for some South American leagues and maybe the MLS as well and during that time period national teams get together, practice maybe 3 sessions and play a friendly to keep the team familiar. There isn't anything like it in hockey though. The NHL for one hates interruptions to the schedule, and that almost ensures teams in international tournaments won't really be full strength. The European leagues are somewhat more consistent with their schedules but there still is nothing like in football where all the major leagues don't schedule games for 10 days for the sheer purpose of allowing international teams to congregate. A lot if it has to do with there being less demand for international hockey. Friendlies are generally to prepare for the world championships, there aren't friendlies just to keep the continuity of the national team high and treat the local fans.
Click to expand...

That's not exactly true as there are official IIHF breaks during which many Euro leagues have a break as well (although the KHL has been trying to change this in the past few years) and during which international tournaments are played.

For example for next season the official breaks are:
24th-30th August
2nd-8th November
14th-20th December
8th-14th February

Page 8: http://www.iihf.com/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/2013-2014_IIHF_Calendar_of_Events_22_05_2014.pdf
 
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slovakiasnextone said:
That's not exactly true as there are official IIHF breaks during which many Euro leagues have a break as well (although the KHL has been trying to change this) and during which international tournaments are played.

For example for next season the official breaks are:
24th-30th August
2nd-8th November
14th-20th December
8th-14th February

Page 8: http://www.iihf.com/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/2013-2014_IIHF_Calendar_of_Events_22_05_2014.pdf
Click to expand...
Touche, but the point about the international friendlies remains.
 
tony d said:
Always like reading about these different nations who have hockey teams, some interesting nations for sure.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's really cool. Even India is a member of the IIHF now!

And teams like South Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Kuwait, etc.

Amazing!
 
airbus1094 said:
I wouldn't count Kaz as a typical asian country, it's closer to Russia than anything else. Japan and Korea also played last year with Japan winning 4-2. I would love to see Japan get promoted to the elite, they've come close and gotten 3rd a few times but can't seem to be able to close that final gap. It'll be interesting to see what Korea will do to prepare for the olympics.
Click to expand...

Not to compare the current Japanese team ( which I know nada about ) to their historical counterparts. But I can't help recalling IIHF brass, in their infinite wisdom or lack thereof, gave them ( as Asian champs or whatever ) a free ride to WHC , for a few years, where they pretty much proved they didn't belong. Going ( strictly from memory ) smthg like 0 W's, 21 L's, 0 T's. Think, by some miracle, they came close to beating Czechs once ( 4-3 loss ), plus they had that, rather hilarious, loss to Danes, when they scored on themselves, on purpose :amazed:.

Long story short, Japan's previous forays, at the elite level, left a bad taste in ppl's mouths...
 
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jonas2244 said:
And there is the IIHF Challenge Cup of Asia for those nations who don't have the requirments to play at the World Championship

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_IIHF_Challenge_Cup_of_Asia
Click to expand...

There is also the Gulf Cup, between Arab countries, that is held every second year (next in 2016). The 2014 tournament had Kuwait, UAE, Oman and Qatar play, while both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have also taken part.

Some discussion has been held regarding holding an African Challenge Cup, similar to the Asian one, which would include Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, among others. But nothing has really developed on that front.
 
BladesofSTEELwFIRE said:
Yeah, it's really cool. Even India is a member of the IIHF now!

And teams like South Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Kuwait, etc.

Amazing!
Click to expand...

Egypt is not a member of the IIHF, and has never formed a national team at any reasonable level. However both Morocco and Algeria have unofficial teams, and the Moroccans have even played a few matches against Spanish clubs.

The newest country to join the IIHF was Turkmenistan, which joined a week ago; its the third Central Asian state to join, after Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
 
Scotty B said:
Not to compare the current Japanese team ( which I know nada about ) to their historical counterparts. But I can't help recalling IIHF brass, in their infinite wisdom or lack thereof, gave them ( as Asian champs or whatever ) a free ride to WHC , for a few years, where they pretty much proved they didn't belong. Going ( strictly from memory ) smthg like 0 W's, 21 L's, 0 T's. Think, by some miracle, they came close to beating Czechs once ( 4-3 loss ), plus they had that, rather hilarious, loss to Danes, when they scored on themselves, on purpose :amazed:.

Long story short, Japan's previous forays, at the elite level, left a bad taste in ppl's mouths...
Click to expand...

They did have 4 ties: against Norway, Slovenia, Ukraine and France. 0 wins though.
 
Hubie said:
They did have 4 ties: against Norway, Slovenia, Ukraine and France. 0 wins though.
Click to expand...

I remember when they played real well against Germany in Nagano in 1998 before losing 1-3 there, it was at that moment my thoughts about them where formed, to nowadays think that they will advance to the A pool at the WHC any day now.
 
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