IIHF power rankings for the men olympics

[kudla]

You're continuing to make things up as you go. What system specifically are you referring to? Do elaborate.

The Latvians are coached by Vitolins who coached the Russian national team and won gold in the Olympics 4 years ago. He has coached several leading KHL sides for over a decade winning the cup 2 times. He's widely considered to be the brains of the Znaroks-Vitolins duo which dominated Russian hockey for a while.

Latvians are well-coached, very disciplined and play extremely tight, two-way hockey with a lot of physical play and have done so for quite a long time now. To say that they're going to be outplayed by a mediocre Slovakian side **tactically** is just pure fantasy.

We managed to beat Russia, USA and lose to Canada by a last second goal in the last 2 WC with this mediocre player material we currently have. This probably wouldn't have been possible if it hadn't been for the Ramsay coaching staff signing. All I'm saying is that there is more to this team than the paper shows. Though could we end up last in the group? Absolutely.

 

[Eye of Ra]

You're continuing to make things up as you go. What system specifically are you referring to? Do elaborate.

The Latvians are coached by Vitolins who coached the Russian national team and won gold in the Olympics 4 years ago. He has coached several leading KHL sides for over a decade winning the cup 2 times. He's widely considered to be the brains of the Znaroks-Vitolins duo which dominated Russian hockey for a while.

Latvians are well-coached, very disciplined and play extremely tight, two-way hockey with a lot of physical play and have done so for quite a long time now. To say that they're going to be outplayed by a mediocre Slovakian side **tactically** is just pure fantasy.

The coach of Slovakia, Craig Ramsey, is a well known good coach with experiance from coachin in NHL. As a player himself he is considered one of the best defensive forwards that ever played in NHL.

 

[Namejs]

We managed to beat Russia, USA and lose to Canada by a last second goal in the last 2 WC with this mediocre player material we currently have. This probably wouldn't have been possible if it hadn't been for the Ramsay coaching staff signing. All I'm saying is that there is more to this team than the paper shows. Though could we end up last in the group? Absolutely.

We beat Canada and outshot and outchanced Sweden and Finland. So what? How does that imply we're going to outplay you by our system?

What system were you referring to?

Let's be honest here, you're a major homer and you're daydreaming a little.

 

[stastny12]

This must be one of the more homer-bias posts I've read on these boards over these last 10+ years. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating. I've noticed that this is a bit of a theme for Slovakian posters.

Latvia has the 5th youngest team in the Olympics. You're basically making things up.

17 year old players, even if they might end up playing in the NHL one day, are way below their peak. Slafkovsky has recorded 4 points in 21 games in a mediocre Liiga and is ranked 11th in terms of PPG in the Finnish junior league. He clearly has been extremely hyped up domestically. He shouldn't even be on the team, but somehow he's going to be a game-changing globetrotter in your view.

This is so ridiculous that it's downright funny.

As for the 2:6 exhibition game, I had to look it up. We used several Swiss-based players (such and Sejejs and Andersons who both play in the 2nd division there) and were missing several key players (Darzins, Indrasis, Ri. Bukarts and a few more). Our goalie was a semi-pro 20 year old who isn't even among the top 10 goalies in our domestic semi-pro league this season and has been miserable in his few games in the KHL.

The shots in that game were 39 vs. 28 in favor of Latvia.

Seriously, dude, just look up and compare the players on both teams. The game's going to be a coin toss.

At first you argue for the insignificance of the exhibition match, but then you point out how many key players you missed and emphasize that you had more shots. However, there are several holes in your story. You claim that Latvia started with several players from SL, but it is a problem of Slovakia that you do not have a wide enough base and you have to use players from the second league? Moreover, since Sejejs is nominated (at least according eliteprospects), it will obviously not be so rare. You further claim that there was a semi-pro goaltender in the net, but your argumentation does not fit. Within 40. minute your OGQ Nr. 1 Punnenovs was in the net and received three goals. You say you missed a few key players. In addition to the already mentioned Punnenovs, another 7 defencemen who participated in the game are going to the Olympics. From the Slovak team only Gernat. There were also 9 forwards from the Olympic nomination. Slovakia played with 5. Obviously, you missed three important KHL players. However, Slovaks did not nominate Bakos and Liska who have identical stats this season from the same league.

As for Slafkovsky, I guess he's not hyped just domestically, since all draft rankings (except one) put him in the TOP 10. But I understand that you haven't had a good chance of seeing his skills yet, as Latvia doesn't play World Juniors.

What's more, pointing out the success of your KHL coach, but sending Stanley Cup winner Ramsay to enjoy the sun back to Florida, I'd rather skip and not comment at all.

 

[Namejs]

As for Slafkovsky, he's 17 and doing pretty bad in Liiga. His prospects or draft ranking is a completely different metric. You have to be extremely naive to think that just by being drafted in the top 10 he's somehow magically an impact player at the age of 17.

His showing in Liiga and the Finnish junior league clearly shows that he's still struggling at the pro level. He might improve next year. Or not. Draft is just an investment in his stocks, but no one knows whether he will pan out in the future.

Due to a lack of centers our 4th line C is going to be Batna, who has been more productive in Finland than Slafkovsky. He's going to be limited to a shutdown role on our team.

If anything, it shows how our forward lines are a little deeper if Slafkovsky is expected to play a bigger role outside of the 4th line despite him still playing in a junior league this season.

As for the WJC, I'm not sure he would have caught my eye, as he's recorded exactly 0 points in 2 years with the junior team and 0 points with the senior team. It really shows you how much he must be overhyped by some local Slovakian media.

 

[wetcoast]

Bookies rankings. Russia's implied probability to win is 36,4% at lowest, China is at 0,1%.

ROC
Finland
Canada
Sweden
Czech Republic
USA
Germany
Switzerland
Slovakia
Denmark
Latvia
China

Surprised to see the Chinese odds that high.

 

[Puck Dogg]

Karen,

Its called humor. They do the same with the power rankings for the world championships.

Yeah I know. I'm not offended by them, just find them unnecessary.

 

[mirec04]

As for Slafkovsky, he's 17 and doing pretty bad in Liiga. His prospects or draft ranking is a completely different metric. You have to be extremely naive to think that just by being drafted in the top 10 he's somehow magically an impact player at the age of 17.

His showing in Liiga and the Finnish junior league clearly shows that he's still struggling at the pro level. He might improve next year. Or not. Draft is just an investment in his stocks, but no one knows whether he will pan out in the future.

Due to a lack of centers our 4th line C is going to be Batna, who has been more productive in Finland than Slafkovsky. He's going to be limited to a shutdown role on our team.

If anything, it shows how our forward lines are a little deeper if Slafkovsky is expected to play a bigger role outside of the 4th line despite him still playing in a junior league this season.

As for the WJC, I'm not sure he would have caught my eye, as he's recorded exactly 0 points in 2 years with the junior team and 0 points with the senior team. It really shows you how much he must be overhyped by some local Slovakian media.

I like your comments on this forum but sometimes it is simply too much.
Judging players only based on their stats is not always good way.
I remember you did this also by Lantosi 2-3 years ago and then he was one of our best players. I hope it will be also the case of Slaf now
And calling Liiga as mediocre league is another nonsense.

I hope for good game against you on Sunday and let better win

 

[karhukissa]

As for Slafkovsky, he's 17 and doing pretty bad in Liiga. His prospects or draft ranking is a completely different metric. You have to be extremely naive to think that just by being drafted in the top 10 he's somehow magically an impact player at the age of 17.

His showing in Liiga and the Finnish junior league clearly shows that he's still struggling at the pro level. He might improve next year. Or not. Draft is just an investment in his stocks, but no one knows whether he will pan out in the future.

Due to a lack of centers our 4th line C is going to be Batna, who has been more productive in Finland than Slafkovsky. He's going to be limited to a shutdown role on our team.

If anything, it shows how our forward lines are a little deeper if Slafkovsky is expected to play a bigger role outside of the 4th line despite him still playing in a junior league this season.

As for the WJC, I'm not sure he would have caught my eye, as he's recorded exactly 0 points in 2 years with the junior team and 0 points with the senior team. It really shows you how much he must be overhyped by some local Slovakian media.

Slafkovsky was easily the best slovak player today against Finland. Scored 2 goals and was everywhere on the ice. He really was an impact player for Slovakia.

As a finn i was very impressed by him. And you have to take into consideration that this Finland roster is almost as good as it get's from Europe, aside from Russia.

 

[Eye of Ra]

As for Slafkovsky, he's 17 and doing pretty bad in Liiga. His prospects or draft ranking is a completely different metric. You have to be extremely naive to think that just by being drafted in the top 10 he's somehow magically an impact player at the age of 17.

His showing in Liiga and the Finnish junior league clearly shows that he's still struggling at the pro level. He might improve next year. Or not. Draft is just an investment in his stocks, but no one knows whether he will pan out in the future.

Due to a lack of centers our 4th line C is going to be Batna, who has been more productive in Finland than Slafkovsky. He's going to be limited to a shutdown role on our team.

If anything, it shows how our forward lines are a little deeper if Slafkovsky is expected to play a bigger role outside of the 4th line despite him still playing in a junior league this season.

As for the WJC, I'm not sure he would have caught my eye, as he's recorded exactly 0 points in 2 years with the junior team and 0 points with the senior team. It really shows you how much he must be overhyped by some local Slovakian media.

Slafkovsky was best player on the ice today vs Finland.

 

[Snowsii]

The coach of Slovakia, Craig Ramsey, is a well known good coach with experiance from coachin in NHL. As a player himself he is considered one of the best defensive forwards that ever played in NHL.

Well, it seems Ramsey is the weakest link.. Not even trying to give slovaks best player pp time..

 

[Raimo Sillanpää]

As for Slafkovsky, he's 17 and doing pretty bad in Liiga. His prospects or draft ranking is a completely different metric. You have to be extremely naive to think that just by being drafted in the top 10 he's somehow magically an impact player at the age of 17.

His showing in Liiga and the Finnish junior league clearly shows that he's still struggling at the pro level. He might improve next year. Or not. Draft is just an investment in his stocks, but no one knows whether he will pan out in the future.

in recent years most top prospects in Liiga only got good after the WJC. Being 6 months older than at the start of the season is a big thing. So if he’s going to be hot, expect him to start producing now at the end of the season

 

[Rufus T Firefly]

Interesting to see the power rankings compared to the IIHF Rankings, especially Germany dropping in the power rankings. I'd think they would be one of the teams that benefited the most from the NHL not being there.

IIHF - World Ranking

Also China at 32 What a joke....

 

[kudla]

As for Slafkovsky, he's 17 and doing pretty bad in Liiga. His prospects or draft ranking is a completely different metric. You have to be extremely naive to think that just by being drafted in the top 10 he's somehow magically an impact player at the age of 17.

His showing in Liiga and the Finnish junior league clearly shows that he's still struggling at the pro level. He might improve next year. Or not. Draft is just an investment in his stocks, but no one knows whether he will pan out in the future.

Due to a lack of centers our 4th line C is going to be Batna, who has been more productive in Finland than Slafkovsky. He's going to be limited to a shutdown role on our team.

If anything, it shows how our forward lines are a little deeper if Slafkovsky is expected to play a bigger role outside of the 4th line despite him still playing in a junior league this season.

As for the WJC, I'm not sure he would have caught my eye, as he's recorded exactly 0 points in 2 years with the junior team and 0 points with the senior team. It really shows you how much he must be overhyped by some local Slovakian media.

Oh boy, did that not age well...