Italy started "here to stay" for the next WC

[Bixby Snyder]

a whole bunch of Canadians (Nigel Dawes, Brandon Bochenski

He's American.

 

[Gianpaolo]

Miceli is the second-best scorer of Bolzano during this season, how is this possible?

Well, if just looking at the scorer list would be enough to make a decision about the lineup, everybody could become the coach of an ice hockey team.

 

[Alessandro Seren Rosso]

Well even if it benefits only part of the country's hockey community it's still something. Having said that, I don't think that is necessarily true. Alps HL is mostly dominated by Italian teams, it's hard to call it integration into Austrian system. At the same time, I don't think Bolzano prefers let's say a Finn to a native Italian. Sure partial separation exists but is it that major?

Milano will probably move up to the EBEL in 2020/2021

 

[Urbanskog]

Well, if just looking at the scorer list would be enough to make a decision about the lineup, everybody could become the coach of an ice hockey team.

Obviously, but I certainly can not recall another instance in which a top-2 scorer of a team struggles to make the lineup.

 

[Jon Riley]

Milano will probably move up to the EBEL in 2020/2021

Where did you hear that? It would be good though, Milano deserves some good hockey. The fan base may actually reappear, hopefully. Even though 30 years are passed from the days when 12000 people was showing up to the Forum to watch the Saima play.

 

[Alessandro Seren Rosso]

Where did you hear that? It would be good though, Milano deserves some good hockey. The fan base may actually reappear, hopefully. Even though 30 years are passed from the days when 12000 people was showing up to the Forum to watch the Saima play.

Those were other times and I highly doubt that Milano will see such crowds. But yes, the city has good EBEL potential, just need to keep expectations at a decent level.
Bolzano president (who is also EBEL VP) said it in a recent interview with Italian media. It's nothing official or set, just a (good) possibility

 

[Gianpaolo]

Those were other times and I highly doubt that Milano will see such crowds. But yes, the city has good EBEL potential, just need to keep expectations at a decent level.
Bolzano president (who is also EBEL VP) said it in a recent interview with Italian media. It's nothing official or set, just a (good) possibility

Well, the chances are related with Milan being elected as host city for the Winter Olympics and with the Olympics hockey games hosted in a new arena, which would also become the new home of Milan. I have to agree with you regarding the crowd, the hockey of the early 90s needs to be contextualized with the era the city of Milan was living in. The not-so-glory days of "Milano da bere".

 

[Uncle Rotter]

Why doesn't Italy go the route that Kazakhstan did when they got a whole bunch of Canadians (Nigel Dawes, Brandon Bochenski, Dustin Boyd, etc) to join their domestic league and get citizenship.

Italy would be even more successful than the Kazakh's at this with the huge Italian population in Canada. Canadian's in the GTA make up a huge chunk of the Italian International Ball Hockey team.

In this case Italy is the teacher, not the student. Their 1982 team had 16 Canadians and 2 Americans.

 

[Gianpaolo]

In this case Italy is the teacher, not the student. Their 1982 team had 16 Canadians and 2 Americans.

Everything changed in hockey since 1982. The game is now played almost everywhere in the USA, Russia became a valuable option, Germany and Switzerland grounded professional leagues. No way to get Italian Canadian players with a professional career in American hockey (NHL/AHL), there are too many better options than Italy they can choose between. There are still plenty of ECHL-and-below guys available.

 

[Gianpaolo]

Back to the present: first game of the tournament played in Bled (Slovenia) today.
Italy - reserve team of Belarus 3-2 ( 0:0, 3:1, 0:1 )
A few game stats are available here:
http://www.hokej.si/hzs-statistika/?stat_m=4374