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Olympics 2026 qualification

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Fjorden said:
It will be heated hockey rivalry game tomorrow, a classic Norway-Denmark.
Here is what danish newspaper writes. Berlingske.

Danes expect ice war: We are trained to hate Norway

The battle for the Olympic ticket in ice hockey breathes new life into the eternal rivalry between Denmark and Norway.

- There is no team we would rather beat than Norway, and I think they feel the same way about us, says seasoned Jesper Jensen Aabo.

The feeling is not only felt by seasoned players with a sea of international matches against Norway on their CV.

The rivalry already starts at the youth national teams.

- You are almost taught to hate Norway, says the national team's youngest man, 19-year-old Oscar Fisker Mølgaard.

- We have met them so many times through the various youth national teams, and then you get a bit of a hate relationship with them.

The world ranking also reflects the parity. Here Denmark is number 11 and Norway number 12.


There are indications, however, that the Norwegians may become even more difficult to deal with in the coming years.

- It looks like a team on the way. They have an older generation that still maintains a level, and then they have some young boys who are starting to look good, says Jesper Jensen Aabo.
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Loving it. Let's see some sparks fly tomorrow.
 
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Of the teams in the big games, only Norway used two goaltenders. In theory. Haukeland should be fresh against Freddie who had to go to overtime vs Japan in his back to backs.

Gudlevskis vs Papillon and Hlavaj vs Shutov. Interesting stuff.
 
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After tommorow, will we officially know the groups for the 2026 winter olympics? I see on the Wikipedia how the groups are without Russia being banned but with that not likely happening, does anyone know how the groups would be?
 
Would be really nice to see Papillon move to Austria or Slovakia, by all accounts he should do well there.
 
Girgensons out for Latvia. Merzlikins, Silovs, Blueger, now Zemgus. Why, out of all people, we keep loosing our NHLers?
 
PanniniClaus said:
Of the teams in the big games, only Norway used two goaltenders. In theory. Haukeland should be fresh against Freddie who had to go to overtime vs Japan in his back to backs.

Gudlevskis vs Papillon and Hlavaj vs Shutov. Interesting stuff.
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For sure, goalie battles/performance will be absolutely interesting to watch.

Unrelated: Girgs out, goddamit
 
SoundAndFury said:
Would be really nice to see Papillon move to Austria or Slovakia, by all accounts he should do well there.
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Would be interesting indeed... but at 177, he would be the shortest goalie there, with VSV's Lamoureux being the only only below 180 as well... so I have a hard time seeing him being given the opportunity.

French-trained goalies don't really export themselves very well. Huet was just monster compared to the others and Hardy did about just okay in EBEL/DEL. The rest tried their hand in leagues with a relatively similar level to the Ligue Magnus and never pushed for too long as it was not necessarily worth it. Will see how Junca do with Michalovce.
 
Vikz said:
Girgensons out for Latvia. Merzlikins, Silovs, Blueger, now Zemgus. Why, out of all people, we keep loosing our NHLers?
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I hated the way they used Girgensons. 2nd line and PP duty? Seriously? I thought we went over that like 8 years ago. He does not generate a lot of offense. He shuts opposition down. The only reason he's playing in the NHL is that he excels at killing the puck.

I truly prefer him not being on the ice on 2nd line wing and PP and this probably has net benefit for us offensively.

They should have played him in the bottom 6, line matched him against Texier and used him on the PK.
 
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FrHockeyFan said:
Would be interesting indeed... but at 177, he would be the shortest goalie there, with VSV's Lamoureux being the only only below 180 as well... so I have a hard time seeing him being given the opportunity.
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While it certainly explains a relatively slow start to his career (even in this WC he got to play because the other goalies failed, realistically) but at some point, you just have to play yourself into situations and his international performances seem to be good enough for that. While I don't expect Klagenfurt or Salzburg to give him a contract, every other GM is looking for lesser-known players who would outperform their salaries and Papillon is a great bet.

Not dissimilar to Guillaume Leclerc in 2019, although Papillon's international performances make his resume even more impressive.
 
There's a version flying around that Girgensons might have decided to leave for the US due to the Gaudreau tragedy. They both played on the same team in the USHL and both became co-owners of Dubuque Fighting Saints a few years ago.

Wish him all the best.

This must also be very tough on Merzlikins, who has struggled mentally ever since the Kivlenieks tragedy.
 
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Namejs said:
This must also be very tough on Merzlikins, who has struggled mentally ever since the Kivlenieks tragedy.
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"There's nothing off about him" - Namejs, circa March 2023, before writing dozens of posts about how other people are just imagining things.

In other news, GB is beating Japan convincingly sort of proving that who looked better or worse in the previous games doesn't really matter.
 
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SoundAndFury said:
"There's nothing off about him" - Namejs, circa March 2023, before writing dozens of posts about how other people are just imagining things.

In other news, GB is beating Japan convincingly sort of proving that who looked better or worse in the previous games doesn't really matter.
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I've written about Merzlikins and his mental issues on these boards before. Literally a couple pages back the latest. If you're collecting my quotes, go on and use the search function and maybe look outside the international boards.

If you're just bored and want to bait me with your bullshit again, go and rub one out.
 
SoundAndFury said:
Sorry I haven't noticed your backpaddling earlier.
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When you adjust your views based on new facts and evidence, that's called backpaddling now?

In late 2023, Elvis publically came out about his issues with depression. Sure seems like something to take into account when looking at his 22/23 stats.

Which a) does not in any way imply he's a bad goalie b) proves my initial pre-2023 point regarding his talent level, with the 22/23 season being an outlier to be ignored unless repeated issues occur.

On the flipside, the mental side is clearly a liability with recent events not helping anyone, including the rest of the team.
 
Namejs said:
When you adjust your views based on new facts and evidence, that's called backpaddling now?
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If the facts in question were obvious to everyone else but you and you tried to prove those people wrong, with quite a gusto, going as far as to create fake stats supporting your [what is now known to be false] narrative, it is backpaddling, yes.
 
Feels like after the tough loss to Kazakhstan they didn't really bring it mentally in this one.
 
I haven't been paying attention to the qualifying, but it looks like an exciting final day with #1 and #2 playing in each group.
 
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