Outside the Big 7

[joshjull]

Could anyone inform me of the level of hockey interest in Austria. Just curious with the Sabres having a pretty good player in Vanek from there. Any other Austrians on their way to the NHL?

 

[JoeLH]

Austrian D-Man Thomas Pock (Rangers) and Goalie Reinhard Divis (St. Louis) are part-time NHL players.

You can compare the interest in hockey with Germany (not Switzerland, where hockey's standing is a bit higher). Skiing and Soccer are the sports favorites in Austria.

 

[BraveSirRobin]

Slava is lost to Denmark. He played for Russia during the 2005 U18 WCs...

Which is too bad, since it was the Danish program that developed him (his family moved to Denmark when we was 5 years old). Having him play for Denmark, and make the NHL would have been a huge boost for hockey in Denmark...

I thought there was a new rule implemented that allowed players who played for one country in the past to play for a another country. It was the rule that let Nabokov play for Russia I believe. Did they change it again?

 

[BraveSirRobin]

In the case of Iceland the population is so small, 297k, that there really isn't the talent pool to be developed. I know we have some Belgian posters, it would be nice to hear from our outsiders about the sport in their country.



China, the Koreas (with the exception of Chick) Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau all are members of the IIHF.

There used to be a link on IIHF for stats on registeered players and rinks by countryu, but damned if I can find it.

I remember it too. All I can find are the member countries and contacts for each country. (for those curious, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Mongolia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates are the other Asian countries with IIHF membership)

I'm curious on Spanish and Australian hockey. Why isn't it flourishing in Spain? I read that Australia sent a hockey team to the Olympics in 1960 or 1964, so why didn't they keep up?

 

[joshjull]

Austrian D-Man Thomas Pock (Rangers) and Goalie Reinhard Divis (St. Louis) are part-time NHL players.

You can compare the interest in hockey with Germany (not Switzerland, where hockey's standing is a bit higher). Skiing and Soccer are the sports favorites in Austria.

Thanks for the info

 

[Hasbro]

I remember it too. All I can find are the member countries and contacts for each country. (for those curious, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Mongolia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates are the other Asian countries with IIHF membership)

I hasve the data on my computer at home, I'm just not there for the week.

I'm curious on Spanish and Australian hockey. Why isn't it flourishing in Spain? I read that Australia sent a hockey team to the Olympics in 1960 or 1964, so why didn't they keep up?

I think that was like the British gold medal team where Candians with Aussie citizenship made up the team. Love the Kangaroo uniform though.

 

[Noutaja]

Heh, Australia tied Finland 6-6 at 1960 olympics. Those were the days...

 

[Hasbro]

Does anyone know what kind of surge Italy is getting from the olympics?

 

[nik jr]

seems like it would be germany or even china(!) just based on population. germany is biggest in europe after russia. china seems to want to expand into every sport. i don't think history and tradition is very important in a bureaucratic dictatorship like china. and they do already participate in winter events, unlike other huge countries like india or indonesia or brazil.

i don't even know how suisse and finns and swedes and latvia are so good, since the populations are tiny compared to us and russia. i think hockey isn't even 1st sport in some of them. canada is small but hockey is the national sport.

belarus should be able to get into top 10.

 

[Hasbro]

I remember it too. All I can find are the member countries and contacts for each country. (for those curious, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Mongolia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates are the other Asian countries with IIHF membership)

I'm curious on Spanish and Australian hockey. Why isn't it flourishing in Spain? I read that Australia sent a hockey team to the Olympics in 1960 or 1964, so why didn't they keep up?

I found the file on my computer. It's adobe and I don't know how to upload it.

I remember there was a series of articles on cbc.ca from Salt Lake about other hockey countries that covered China and Belarus among others

So Switzerland beating Canada. Will that mean Swiss player will get a better look by the NHL?

 

[Jazz]

I remember it too. All I can find are the member countries and contacts for each country. (for those curious, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel, Mongolia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates are the other Asian countries with IIHF membership)

I'm curious on Spanish and Australian hockey. Why isn't it flourishing in Spain? I read that Australia sent a hockey team to the Olympics in 1960 or 1964, so why didn't they keep up?

Hockey in Spain lacks any financial support - best place to ask would be this Spanish sub-forum

Australian hockey has stagnated for a while, now there is a serious effort to bring things up - Here's an Australian sub-forum

Both countries are in the C-Pool (or Div II) Although a controversial goal by Croatia prevented Australia from advancing to the B-Pool for this year...

Australia is ranked 34th and Spain 37th (out of 45 countries).

 

[Hasbro]

As to the Norway question they have 6600 registered players and 29 indoor rinks

In comparison Sweden has 66k and 298 with roughly double the population. Finland has 52k and 222 with about a million more people.

 

[Snap Wilson]

what I don't understand is why Norway isn't as good as Sweden and Finland?

Smaller stock. The more West you go in Europe, the smaller and slighter the people get. Fewer Slavic genes.

 

[jekoh]

Smaller stock. The more West you go in Europe, the smaller and slighter the people get. Fewer Slavic genes.

Slavic genes

Norwegians are taller than Russians and Czechs.