Slovakia Roster

[StevenintheATL]

I think Petrovicky should be on this squad before Bartecko. Blame Bob Hartley (and Petro himself) for making Petro a healthy scratch the night Hossa was in attendance scouting.

 

[Vic Rattlehead*]

Jurcina has been one of the best defenceman in Boston for the past couple of games, and it's great to see him named to the Olympic team. This should be great for his confidence.

 

[SwisshockeyAcademy]

At the World Cup the Slovak's played a passive and fairly pitiful style. D could not get the puck properly to the forwards and the forwards seemed to run out of ideas at the redline. Hossa needs to be much better, Gaborik needs to be better. I like Demitra's level. Palffy is a weird guy and he sucked in the World Cup too so leave him out. Hopefully a goalie will get hot. Stana and Lasek were not good enough last time around. Chara was trying to do too much, the team is talented but seemed completely out of sinc. For their sake they better have a good preparation or the quarters will be in question.

 

[wildone26*]

They have some very skilled forwards, they should be fun to watch play a game or two. Their defence and goaltending are not good enough though. As well if Marcel Hossa made the team(unless it is some unknown political reason relating to his more famous big bro)that does not say too much about their depth.

 

[12# Peter Bondra]

We have a very bad coaching trio right now and unless they coach like never before, we are doomed.

And during the World Cup there were many rumours that the team had inner problems and that the team divided into small groups = bad team play.

 

[big_steve]

Could someone post the teams potential lines and defense pairings?

 

[12# Peter Bondra]

Ill post the "usual" lines:

Nagy(would have been Palffy)-Stumpel-Bondra
Gaborik-Demitra-Marian Hossa
Zednik-Handzus-Satan
Bartecko-Kapus-Svatos
Marcel Hossa

Visnovsky-Strbak
Chara-Meszaros
Suchy-Majesky
Jurcina

Those are the lines which were used the most but they can be way different.

 

[vetoo]

I think:

Gaborik - Demitra - Marian Hossa
Nagy - Handzus - Satan
Zednik - Stümpel - Bondra
Bartecko - Kapus - Svatos
Marcel Hossa

Visnovsky - Strbak
Chara - Meszaros
Majesky - Suchy
Jurcina

 

[helicecopter]

At the World Cup the Slovak's played a passive and fairly pitiful style. D could not get the puck properly to the forwards and the forwards seemed to run out of ideas at the redline. Hossa needs to be much better, Gaborik needs to be better. I like Demitra's level. Palffy is a weird guy and he sucked in the World Cup too so leave him out. Hopefully a goalie will get hot. Stana and Lasek were not good enough last time around. Chara was trying to do too much, the team is talented but seemed completely out of sinc. For their sake they better have a good preparation or the quarters will be in question.

Very good post. Btw, people use to talk about Slovak great offense and weak defense/goaltending but as e-e has previously hinted, in recent international competitions Slovakia has struggled big time to score. They need to learn exploiting their strengths to have any chances.

 

[Zine]

Any reason Lintner isn't playing. He'd be much better on the big ice than Majesky or Jurcina.

 

[12# Peter Bondra]

Any reason Lintner isn't playing. He'd be much better on the big ice than Majesky or Jurcina.

His defensive game is nowadays just non-existent. While he was decent 3-4 years ago, now he is just too big of a risk in the D zone.

 

[Tritsche]

In the Swiss League, Lintner plays by my favourite Team Fribourg-Gottéron and he plays more than good in the defense. That is really surprising, because Lintner is famous for his offensiv game and the errors in the defence. The problem is, that Lintner play only 22 games in the last season(he was injured the whole time) and do not score anymore after the worldcup 2005. Now he plays really strong in each zone of game and is second in goal scoring stats for defender with 12 goals in 37 games. But he will not play anymore under Frantisek Hossa. So he will be not be a part in Slowakian Roster for Riga, either. I hope so much Slovakia will win the goldmedal, although my favourite player is not a part of the team.

Go Slovensko!!!

 

[Zine]

Jurcina has been one of the best defenceman in Boston for the past couple of games, and it's great to see him named to the Olympic team. This should be great for his confidence.

I agree. Boston was on OLN about a week ago and Jurcina really impressed. He even stood up Ovechkin and knocked him on his ***.
The future Slovak blueline isn't all that bad actually.....Meszaros, Jurcina, Granak, Stehlik, Sekera, Valabik, Malec.

 

[12# Peter Bondra]

I agree. Boston was on OLN about a week ago and Jurcina really impressed. He even stood up Ovechkin and knocked him on his ***.
The future Slovak blueline isn't all that bad actually.....Meszaros, Jurcina, Granak, Stehlik, Sekera, Valabik, Malec.

Dont know how Valabik+big ice will work out though.

And Malec probably wont ever play for Slovakia again in a major tournament. He's like 23/24 and in the AHL.

 

[leafnation67]

Zagrapan is Slovak, that's for sure.

This team looks very good, like sameone already said ''a dangerous outsider''!

im sorry, the slovaks do posses some dangerous offensive weapons, but you can hardly consider them a dangerous team , and say that they look very good.

first of all, their goaltending isnt even close to up to snuff, they have only one defensive stud (i think we all know who that is) and maybe two if you count visnovsky who i beleive is currently second in nhl scoring among d men (trailing only mccabe who has by the way played in 9 fewer games due to injury, and only cracked team canadas taxi squad), compared to a country like canada whos entire 7 defenceman are all nhl standouts, and are all studs.

although slovakian hockey has made significant strides in recent years, they are not yet deep enough to be considered dangerous, although if slovakia produces a reliable goaltender, and a defensive stud or two to add to their roster in the coming
years they may fair a little better against a team like canada who pounded them twicwe in the world cup of hockey

 

[Ste']

Sweden - Slovakia 4-0 (1-0, 1-0, 2-0)
I Period
1-0 13.16 PP Johan Davidsson (Fredrik Bremberg; Mika Hannula)
II Period
2-0 01.24 Fredrik Warg
III Period
3-0 05.21 Jonas Nordquist (Fredrik Warg)
4-0 15.37 Mika Hannula (Fredrik Bremberg; Johan Davidsson)

 

[thebodyczech]

Looking good. I may be Czech, but I still got a lot of Slovak in me.

Go Hossa! Go Slovensko!

 

[harper]

This comment about inner division is really interesting, I hadnt heard about that. They outwardly present an image of being buddies. This strikes me as crucial, one would think that an advantage of the slovak would be chemsitry, as the core plays together so often, and we all know the value of familiarity in tournaments.