WC: Surprises this world champs

Status
Not open for further replies.

VictorLustig

Registered User
Feb 8, 2012
8,860
2,905
For me, Mattias Ekholm has been the biggest surprise on the Swedish team. He has been very steady defensively while also joining the offense quite a bit.

Eriksson is perhaps not a surprise but he's just consistently good every WC he plays, doesn't get nearly enough credit.
 

Jablkon

Registered User
May 23, 2014
1,693
131
Czech Republic
positive: 1) Jagr's skating ability; 2) team US
negative: so far Slovakia - I dont believe the team is bad (however having player from belarus league /am I correct?/ quite shocked me) and if they put their heads on right track, they can improve a lot. But there is a lot to work on....
 

slovakiasnextone

Registered User
Jul 7, 2008
5,741
254
Slovakia
positive: 1) Jagr's skating ability; 2) team US
negative: so far Slovakia - I dont believe the team is bad (however having player from belarus league /am I correct?/ quite shocked me) and if they put their heads on right track, they can improve a lot. But there is a lot to work on....

Yeah, out of all the problems we have, I don't think this is one. Lusnak played in the preparation games and he played well enough to earn a spot on the team as 4th liner. The 4th line isn't our problem, I'd say.
 

fouba

Registered User
Jul 15, 2006
124
18
Lisboa
USA ofcourse..

Kemppainen also, didnt expect him to be able to score to empty net..and he has done it twice!!
 

Elvs

Registered User
Jul 3, 2006
12,311
4,722
Sweden
Meszaros has been clutch. I've also been surprised with Vladimir Dravecky in the two games with Slovakia that I have watched.

With their team, especially the forwards, I really thought they would make the quarter finals this year. If they just had one of Chara, Sekera or Visnovsky on the back end I think they would look much better, especially on the PP.
 

Jablkon

Registered User
May 23, 2014
1,693
131
Czech Republic
Yeah, out of all the problems we have, I don't think this is one. Lusnak played in the preparation games and he played well enough to earn a spot on the team as 4th liner. The 4th line isn't our problem, I'd say.

4th line plyed well.Especially Dravecky and Viedensky was also good....
 

Jakk123

Registered User
May 6, 2014
1,278
111
Bratislava
Meszaros has been clutch. I've also been surprised with Vladimir Dravecky in the two games with Slovakia that I have watched.

With their team, especially the forwards, I really thought they would make the quarter finals this year. If they just had one of Chara, Sekera or Visnovsky on the back end I think they would look much better, especially on the PP.

He is weak defensively, but his offensive upside is pretty good.
 

Faterson

Delayed Live forever
Sponsor
Sep 18, 2012
3,682
1,534
Bratislava
With a 3-point win [over Norway], Slovakia can climb to No. 1 in Group B, if only for a day. (We haven't seen anything like that for years and years – since the Pálffy era.)


It's pretty funny (sad for us) that Belarus, not Slovakia accomplished this feat. Belarus leading Group B after 1 week of play? :amazed: I think some serious money could have been won if anyone had placed a bet on that one week ago.

I'm afraid Group B is mostly so exciting because Slovakia is so lame – because it can't win the games it's "supposed" to win. Compare that with a rather clear-cut top 4 in Group A. It was similar last year, with Slovakia's 5-3 defeat by France, despite leading 3-1 in the game. Practically the same thing happened to Slovakia last night in the Norway game. I see Slovakia's chances of advancing to the play-offs as extremely slim now, 5% or so. What a difference one lost game can make! Group lead... or failing to get into the play-offs.
 

Mestaruus

Registered User
Apr 11, 2011
4,941
1,818
Biggest surprise for me is that North-American teams are leading both groups in European sized rink or at least before today they were and USA is kinda still leading the other group since BLR didn't face Finland nor Russia yet, while USA beat both of them.
 

EK47

Jukka Jalonen should be in all the hall of fames.
Feb 7, 2013
5,212
1,582
Joel Lundqvist.

Yeah I have to give him credit this year. He seems like the only one who tries out there sometimes, He lacks skating or skill to be effective against better opponents though.
 

Faterson

Delayed Live forever
Sponsor
Sep 18, 2012
3,682
1,534
Bratislava
USA is kinda still leading the other group since BLR didn't face Finland nor Russia yet, while USA beat both of them.


ROFL... You can't create virtual rankings like that. Based on those, Slovakia is in the lead, because Slovakia defeated Belarus and Belarus defeated the US, so Slovakia defeating the US should be a piece of cake, right? Not really. Belarus is the group leader, and the US is not. Besides, if the US beat Finland, why couldn't Belarus? And... the US has a recent history of losing to Denmark at the Worlds... It's impossible to consider any games settled before they are actually played.
 

Czech Your Math

I am lizard king
Jan 25, 2006
5,169
303
bohemia
ROFL... You can't create virtual rankings like that. Based on those, Slovakia is in the lead, because Slovakia defeated Belarus and Belarus defeated the US, so Slovakia defeating the US should be a piece of cake, right? Not really. Belarus is the group leader, and the US is not. Besides, if the US beat Finland, why couldn't Belarus? And... the US has a recent history of losing to Denmark at the Worlds... It's impossible to consider any games settled before they are actually played.

I agree that you can't assume the winner of any games before they are played. However, I agree with the poster that you quoted: USA is still effectively leading the group at this point. They are tied with Russia & Finland and have defeated both, while they have yet to play each other. Belarus has one more point than USA and defeated them, but there's obviously a huge difference in remaining schedules: USA vs. Slovakia, Slovenia, and Denmark... Belarus vs. Russia, Finland, and Norway. I mean, Norway is Belarus' weakest remaining opponent... and they beat Slovakia, while neither Slovenia nor Denmark has won a game yet.
 

Faterson

Delayed Live forever
Sponsor
Sep 18, 2012
3,682
1,534
Bratislava
USA is still effectively leading the group at this point.


There's no such thing as "effectively leading the group". :shakehead There's the factual group leader, Belarus, and that's it. The US don't even have a game in hand on them. Slovakia defeated the US both in 2012 and 2013, so I can't see how you can hand those points to the US before the game is played. Slovenia and Denmark will be desperate, fighting for their lives and survival in the top Worlds category. It's gonna be interesting.
 

Namejs

Registered User
Dec 24, 2011
4,072
857
Oslo
I'm afraid Group B is mostly so exciting because Slovakia is so lame – because it can't win the games it's "supposed" to win. Compare that with a rather clear-cut top 4 in Group A.
A clear cut top 4 in Group A? Really? :) Switzerland lost to Austria and Latvia. They still have to play against Canada, Sweden and Czech Republic.

There is no clear cut top 4.
 

donghabs98

Moderator
Oct 14, 2010
32,910
17,332
Halifax
Nikolaj Ehlers declining the invitation due to fatigue had me pretty surprised.

My guess is that he isn't 100% after the QMJHL playoffs, it was basically carrying the Mooseheads through the playoffs and was the target of a lot of physical play. That being said I was also a bit surprised that he didn't go.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad