Team China 2022

[Pardus]

Plan B seems to work. Chinese players have been surprisingly good. Man, they've had to train hard. But that's what fits well in Chinese people.

And someone said there's no ice hockey potential in China...

 

[Albatros]

Chinese players have scored a combined total of one secondary assist this season. Their ice-time leader yesterday was Zhang Pengfei with 8:01. Meanwhile you have Denis Osipov playing 25:36. There's still not a single Chinese player carrying any significant amount of load.

 

[hypereconomist]

Chinese players have scored a combined total of one secondary assist this season. Their ice-time leader yesterday was Zhang Pengfei with 8:01. Meanwhile you have Denis Osipov playing 25:36. There's still not a single Chinese player carrying any significant amount of load.

Seriously...lets not overlook that the domestic players that recently started getting ice-time with Kunlun were "leaders" on a bad VHL team two years ago and most of the domestic Chinese players played in the third-tier Czech league the same year on a team that went 0-42. Good for those players if they've been looking passable getting 8:00 or less of ice-time in the KHL, but they're still going to be badly outclassed in the Olympics.

That defense looks atrocious. Three legit pros (Fram, Sproul, and Osipov) and a bunch of meh. China better hope that Bartley signs-on and/or Chelios can be swayed into playing.

 

[iginlafan77]

For the record, Bartley is not eligible, barring some kind of exemption from the IIHF.
Neither are Ethan Werek, Khlystov, Jeremy Smith, Lazushin, Pu, Osipov.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Seriously...lets not overlook that the domestic players that recently started getting ice-time with Kunlun were "leaders" on a bad VHL team two years ago

Just for the sake of clarity, Rudi Ying was actually the only one who managed to play a somewhat useful role on that VHL team.

 

[iginlafan77]

 

[vorky]

Just the question remains ... will an apology come?

 

[pabst blue ribbon]

Everyone really dragged their feet for this

 

[Flukeshot]

With China in, which I think is the right decision if they want to be in. I do hope there are NO roster exemptions and that standard IIHF national eligibility rules apply. Yes the team is going to get demolished, but give the real Chinese Nationals an opportunity to play against the world.

 

[iginlafan77]

With China in, which I think is the right decision if they want to be in. I do hope there are NO roster exemptions and that standard IIHF national eligibility rules apply. Yes the team is going to get demolished, but give the real Chinese Nationals an opportunity to play against the world.

This isn't quite accurate. There's a lot of players on this Kunlun roster who are not "real Chinese nationals" but who are fully eligible to compete per current IIHF rules, provided they get Chinese citizenship. It is very likely that the majority of the Olympic roster will be these players (most of whom have at least Chinese ancestry)

 

[Pardus]

IIHF confirms place for China's men's team in 2022 Olympic tournament

 

[Flukeshot]

This isn't quite accurate. There's a lot of players on this Kunlun roster who are not "real Chinese nationals" but who are fully eligible to compete per current IIHF rules, provided they get Chinese citizenship. It is very likely that the majority of the Olympic roster will be these players (most of whom have at least Chinese ancestry)

Thanks for the clarification. I guess my point is, as long as they have the same eligibility requirements as other countries than go for it. Though it does sound like it creates the opportunity to hand out "token citizenship".

 

[iginlafan77]

Thanks for the clarification. I guess my point is, as long as they have the same eligibility requirements as other countries than go for it. Though it does sound like it creates the opportunity to hand out "token citizenship".

Yeah there's definitely the chance for citizenship to be handed out solely for this tournament, but China is far from the first country to do that.
I suppose it's still possible that the IIHF does give some type of exemption for certain players, but it is far from a guarantee

 

[iginlafan77]

Lineup from today. 6-4 loss to Metallurg (KHL leaders).

O'Brien starting again. Largely the same lineup. Mikael Tam is back in after missing a few games (and is back on the KHL website roster).
Another Chinese national getting their KHL debut, Cheng Zhang

 

[kabidjan18]

Glad that Cliff Pu and Alex Riche got on the board. Hope it gives them more confidence moving forwards.

 

[Lartsaman]

Does Cliff Pu have any realistic chance to represent China at the Olympics? At all? He don´t have chinese citizenship and only played in China this year.

 

[iginlafan77]

Does Cliff Pu have any realistic chance to represent China at the Olympics? At all? He don´t have chinese citizenship and only played in China this year.

Unless the IIHF decides to give him an exemption, he definitely is not eligible.

 

[Albatros]

Also has never played or even just lived in China so any exemption would be farcical.

 

[iginlafan77]

Really rough game for Kunlun today.
Up 3-0 25 minutes in, lost 7-4

 

[Albatros]

Rudi Ying also scored the third point by a Chinese player in league history, which also makes him the sole leader as he has now scored two of them (2+0=2 in 38 games). His previous goal came in February 2019 against Admiral.

 

[pabst blue ribbon]

 

[SoundAndFury]

Oh snap, who does this guy think he is, Lauris Darzins?

 

[iginlafan77]

3-2 OT loss to Sibir today.

Pengfei with his first KHL start. Goals by Parker Foo and Tyler Wong.

 

[Pardus]

Pengfei with his first KHL start.

Former Finnish national team goaltending coach Jari Kaarela has done amazing job with Pengfei Han and Paris O'Brien. Who would have guessed these two goalies could become decent KHL level goalies in half a year.

I read that former Russian national team goalie Konstantin Barulin took private lessons from Kaarela even after they were working in different clubs. Kaarela was Barulin's coach in Atlant Mytishchi.

 

[Albatros]

Former Finnish national team goaltending coach Jari Kaarela has done amazing job with Pengfei Han and Paris O'Brien. Who would have guessed these two goalies could become decent KHL level goalies in half a year.

Relative to very low expectations perhaps, but Han has only played one game while O'Brien ranks 57th in the league in save percentage (.891) and 66th in goals against average (4.78). In a competition with 24 teams it's questionable whether that's enough for the worst backup in the league.