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Team China 2022

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Albatros said:
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.
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And still you were waiting for their stats to be waaaaaay worse. Now you are pissed off when they are something you didn't expect.
 
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Rather I'm interested to see how their play develops, Kunlun has been heavily sheltering their Chinese players so far but if they want to be ready for the Olympics they do need some actual responsibility in the dozen or so games before that.
 

Interesting twitter thread from Kunlun. They had expected to lose the majority of their team before the olympics and have to sign a team of scraps. Instead they'll keep their Chinese players until January.
 
Interesting but not surprising. Media wrote about that scenario "A" sometimes in September or October.
 
Would have been insane to keep the team in quarantine for 3 weeks right before the tournament and expect them to be able to perform.
 
Tardif is likely in Moscow. He said to TASS that Chinese team (men) is approximately on level of Norway & Denmark.
 
So with the Olympics approaching Kunlun is a complete tire fire. 13 losses in a row (albeit some in OT) allowing more than 5 goals per game over that stretch.

Pardus said:
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.
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Soooo about that...
 
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China will release their roster next week. All Kunlun players, only exception is Pu, can play for China, even those without passport (Abramov, Osipov, Smith, Sproul & Chelios).
 
vorky said:
China will release their roster next week. All Kunlun players, only exception is Pu, can play for China, even those without passport (Abramov, Osipov, Smith, Sproul & Chelios).
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IIHF must be giving an exemption to osipov, werek, Smith if they're on the roster.

Outside of the passport issue, those 3 have not been in China long enough to change nationality. All three played at an IIHF tournament for another country, so they need to have 4 years in China, not just 2
 
Can we argue that, maybe, just maybe... hockey is gonna die in China?

*Red Star Kunlun have been awful in the KHL after their inaugural season.
*The Chinese men's team had to rely on foreigners, including players without any Chinese relations, to pad their roster.
*The Chinese team nearly got bumped out of the tournament.
*China laid out one of the worst performances in Olympic history.

Granted, developing a sport in a country is a marathon, not a sprint, but considering that a key component of the program was built around the government wanting to build the brand around how Chinese ingenuity can make something happen, I don't think this bodes well for the future of the sport. I know everyone in the country knew that the team was gonna suck, but I believe it wasn't gonna be this bad.
 
JDogindy said:
Can we argue that, maybe, just maybe... hockey is gonna die in China?

*Red Star Kunlun have been awful in the KHL after their inaugural season.
*The Chinese men's team had to rely on foreigners, including players without any Chinese relations, to pad their roster.
*The Chinese team nearly got bumped out of the tournament.
*China laid out one of the worst performances in Olympic history.

Granted, developing a sport in a country is a marathon, not a sprint, but considering that a key component of the program was built around the government wanting to build the brand around how Chinese ingenuity can make something happen, I don't think this bodes well for the future of the sport. I know everyone in the country knew that the team was gonna suck, but I believe it wasn't gonna be this bad.
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It was always going to be a pipedream. It's just never going to take off for a number of reasons. Won't stop the NHL like so many other Western enterprises trying to chase the Yuan but it will be hitting their head on the wall. It's getting even worse with China starting to really flex its muscles now.
 
Hockey is not going to die in China, but it will revert more or less back to the very small-time Harbin vs. Qiqihar thing that it has always been.
 
JDogindy said:
Can we argue that, maybe, just maybe... hockey is gonna die in China?

*Red Star Kunlun have been awful in the KHL after their inaugural season.
*The Chinese men's team had to rely on foreigners, including players without any Chinese relations, to pad their roster.
*The Chinese team nearly got bumped out of the tournament.
*China laid out one of the worst performances in Olympic history.

Granted, developing a sport in a country is a marathon, not a sprint, but considering that a key component of the program was built around the government wanting to build the brand around how Chinese ingenuity can make something happen, I don't think this bodes well for the future of the sport. I know everyone in the country knew that the team was gonna suck, but I believe it wasn't gonna be this bad.
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I can't get over them bringing in the most mediocre team money can buy.

The team either went around Chinese naturalisation rules by somehow allowing dual citizenship in a Country that doesn't or they broke Olympic eligibility rules. Governments breaking their own rules to have a better showing at a hockey tournament is very pathetic.

The weirdest part is the changing their names thing. Who did they think they were fooling? Who's ego required that to happen? The players were plain and simple mercenaries. I have no problem with them as a pay check is a pay check.
 
Wasn't the Women's team mildly competitive this year and thus there may be a small chance to elevate their game to the level of a Japan?
 
Albatros said:
Not really, in the purely theoretical case that a westerner really would get Chinese citizenship that's what would happen.
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Thats weird in itself.

Its weird because they knew before and after that they were not actually being naturalised. It was a charade in plain sight.

The whole thing is weird. Its about peoples egos. China needed a team that would alow them to save some face. But actually making the players change their names with everyone knowing the above....cringe.
 
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