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WC: Team Slovakia

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Elvs said:
Why did more NHL'ers start declining WC invations in recent years? With Satan as GM you'd think more would want to help. Gaborik and Panik would have been nice additions to this team.
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To be honest, every team has some declines. The issue is we have absolutely no depth, can't blame this on some players saying no. Panik's wife is expecting a child during the WC, so I don't think anyone can blame him. As for Gaborik, he was never too keen on joining the national team. We could still add Tatar or Dano, although it is unlikely. I hope at least Chara or Cernak will be able to join our team in the upcoming days.
 
kudla said:
There are 18 declines. Viedensky is missing due to surgery
And of course this team would be much better with Panik, Hudacek, Viedensky, Gaborik and Zaborsky
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Wow, thats a lot.i was thinking about Viedensky because he also wasnt in Olympics If I am corect so I thought he national team career is over.
 
632 to 26. I believe that speaks for itself.

It's the number of posts in the "Team Czech Republic" and "Team Slovakia" threads here on HFBoards as of right now.

I remember WC tourneys, 15 years ago or so, when the number of posts in the "Team Slovakia" thread could rival that in the "Team Canada" thread.

But Slovak hockey is dying, so there you have it.

Slovak hockey will be like Hungarian football. Top-of-the-world in the past, and utter mediocrity (and worse) ever since.
 
Yeah, I suppose that Slovaks are starting to get tired as with the little exception of 2012 & 2013 it's the same old story ever since 2008.

To be honest by now I'm feeling dread rather than excitement before watching our games.
 
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slovakiasnextone said:
Yeah, I suppose that Slovaks are starting to get tired as with the little exception of 2012 & 2013 it's the same old story ever since 2008.

To be honest by now I'm feeling dread rather than excitement before watching our games.
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Yep, me too. I don't plan on giving up following our hockey, but it brings me almost no joy. As far as I'm concerned, we don't play hockey, it's just defense with mostly futile attempts on the opposing net.
 
With Ciliak, Slovakia look like safely. But I strongly hope that in match behind Tre Kronor, we'll see Rybar. His last performance was dominant and mainly, he doesnt receive goals between the legs.
 
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It's too bad the Jets are misusing Dano to the point where he won't play at all in the Jets playoff run, but he can't be available for Slovakia here. A guy with his kind of offensive skill would certainly be a key player for the Slovaks here.

It does look like Slovakia will be in real tough to make the QF this year after that Swiss loss. They likely need to win v Sweden or Russia as well as take of business against Belarus to get in.
 
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Next year should be a big one for Slovakia. A good tournament at home could be crucial in helping the game re-grow. I'm personally thinking about going there. Maybe spend two whole weeks there, watch games in both Bratislava and Kosice, and visit Strbske Pleso and/or Popradske Pleso. Sounds like a plan?
 
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I couldn't watch everything, but from what I saw Fehervary and Jaros seemed pretty solid in D, which atleast shows some potential for the future. When it comes to the offense however, the situation looks very bleak. I think the reality is sinking in ....
 
So it's all on tommorrow then eh? A regulation win and a win of any sort of France v Swizterland gets Slovakia to the QF. Hopefully France is fired up to play spoiler.
 
Holden Caulfield said:
A regulation win and a win of any sort of France v Swizterland gets Slovakia to the QF.
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Vice versa, unfortunately. The Slovak game may well turn out to be meaningless. If truth be told, Switzerland deserves the play-offs more than Slovakia. So many embarrassing gaffes in this tournament by Slovakia, combined with good moments, means that 9th or 10th overall place in the tourney would feel about right. A slight improvement now in the Craig Ramsay era – with emphasis on slight.
 
So, another year without 1/4 finals. But there was some positive moments, we coould see. And if the players realize, they should play 60 minutes, not 20 or 40, next year at home we could surprise.
 
Faterson said:
Vice versa, unfortunately. The Slovak game may well turn out to be meaningless. If truth be told, Switzerland deserves the play-offs more than Slovakia. So many embarrassing gaffes in this tournament by Slovakia, combined with good moments, means that 9th or 10th overall place in the tourney would feel about right. A slight improvement now in the Craig Ramsay era – with emphasis on slight.
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Switzerland took care of business so yeah it was meaningless. 7 goals from this Slovakian roster was impressive though, even if it was just a bad Belarus team. This was a tough group for Slovakia and as expected the Swiss-Slovak game decided who got spot #4 in the group.

Unfortunately it seems that Slovakia has officially been relegated to the 2nd tier with Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, France rather than being just on the outside of the 1st tier. I know many Slovakians here don't even like to call them on same tier as Switzerland but they still are, IMO. And despite the pessimism I see in the Slovakian threads they still are a solid tier above 3rd tier nations like Belarus, Slovenia, Austria, Kazakhstan, Italy as evidenced by the fact that this weak Slovak roster was still in QF contention rather than worrying about relegation (I know not a possibility, but even if it was it wasn't close).

I know there's but much internal struggle and hockey is tough sport to keep going with the cost but with the history of Slovakia if they get their federation sorted it still feels like they could get to be more relevant again. They may never have another "Golden generation" like the one who produced Palffy, Visnovsky, Gaborik, Chara, Demitra, etc, etc, but even now they still get as many if not more drafted than most other 2nd tiers. I know for myself as a Canadian with no Slovakian ties I will continue to cheer for you guys in Slovakia for the rest of my life thanks to my childhood heroes I mentioned above.
 
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Holden Caulfield said:
They may never have another "Golden generation" like the one who produced Palffy, Visnovsky, Gaborik, Chara, Demitra, etc, etc, but even now they still get as many if not more drafted than most other 2nd tiers.
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Valábik as a TV studio analyst (he's a better analyst than he used to be as a player) said yesterday that anyone reasonable should expect 6, 7 or 10 years before any marked improvement in Slovak hockey can once again be observed. And that only if all goes well and everyone pulls together, which hasn't been the case.

Otherwise, the improvement may just never materialize and Slovakia may remain second- or third-tier forever, like Hungary in football – formerly the world's best team but a non-entity for decades now.

The "Golden Generation" was a product of the Communist education system, and the free society hasn't come up with a replacement system for it over the last 30 years. Now, Craig Ramsay and injections of Canadian system are supposed to help us get back on track. We'll see, but there's every reason to be skeptical. Times have changed.
 
Btw. Valabik was a great choice. He said many things, i never ever noticed before. Igor Toth or Edo Hartmann sat there many times speechless. And when they woke up, Valabik had sometimes another view on what they have said. :D
 
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Yeah. But he felt the need to apologize repeatedly for his comments. I'm not sure he'll be called upon to analyze any future tournaments. In Slovakia, we're not used to being self-critical. It's very much frowned upon. "Let's remain nice all the time, even though that means we won't be able to improve our performance" – that seems to be the national mantra. Being self-critical is considered "*****ing into your own nest", almost a moral failing. It's considered more important to be nice to your friends and colleagues than to be sincere and truthful.

And by the way, how absurd is it that the only surviving "Golden Generation" member on this team, a rookie back then on the 2002 "Golden Team", Ladislav Nagy, was still the team's best player 16 years later, aged almost 39, scoring 10 points in 7 games? Something ain't right...
 
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Atleast the goalies had a good tournament and show some decent performances, which probably helped Rybar to sign a rookie contract with Detroit.
Ciliak is going to KHL, but I pressume this was already decided before the championship.
 
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