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WC: Team Switzerland 2022

Romain Loeffel, André Heim, Noah Rod und Mike Künzle are cut.

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Hockeyfrilla said:
Done deal. Switzerland will be included in the Euro Hockey Tour the two upcoming seasons.
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So does that mean that Switzerland will play 4x tournaments per year = 12 EHT games per year? I then must assume that Switzerland will host their own EHT tournament, maybe on December? That was when Russia hosted it and maybe this can be some kind of Spengler Cup replacement?

I think that this is a permanent thing and Russia will never join EHT again unless it will be transformed to a 5 team EHT, where every 5 of the countries won't host each year and each team wouldn't face 1 of the teams per tournament. I guess that my point is that I don't see Switzerland being "kicked out" of this tournament anymore if they don't want to leave it. Good rule for it could be that if one of these 5 countries is the host of a WHC tournament that season, then that country won't host EHT tournament that season.
 
Khokhlach86 said:
Romain Loeffel, André Heim, Noah Rod und Mike Künzle are cut.

News National Teams

Alle offiziellen News über die Schweizer Eishockey- Nationalmannschaften der Frauen, Männer und Junioren. Spiele, Ergebnisse und Infos zu Kader und Staff.
www.sihf.ch www.sihf.ch
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Heim and Künzle were expected, and Rod doesn't surprise me that much given how well Eggenberger and Miranda did during the training camp. On the other hand, I didn't see Loeffel coming. It's not much of a gamble to assume that Josi will be available, but still, the roster is short on defensemen capable to run the PP.

I wonder if it means that Geisser and Kurashev won't join?

Mestaruus said:
So does that mean that Switzerland will play 4x tournaments per year = 12 EHT games per year? I then must assume that Switzerland will host their own EHT tournament, maybe on December? That was when Russia hosted it and maybe this can be some kind of Spengler Cup replacement?

I think that this is a permanent thing and Russia will never join EHT again unless it will be transformed to a 5 team EHT, where every 5 of the countries won't host each year and each team wouldn't face 1 of the teams per tournament. I guess that my point is that I don't see Switzerland being "kicked out" of this tournament anymore if they don't want to leave it. Good rule for it could be that if one of these 5 countries is the host of a WHC tournament that season, then that country won't host EHT tournament that season.
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The dates are already announced and Switzerland will host the December tournament. It's not much of a change as there was already a tournament in Switzerland during the December international break.

Regarding future developments, I was never a big fan of the four best teams always playing between them and Switzerland being now part of it won't change my mind. If/when Russia joins again it would be better to add 3 additional countries and have two 4 team tournaments played at the same time. And don't always invite the same teams so more countries get a chance to play against the best.
 
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Fischer always ha one surprise for us. Didn‘t see Loeffel coming.

As they just announced the cuts and no roster I guess Fischer‘s still gambling. And that‘s a good thing to do if you can get players like Josi.
 
stv11 said:
The dates are already announced and Switzerland will host the December tournament. It's not much of a change as there was already a tournament in Switzerland during the December international break.

Regarding future developments, I was never a big fan of the four best teams always playing between them and Switzerland being now part of it won't change my mind. If/when Russia joins again it would be better to add 3 additional countries and have two 4 team tournaments played at the same time. And don't always invite the same teams so more countries get a chance to play against the best.
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Yeah I think I understand how it must feel like, that there is some kind of elite club. As a Finnish guy I got some mixed feelings about the EHT format as well. I got some positive thoughts about it and some thoughts are just like you just wrote. It would require a longer post for me to write. I feel like EHT was more interesting in the past, some years ago.
 
Mestaruus said:
Yeah I think I understand how it must feel like, that there is some kind of elite club. As a Finnish guy I got some mixed feelings about the EHT format as well. I got some positive thoughts about it and some thoughts are just like you just wrote. It would require a longer post for me to write. I feel like EHT was more interesting in the past, some years ago.
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I don't want to bring this too off topic, but just throwing ideas around. I could see a format where you have two 4 team tournaments running at the same time. Sweden, Russia, Finland and Czech would be split between them, then 2 of Switzerland, Germany, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway and Denmark could join each tournament, and the two remaining team could play against opponents from the next tier. So 2nd tier countries get to play the best, and 3rd tier countries get to face 2nd tier teams (I know my tiers are not perfect, but I'm just throwing some idea to help everyone face better opponents).
 
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stv11 said:
I don't want to bring this too off topic, but just throwing ideas around. I could see a format where you have two 4 team tournaments running at the same time. Sweden, Russia, Finland and Czech would be split between them, then 2 of Switzerland, Germany, Slovakia, Latvia, Norway and Denmark could join each tournament, and the two remaining team could play against opponents from the next tier. So 2nd tier countries get to play the best, and 3rd tier countries get to face 2nd tier teams (I know my tiers are not perfect, but I'm just throwing some idea to help everyone face better opponents).
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I like your idea but I see problems too. Do you think that the TV audience & live audience at the arenas of these bigger countries will actually want to watch some beat downs of for example Finland vs some of Norway, Latvia and/or Denmark when those 3 countries won't be having their best players. Those games won't be competitive and EHT could eventually die because of that.

These TV companies in these 4 EHT countries actually pay for the rights to show these games because they still bring in some TV audience. It wouldn't bring much TV audience from those smaller hockey countries because hockey just isn't appreciated there over some other sports as much as in these more traditional countries, so it's mainly about the interest of these bigger ice hockey countries' population, what they want to watch.

I think that once the new EHT with 8-10 teams or what ever would start, there would be a honey moon phase or so where these weaker teams could get some wins and fight well against the top countries, but over time the new EHT teams wouldn't be sending all of their best players from Europe and this is when the problems would start.

For EHT, competitive games are important and league strength is what matters. Finland, Russia, Sweden and Czech rarely send their best players that play in Europe or KHL for these EHT games, but it doesn't matter because they have so many players and so great player depth because of their leagues that the games remain competitive. BTW, I think that Switzerland has good enough player depth because of their strong league. After some years these newer EHT teams would also stop sending their best players that play in Europe and that's when it would get less competitive and EHT would most likely eventually die.

Best players who play in Europe actually often decline the EHT invites or find an excuse so they don't have to join the tournament. Sure it's a good window to show the national team coach that you are worthy of a spot for the Olympic or the WHC but some players don't care enough about that. The same phenomenon would happen with the newer EHT countries as well. Plus the club teams sometimes don't want to let their contract players to go injured in some games that are meaningless from those clubs' perspective.

I think that there are 6 countries that could be EHT countries without problems, mainly because of their league strengths. Those countries are FIN, SWE, CZE, SUI, RUS and GER. Slovakia could be 7th in the future, but I don't see any other country improving dramatically in the near future.

I think that we would need a transformation phase. Maybe so that 2 of the 4 EHT tournaments each season would have more teams mixed in and then the other 2/4 EHT tournaments would still only feature the traditional 4 countries/teams. I think that EHT would stay alive that way and the audience and TV companies wouldn't run away.

I just wanted to let you know that it's not as simple as you made it out to be. EHT isn't entirely a bad thing. It could just stop to exist in a way that nothing would replace it. That wouldn't really help. Let's stop the off topic stuff indeed before we piss off someone :).
 
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Outside of Olympics and WCs I count 16 games for Finland this season (4x3 in EHT plus double-headers against Denmark and Norway). My EHT idea would take top eight European teams and each playing against each other home and away, games distributed around same spots as usually. Would take away games like Sweden vs Finland in Czech Republic which I don't think have too much interest for locals.
 
If Josi joins indeed we would probably be in contention for having the best roster in the tournament, even though the Czech's, and Canada would be in the same tier as well. Sweden could move up there as too if they get reinforced appropriately. If there has been ever been a good chance of winning it all it is now. Who knows how long Josi can stay at his peak. And Hischier will probably start making the Playoffs regularly at some point too. And lets not forget that Berra/Genoni are not getting any younger either.
 
Swiss ice hockey posted some clips on their instagram from the NHL Players on the NT in past wcs today. One clip included Philip kurashev…
 
That's a repost from IIHF I think.

We'll probably get some updates tomorrow.
If Fischer wants to get Josi and Geisser he probably has to play with 6D on Saturday, which is possible I guess.

I'm really hyped, guys. Really looking forward to the weekend.
 
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stv11 said:
Regarding future developments, I was never a big fan of the four best teams always playing between them and Switzerland being now part of it won't change my mind. If/when Russia joins again it would be better to add 3 additional countries and have two 4 team tournaments played at the same time. And don't always invite the same teams so more countries get a chance to play against the best.
Click to expand...
Or even better, to have EHT with six teams (if/when Russia comes back). Sweden, Russia, Czechia, Finland, Swiss and Germany. Two groups with three teams. Two games for each team within the group and then two first teams from each group plays for 1st place, second placed teams from each group for 3rd place and third placed for 5th place. With this format number of games per team would stay the same as it is now.
 
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filip85 said:
Or even better, to have EHT with six teams (if/when Russia comes back). Sweden, Russia, Czechia, Finland, Swiss and Germany. Two groups with three teams. Two games for each team within the group and then two first teams from each group plays for 1st place, second placed teams from each group for 3rd place and third placed for 5th place. With this format number of games per team would stay the same as it is now.
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Having 6 countries on EHT would be just fine I guess with these 6 countries mentioned, but the problem is that we might not see Russia in EHT for the next 5-10 years, because the EHT leadership doesn't want to instantly welcome Russia back to EHT once the war will be over and who knows how long that war will even last. Some are saying that it could last for decades and end up as a frozen conflict. The sanctions would stay on in that case and Russia would remain banned from many things regarding sports. EU was too easy on them in 2014 and they won't repeat that mistake now, because that might have sort of lead to this point, because Putin thought that EU is soft.
 
Fiala is close to getting thrown out of the playoffs as well. Apparently he is a free agent this summer. I haven't been able to follow the news cycle the past few weeks. Has there been any indication that he might join if Minnesota should lose? He is probably signing the contract of his life this summer so it seems unlikely?
 
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