Toggle sidebar

GDT: U18 Round Robin/QF's

If Kazakhstan manages to survive in Elite it might be a pretty huge boost for their NT down the road. Any sort of success might entice more and more players to report for them, as things currently stand most of the best kids born in Kazakhstan move early to Russia and are lost forever as they are not willing to play for Kazakhstan in lesser tournaments. Even this year we already see few more Russia based players on the roster and surprise surprise good things start to happen.
 
ozo said:
If Kazakhstan manages to survive in Elite it might be a pretty huge boost for their NT down the road. Any sort of success might entice more and more players to report for them, as things currently stand most of the best kids born in Kazakhstan move early to Russia and are lost forever as they are not willing to play for Kazakhstan in lesser tournaments. Even this year we already see few more Russia based players on the roster and surprise surprise good things start to happen.
Click to expand...
With all due respect, them moving to Russia has a lot to do with them being Russian.

Russians used to make up 95%+ of their national team. 10 years ago, there were about 3 or 4 ethnic Kazakh kids on their junior teams. Now it's around 50% or more.

The quality of life in Kazakhstan is growing, hockey is becoming more widespread and affordable. You love to see it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Marky1999 and Bye Bye Blueston
ozo said:
If Kazakhstan manages to survive in Elite it might be a pretty huge boost for their NT down the road. Any sort of success might entice more and more players to report for them, as things currently stand most of the best kids born in Kazakhstan move early to Russia and are lost forever as they are not willing to play for Kazakhstan in lesser tournaments. Even this year we already see few more Russia based players on the roster and surprise surprise good things start to happen.
Click to expand...
What kids born in Kazakhstan have played on the Russian national team? Not necessarily questioning, but don't know how widespread that is.
 
Namejs said:
With all due respect, them moving to Russia has a lot to do with them being Russian.

Russians used to make up 95%+ of their national team. 10 years ago, there were about 3 or 4 ethnic Kazakh kids on their junior teams. Now it's around 50% or more.

The quality of life in Kazakhstan is growing, hockey is becoming more widespread and affordable. You love to see it.
Click to expand...
I'm not disagreeing with any of this, but I'm not also interested in opening this can of the worms. They can play wherever they please, I'm just biased for one choice.
 
WarriorofTime said:
What kids born in Kazakhstan have played on the Russian national team? Not necessarily questioning, but don't know how widespread that is.
Click to expand...
Historically a few, but those were really born during the Soviet times, so they are not relevant in this conversation. Kids I mention 99% of the time are not good enough for Russian NT selection, but they just would be amongst the brightest Kazakhstan have because they were leaders amongst their respective kids teams in Kazakhstan and moved to Russia to further their pro career aspirations.
 
ozo said:
Historically a few, but those were really born during the Soviet times, so they are not relevant in this conversation. Kids I mention 99% of the time are not good enough for Russian NT selection, but they just would be amongst the brightest Kazakhstan have because they were leaders amongst their respective kids teams in Kazakhstan and moved to Russia to further their pro career aspirations.
Click to expand...
Seems like most kids that make up the national team come through Barys Astana youth teams, the same way most kids on Latvian national team come through Riga.
 
WarriorofTime said:
Seems like most kids that make up the national team come through Barys Astana youth teams, the same way most kids on Latvian national team come through Riga.
Click to expand...
Astana simply has the most resources and their school vacuums up most of the talent that doesn't trickle away to large Russian schools. Not only that, KHL/MHL team coaches always run the the NT, so there's clear shameless selection bias towards players that play for Astana when comes the national team selection time. It is a vicious loop that sort of leads to stagnation even though grassroots hockey as Namejs mentioned has grown in size exponentially in past 25 years. All that said, Kazakhstan will get better just like Belarus did and I've been drumming their drum on these boards for 10+ years. Kazakhstan is one of the rare places on earth where hockey is actually developing.
 
ozo said:
Astana simply has the most resources and their school vacuums up most of the talent that doesn't trickle away to large Russian schools. Not only that, KHL/MHL team coaches always run the the NT, so there's clear shameless selection bias towards players that play for Astana when comes the national team selection time. It is a vicious loop that sort of leads to stagnation even though grassroots hockey as Namejs mentioned has grown in size exponentially in past 25 years. All that said, Kazakhstan will get better just like Belarus did and I've been drumming their drum on these boards for 10+ years. Kazakhstan is one of the rare places on earth where hockey is actually developing.
Click to expand...
Yes, Kazakhstan and Belarus may be the two biggest improvers over the last 10-15 years.
 
Namejs said:
I'm not aware of any.
Click to expand...
My point exactly. You could see how such bleeding would be annoying. For example, without going any deeper and judging only by their name, 3/4 top Latvian goalies could have bolted to Russia.
 
Last edited:
SoundAndFury said:
My point exactly. You could see how such bleading would be annoying. For example, without going any deeper and judging only by their name, 3/4 top Latvian goalies could have bolted to Russia.
Click to expand...
I get your point, but you are trying to make this into a binary issue when it is a multi-factorial issue. Or you think I think it is a binary issue, which is not the case.

One of the factors applicable to Kazakhstan does not apply to Latvia at all. Latvian kids can move to any hockey country they wish to further their development. Not the case in Kazakhstan. Plenty of Latvian kids move abroad. In fact, most of them. They still opt for representing Latvia in 98%+ of the cases.

Which is where the other factor comes in - that of national identity. Hockey was localized to Northern Kazakhstan and was an ethnic Russian sport in Kazakhstan. That is changing. And that is the main reason why so many are staying put.

The ethnic Russian factor still limits the growth of hockey in other countries as well. Such as Estonia, where it is still largely looked down upon as a Russian sport. I think it was the case in Lithuania at some point as well, I bet you can enlighten me on that. And if you look up the names on the Latvian national team in the 90s, you would see a very large amount of Russian names there.

Growing out of that is a great thing.

In an ideal world with equal opportunities, your entire society should be represented equally, which is obviously also the most efficient way of developing talent -- avoiding untapped talent among minority (or majority) groups.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bye Bye Blueston
I know it was discussed but just to confirm.. Slovaks need to win by at least 3 goals to advance or I got it wrong?
 
Wow brutal destruction by Slovaks, kinda expected they will struggle in this game, but looks like they don't want to take any chances.

Hope Czechs are watching how are you supposed to play against weaker opponent lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: Czechboy
lol finishing very likely 3rd after those fisrt three games is nuts. :laugh:

but i am happy with the boys, they showed great mentality and that theres lot of talent that will showcase more in the future.. U18 next year and especially year after that will be strong from us.
 
I guess Slovakia takes the most convoluted path to end up where they were predicted to finish anyways. Barring some creasy comeback to get to 8-6 or better, Slovakia third, Latvia fourth and Norway into relegation.

Again, the power of who has a day off yesterday vs. who has a day on. But everyone will be off tomorrow before quarterfinals on Thursday.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bye Bye Blueston, salwan and Czechboy
WarriorofTime said:
I guess Slovakia takes the most convoluted path to end up where they were predicted to finish anyways. Barring some creasy comeback to get to 8-6 or better, Slovakia third, Latvia fourth and Norway into relegation.

Again, the power of who has a day off yesterday vs. who has a day on. But everyone will be off tomorrow before quarterfinals on Thursday.
Click to expand...
i dont expect more than QF from this young roster, we avoided relegation games and thats most important.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Czechboy
I did not expect it to be 8-1 after 2.

I guess the Norwegian coach has do a little motivational speech and tell the kids they just need 5 goals to get back in the play-offs now
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Czechboy
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom