GDT: U18 Round Robin/QF's

[hockey20000]

good start nice 6-3 win on to the cze tomorrow

 

[McMozesmadness]

Excellent effort from Canada considering its game one. Only thing that needs to be cleaned up is the penalties. They play an incredibly physical style. Which I loved, but they crossed the line into penalties far too often. The IIHF calls things much tighter than Canadian Jr

Mortone and McKenna are going to dominate this tournament. They were the two best players on the ice

From a 2024 draft scouting perspective Iginla, Sahlin Wallenius, Zetterberg, Luchenko and Beaudoin all had strong showings

 

[jj cale]

He has been excellent for us all game long

Strong game for him no doubt. Good start for Canada, good p.k work they will need that to continue to give themselves a chance here.

They played well today, if you can beat Sweden you're at the very least o.k.

 

[Czechboy]

good start nice 6-3 win on to the cze tomorrow

Probably 6-3 again

 

[WarriorofTime]

Much better start for Canada than last year, that's for sure

 

[FLAMESFAN]

Excellent effort from Canada considering its game one. Only thing that needs to be cleaned up is the penalties. They play an incredibly physical style. Which I loved, but they crossed the line into penalties far too often. The IIHF calls things much tighter than Canadian Jr

Mortone and McKenna are going to dominate this tournament. They were the two best players on the ice

From a 2024 draft scouting perspective Iginla, Sahlin Wallenius, Zetterberg, Luchenko and Beaudoin all had strong showings

Spence & Mews seemed to standout in good ways too

 

[Czechboy]

For tomorrow.. there is a bit of an intriguing story. 19 of these Czechs were on the Hlinka silver team that lost to Canada in OT (with about 30 seconds left in a 20 minute OT period). Canada has a different team but Czechs don't. Curious if this motivates them for revenge tomorrow.

 

[Chainshot]

Just like yesterday, turn a game on... someone scores.

 

[JohnWillow]

Mūrnieks!!!

 

[Antiillafire]

Looks like good chance this 06 age group will cost Slovakia dearly. Latvia dominant right now

 

[kudla]

Last year we were 1 minute away from winning a medal, this year we are a relegation game candidate. Love it

 

[Namejs]

Sieradzkis cooking, Murnieks with 2 points in 2 games, Klaucans with his first. Gotta love it.

 

[Chainshot]

Stopping a 2-on-0... you have my attention.

 

[insomniaddict]

Kazakhstan up 2-0 and to put it nicely, Switzerland's game is not looking good.

 

[Chainshot]

Latvia letting this one slip away.

Perhaps I spoke too soon.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Last year we were 1 minute away from winning a medal, this year we are a relegation game candidate. Love it

They just have to beat Norway.

 

[jj cale]

Impressive Latvian team.

 

[Kuracmugger]

We have woken up and it‘s 2:2 now kazakhstan seems gassed and the swiss dominate the play at the moment.

 

[Czechboy]

Latvians beat Czechs in exhibiton a few weeks ago too! Not good for Slovakia though.. circle that Norway game! Win that and you probably get Canada in a quarter. ouch.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Top four nations all looking very close this year. I think any of the four can win it. This should make it an interesting year. USA and Sweden have been the two best in recent years, but look a little weaker this year. Finland has a stronger team this year and is on home ice. I’d make them slight favorites. Canada has all the talent, but that’s never the issue. They struggle to adapt with a thrown together group of players who have never or rarely played together. Good start for them.

Everyone is going to forget about Czechia, but maybe they’ll surprise. A good test today against Canada. Let’s see if they can give them a game. That’ll give us a better idea of what this Czechia team is made of.

Slovakia is a giant disaster this year. The coach left a top 2 player of his off the team for whatever crazy reasons he has and now they are losing to Latvia. Fire that dude immediately and banish him from coaching their junior national teams.

 

[WarriorofTime]

The equivalent of Slovakia in hockey is like Slovakia in soccer but Slovakia in hockey stays in the top divisions out of default. Countries like Slovakia and Switzerland have been ripe to get passed but international hockey has no depth. Seems like Latvia is improving a lot lately but their population limits their ceiling.

 

[kudla]

The equivalent of Slovakia in hockey is like Slovakia in soccer but Slovakia in hockey stays in the top divisions out of default. Countries like Slovakia and Switzerland have been ripe to get passed but international hockey has no depth. Seems like Latvia is improving a lot lately but their population limits their ceiling.

We just cant have 3 very good birth years in a row. It's an "understandable" year down for us. 2007 and 08 birth year look good for Slovakia

 

[WarriorofTime]

Top four nations all looking very close this year. I think any of the four can win it. This should make it an interesting year. USA and Sweden have been the two best in recent years, but look a little weaker this year.

Sweden has a pretty bad age group imo, but still good enough to be competitive.

Finland has a stronger team this year and is on home ice. I’d make them slight favorites. Canada has all the talent, but that’s never the issue. They struggle to adapt with a thrown together group of players who have never or rarely played together. Good start for them.

Canada has about 2/3 of their Hlinka team if I'm counting right. I think they are probably the favorites, if it were 5 years ago, I'd probably USA because the age group isn't terrible and USNTDP stuff, but I suppose I'm a bit shell-shocked from the years where the best age groups got beat (even though both were statistically improbable goalie wins)

Everyone is going to forget about Czechia, but maybe they’ll surprise. A good test today against Canada. Let’s see if they can give them a game. That’ll give us a better idea of what this Czechia team is made of.

They are improving for sure.

Slovakia is a giant disaster this year. The coach left a top 2 player of his off the team for whatever crazy reasons he has and now they are losing to Latvia. Fire that dude immediately and banish him from coaching their junior national teams.

Are you sure the kid is not injured? That'd be a bit odd to leave a kid off just because. Slovakia is always pretty inconsistent. This looks a lot like the 2019 tournament (01-births) where they lost to Latvia, but lucky for them without Russia keeping a team from Norway out of the field, or even just Belarus who pushed Switzerland into the relegation round, I don't think they are a big threat to get relegated, as they only need to beat Norway.

Very frustrating not having Russia, it really cuts down the number of interesting matchups and possible podium combinations. People need to put their politics aside already. They have a U20 team playing Kazakhstan right now and are beating them 7-0, meanwhile the Kazakhstan U18 team is tied 2-2 with Switzerland.

 

[Antiillafire]

Slovakia suffers from an absolute disastrous 2006 age group outside of Pobezal. And teams are taking advantage of it, not surprising. I really don’t have any patience for the head coach either who looked out of his depth at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and throughout the year. And he choses to leave out Dravecky Jr for no obvious reason. Oh well, hopefully the federation will realize that changes should be made.

 

[Wooren]

Sweden has a pretty bad age group imo, but still good enough to be competitive.

Canada has about 2/3 of their Hlinka team if I'm counting right. I think they are probably the favorites, if it were 5 years ago, I'd probably USA because the age group isn't terrible and USNTDP stuff, but I suppose I'm a bit shell-shocked from the years where the best age groups got beat (even though both were statistically improbable goalie wins)

They are improving for sure.

Are you sure the kid is not injured? That'd be a bit odd to leave a kid off just because. Slovakia is always pretty inconsistent. This looks a lot like the 2019 tournament (01-births) where they lost to Latvia, but lucky for them without Russia keeping a team from Norway out of the field, or even just Belarus who pushed Switzerland into the relegation round, I don't think they are a big threat to get relegated, as they only need to beat Norway.

Very frustrating not having Russia, it really cuts down the number of interesting matchups and possible podium combinations. People need to put their politics aside already. They have a U20 team playing Kazakhstan right now and are beating them 7-0, meanwhile the Kazakhstan U18 team is tied 2-2 with Switzerland.

Ironic, considering it's Russia who excels at using sports for their political issues.