WJC: WJC 2025 Division 2A

[SoundAndFury]

How would you handle it?

Let's not forget, Croatia has just beaten a team that is allegedly one of the favourites. If they went on to win bronze, would you still say they were least terrible? How can one have just division allignment when every generation is completely different?

I don't see a solution other than embrace the chaos.

Well certainly there is no way to "handle" it, it's just unfortunate that Croatia and China are without their top-end talent while Romania and the Netherlands are slumping further and further into mediocrity even though they used to be fairly mediocre but still competitive teams in this division even with 2 additional countries present in the WC cycle.

This was just venting, not some agitation for a rework.

Regarding Croatia, of course this game changed everything, it was a huge positive but hindsight is 20/20.

 

[carjackmalone]

Outside of Bruno why are the the other Croatian top end players not playing in this tourney?

 

[licanin]

Outside of Bruno why are the the other Croatian top end players not playing in this tourney?

Idzan and Juric doesn't want to miss their club time since they are both chasing college commitment, don't know about older Matijević.

Rumors are both Gorsic and Banek are on the outs with current head coach which pre-dates back to U18 two seasons ago.

 

[HungryFrank]

Rumors are both Gorsic and Banek are on the outs with current head coach which pre-dates back to U18 two seasons ago.

how do people feel about the current coach?

 

[licanin]

how do people feel about the current coach?

He is a strict disciplinarian, which has approval.

 

[Eye of Ra]

I've actually noticed quite a few Lithuanian kids scattered around here and there in Switzerland and Finland with pretty good numbers in pretty decent junior leagues.

Am I tripping or is the Lithuanian programme actually at its peak?

Seems like it, Yeah. @SoundAndFury could shred some light on this.

 

[SoundAndFury]

He is a strict disciplinarian, which has approval.

The winningest coach in the history of Croatian U20s as well, must really do something wrong for people not to like that

Seems like it, Yeah. @SoundAndFury could shred some light on this.

I mean it's been known for years, look at the dates prospect threads were created on these boards for Jukna and Ignatavicius. And Dumcius and Seniut, prospects playing in Finland that Namejs has in mind (I assume) are even older.

So nothing really new to add to that other than I don't know how fitting is the usage of the word programme when it comes to Lithuanian hockey, sounds way too grand.

If anything, in this tournament so far, after a whole 1 game, guys from pretty bad leagues in Sweden - Pranskevicius and Sadauskas - are the biggest pleasant surprises. Everything else is sort of a known quantity.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Romania finally scores on their 13th powerplay of the tournament. Good job guys, never doubted you.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Just like last year, we play better, GB scores. Can't say that I'm surprised. Terrible read by Andreikus in goal, not sure why we are playing him in an important game.

Also it's time to recognize the fact that although the British goalie doesn't play in a strong league he has .931 Sv% here, .936 Sv% yesterday and is yet to allow a goal today. The kid does not leak.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Must say I'm shocked that there was no call on a good Jukna's check after Brit flopped to the ground. Is this even IIHF?

 

[ozo]

My friend told me GB 05' and 06' are bad years and oh boy is he right. Might finally cost Grubb his job.

 

[SoundAndFury]

My friend told me GB 05' and 06' are bad years and oh boy is he right. Might finally cost Grubb his job.

I had someone in the game chat tell me "this is a very good group as evident by their U18 results". My point is, let's appreciate this forum because well, the gawking rabble is what it is.

Having said that, the person also said many guys on Team GB suffered food poisoning and aren't quite themselves and I believe it because they really perform far below even the lowest expectations.

Anyway, start was really tense but after the 3rd goal the game did seem like a formality. The big boys piled up points and goaltending was pretty much inconsequential in the end.

 

[ozo]

Having said that, the person also said many guys on Team GB suffered food poisoning and aren't quite themselves and I believe it because they really perform far below even the lowest expectations.

Food poisoning or not. Bad generation + Martin Grubb = this is the result. Grubb has screwed up so many promotion chances it is not even funny. Always a crucial dumb loss, using the wrong goalie and general suckage at random moments. There is no reason with so much "hockey" is so bad at it.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I think they limit Croatia to under 40 shots without the food poisoning

 

[ozo]

Grubb seemingly has had food poisoning for years...

 

[HungryFrank]

That Team China jersey design is older than players on that team

 

[Briser la glace]

I'm not too familiar with the Div II tournament... Any reason why He and Wang don't play ?

 

[SoundAndFury]

I'm not too familiar with the Div II tournament... Any reason why He and Wang don't play ?

There can be any number of reasons, I don't think there is a sure way to know for sure unless you asked them. The most common ones are:

1) they consider their club season the priority to playing for the U20 squad (happens even in top division)
2) their ties with the "home country" are very loose or non-existent so they don't really care how it does at the U20 level against the countries they haven't heard of before
3) they are still waiting for an invite from their new, usually much stronger hockey country

There is a laundry list of guys who are absent from WJC events (or senior ones since the same logic still applies there) every year, and quite a few cover all the bases listed above (Daniel Sprong is probably the most famous case). I think the prospects you listed (I wrote "Chinese prospects" initially, but are they really) might be among the "all of the above" ones.

 

[Coffee]

@licanin why was the camera angel so bad

 

[licanin]

@licanin why was the camera angel so bad

Because the shape of whole structure doesn't allow for camera to be on higher ground.

 

[Coffee]

Because the shape of whole structure doesn't allow for camera to be on higher ground.

Not yet anyways

 

[SoundAndFury]

I have no issue with the camera angle but sound cutting in and out every 5 minutes is ridiculous.