I just returned from Prague, saw four Switzerland games and seven others, and I must say I don't get all the negativity around the team.
I already posted my opinion on the game against France, and I will add that even the Czech Republic and Canada had periods when they were under heavy pressure against this team. Germany was kept to zero scoring opportunity, no small feat when you see what they were able to do against Sweden, Latvia was outplayed from start to finish and only won because for some reason Masalskis forget he's mediocre when playing for his national team (and he did the same trick against Austria), and Sweden was put under pressure for the entire third period, resulting in the only point earned by one of the bottom five team against the top three (so far). Yesterday's game was terrible, but could have easily ended with a more respectable score without so much blown coverage on defense.
My overall impression is that with only decent finishing skills, the scores would have looked better (at least for the Germany and Latvia games) and no one would be complaining, but the roster is what it is and there's no way around it, Plüss retired, Martschini and Bertschy had their chance but things didn't work out, Niederreiter is not available, Romy and Brunner suffered late season injuries and you can't create offensive players out of thin air.
I wasn't the most enthusiastic about Hanlon and some of the critics, most notably the poor power play, are warranted, but the constant bashing is undeserved. He works with what's available and implemented a system that has a good balance between offense and defense, as could be expected from his time with Belarus. Apart from that 2013 run, the Simpson era was full of inconsistent play too.
Sure, it took a lucky combination of results to get to the quarterfinals, but after 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2011, it's about time one of those works in Switzerland's favor.
