Olympics: 2018 Winter Olympics Qualifying

[Maverick41]

I feel like if Germany, Latvia, or Austria were in group F they'd be the favorites to win group F...

Germany has beaten Latvia in the last 3 WC matches, of course with both teams missing players...Germany also has missed intermittently some euros as well as the NA players...that's why I pick Germany, I'll go 40:35:25:0. Austria would also benefit from gaining normal NA and euro players they don't have.

Big problem for Germany could be that they usually suck when they play against Austria. I could see this ending in a three way tie. With Latvia, Austria and Germany finish with 2 wins and a loss each.

But let's wait until at least the preliminary rosters are announced and we know who will be available. Because between these 3 teams a couple of top players a playing or not could make a big difference.

For Germany, Draisaitl, Rieder and the way he has been playing lately Kühnhackl would be huge. Also any defenseman would be big upgrade.
And I am sure there are players who'd have similar impacts for Latvia and Austria.

 

[kabidjan18]

This just in, the idiotic IOC is refusing to cover costs for Insurance and travel for the Olympic tournament. This definitely complicates the prognosis of players from the NHL playing in the Olympics. I imagine it will also complicate things for college players too because we live in a world where everything needs to be insured and college students won't pay their own travel fees to some city in Korea. I also don't think European leagues will be fond of paying travel expenses and insurance either. This will come back to bite the IOC in the butt later when they go to the negotiating table with TV companies and are offered contracts a fraction of what they formerly were...

In retaliation the IIHF should create an IIHF world cup to go along with the yearly friendly tournaments...

 

[Urbanskog]

This just in, the idiotic IOC is refusing to cover costs for Insurance and travel for the Olympic tournament. This definitely complicates the prognosis of players from the NHL playing in the Olympics. I imagine it will also complicate things for college players too because we live in a world where everything needs to be insured and college students won't pay their own travel fees to some city in Korea. I also don't think European leagues will be fond of paying travel expenses and insurance either. This will come back to bite the IOC in the butt later when they go to the negotiating table with TV companies and are offered contracts a fraction of what they formerly were...

In retaliation the IIHF should create an IIHF world cup to go along with the yearly friendly tournaments...

It's just an additional cost of 10 million so it's not a biggie, really.

 

[snipes]

This just in, the idiotic IOC is refusing to cover costs for Insurance and travel for the Olympic tournament. This definitely complicates the prognosis of players from the NHL playing in the Olympics. I imagine it will also complicate things for college players too because we live in a world where everything needs to be insured and college students won't pay their own travel fees to some city in Korea. I also don't think European leagues will be fond of paying travel expenses and insurance either. This will come back to bite the IOC in the butt later when they go to the negotiating table with TV companies and are offered contracts a fraction of what they formerly were...

In retaliation the IIHF should create an IIHF world cup to go along with the yearly friendly tournaments...

Stupid, stupid IOC

 

[RC51]

here we go again. the IIHF wants all the players for FREE and all the TV money they can get their hands on. then 2 months after the actual games, 20 of the IIHF top brass will be arrested for fraud and theft as MILLONS have disappeared for the back accounts and transferred to off shore accounts with NO extradition. The 20 will be replaced and then all the fraudsters will get a pardon.

 

[Urbanskog]

here we go again. the IIHF wants all the players for FREE and all the TV money they can get their hands on. then 2 months after the actual games, 20 of the IIHF top brass will be arrested for fraud and theft as MILLONS have disappeared for the back accounts and transferred to off shore accounts with NO extradition. The 20 will be replaced and then all the fraudsters will get a pardon.

You have to work on your reading comprehension, it's the IOC which refuses to pay.

 

[kabidjan18]

Denmark is bringing the house this qualification tournament.
http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/...=10927&cHash=268d4f4b8f7e8138d4e0ae7b8e6b1fbc
Slovenia will have Anze Kopitar
http://www.rtvslo.si/sport/hokej/kopitar-minsk-je-potrjen-z-moje-strani-nhl-ni-problema/394372
Germany has confirmed Tom Kuhnhackl
http://www.sport1.de/us-sport/nhl/2...lympia-qualifikation-fuer-deutschland-spielen
Austria have confirmed Michael Grabner, Michael Raffl, and Thomas Raffl
http://m.kleinezeitung.at/s/sport/eishockey/ersteliga/vsv/5036693/index.do
French are showing out in the group of life with Antoine Roussel, Yohann Auvitu and Pierre Edouard Bellemare.
http://www.hockeyfrance.com/files/E...nior_Masculin_TQO_2016_-_15_08_au_5_09(1).pdf

The tournament is shaping up very well. More to come.

 

[FiLe]

Denmark looks pretty damn impressive. They'll finally have all their best players in a single team, and the result is a squad that would probably give even the Big Six countries a run for their money.

It's extremely cruel irony that should they qualify, the team representing them in the actual olympic tournament may end up looking far less impressive.


Here's hoping that the NHL and the IOC end up seeing eye to eye in the end. Looking at these rosters, at least it seems like the players themselves don't doubt it.

 

[xxxx]

that's great to hear

 

[ForumNamePending]

Denmark looks pretty damn impressive. They'll finally have all their best players in a single team, and the result is a squad that would probably give even the Big Six countries a run for their money.

It's extremely cruel irony that should they qualify, the team representing them in the actual olympic tournament may end up looking far less impressive.


Here's hoping that the NHL and the IOC end up seeing eye to eye in the end. Looking at these rosters, at least it seems like the players themselves don't doubt it.

It's pretty amazing that if you go back not even 15 years Denmark had never produced an NHL player, and hadn't played in the top tier of the IIHF WC since 1949 (where they lost to Canada by 40-something to nothing).

Now as of 2016, about a dozen Danes have seen action in the NHL, the team has played in the top division of the WC since '03 (including some QFs), and a full strength team would feature a bunch of current NHL players, and be filled out with guys who are (very) good players in top European leagues. All this with a pretty small player pool and infrastructure, and probably not a whole lot of money to work with either.

It will be unfortunate if this generation of players never get the chance to see what they can do in a 'best vs best' tournament, Olympics or otherwise.

 

[kabidjan18]

At the German camp right now are Tom Kuhnhackl, Christian Ehrhoff, Tobias Rieder and former NHLers Marcel Goc and Korbinian Holzer. Currently missing are Leon Draisaitl, Dennis Seidenberg, and Thomas Greiss, as well as WC and DEL standout Philip Gogulla. Like Denmark easily the favorites in their group.

http://www.deb-online.de/2016/07/nationalmannschaft-premiere-fuer-stanley-cup-sieger-kuehnhackl/

 

[tony d]

Denmark's the next great hockey nation if you ask me. Maybe they won't win a Gold at any time but Denmark winning a medal's not that crazy of a notion.

 

[kabidjan18]

Germany just posted a super OP roster. Here's my analysis for team Austria the selection portion though.

https://authockeytxreports.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/riga-olympic-qualifications-part-1/

 

[Namejs]

Seeing how there aren't any separate threads for each team, I'll post my take on the Latvian line-up here.

In a nutshell, pretty much every key player is on the extended roster. Most notable omissions are Rihards Bukarts, Blueger and Jevpalovs, all three of whom are young AHL-based forwards and 2 of them have recently signed an NHL contract, so they're probably going to focus on their pre-season camp in North America.

Goalies:
Merzlikins (Lugano/NLA)
Masalskis (Lada/KHL)
Gudlevskis (Crunch/AHL)

D:
Kulda (Jokerit/KHL) - Bartulis (Admiral/KHL)
Sotnieks (Lada/KHL) - Galvins (Dinamo/KHL)
K. Redlihs (Dinamo/KHL) - Rekis (Panther/DEL)
Freibergs (Dinamo/KHL)

F:
Daugavins (Torpedo/KHL) - Dzerins (Hradec Kralove/CZE) - Darzins (Dinamo/KHL)
Indrasis (Dinamo/KHL) - Girgensons (Sabres/NHL) - Karsums (Dynamo/KHL)
Bukarts (Zlin/CZE) - Vasiljevs (Penguine/DEL) - Redlihs (Dinamo/KHL)
Kenins (Lions/NLA) - Abols (Comets/AHL) - Dzierkals (Huskies/WHL)
Meija (Dinamo/KHL)

Germany has a bunch more NHL players, but I like our chances anyway.

 

[ozo]

How sexy is to see Kulda and Bartulis on the roster finally?

 

[Namejs]

How sexy is to see Kulda and Bartulis on the roster finally?

Almost as sexy as the prospect of seeing Girgensons, Karsums and Kenins playing together. Pure, unadulterated grit right there. They're going to suffocate the German/Austrian top lines.

And, yup, the top 4 Ds are probably going to have to play 25+ minutes a game.

Anyway, assuming everyone's healthy, we're going to have an incredibly well-structured roster for Latvian standards. With the arrival of Latvian Jagr - Vasiljevs - we now finally have a soft-handed C, who can be slotted in the 1st line, if needed (or on the PP, f.e.), which has been a bit of a problem these last couple of years.

I feel like offensively this could be one of our best line-ups in history already. We had guys like Cipulis, Pavlovs, Berzins, Jass playing serious minutes in Sochi. Just to think of what it could shape up to be in 2018 makes me salivate a little.

 

[ozo]

Almost as sexy as the prospect of seeing Girgensons, Karsums and Kenins playing together. Pure, unadulterated grit right there.

I just hope Girgensons will do waaaay better offensively than last spring, he looked next to useless :/

 

[Namejs]

I just hope Girgensons will do waaaay better offensively than last spring, he looked next to useless :/

Having seen something like 150+ games of his, I don't think he's going to look that much different. He's just not that kind of a player.

Girgensons has to be used correctly by the coaches, which most definitely isn't an offensive role on the 1st PP unit. It was sad to see that they didn't have the balls to drop him to the 2nd/3d line earlier and get him off the PP this last Spring, when he obviously wasn't clicking with his linemates.

Zemgus excels at maintaining possession of the puck, battling along the boards and being a gritty defensive forward first and foremost. In terms of advanced stats, he is among the leading NHL guys at that specific role, but his contribution offensively has always been more limited. So to me it means that he must play on a shutdown line along with someone like Kenins and Karsums. Otherwise he's not really doing what he does best, while at the same time bringing our offensive production down.

 

[ozo]

Having seen something like 150+ games of his, I don't think he's going to look that much different. He's just not that kind of a player.

Girgensons has to be used correctly by the coaches, which most definitely isn't an offensive role on the 1st PP unit. It was sad to see that they didn't have the balls to drop him to the 2nd/3d line earlier and get him off the PP this last Spring, when he obviously wasn't clicking with his linemates.

Zemgus excels at maintaining possession of the puck, battling along the boards and being a gritty defensive forward first and foremost. In terms of advanced stats, he is among the leading NHL guys at that specific role, but his contribution offensively has always been more limited. So to me it means that he must play on a shutdown line along with someone like Kenins and Karsums. Otherwise he's not really doing what he does best, while at the same time bringing our offensive production down.

I'll disagree, I've seen him score plenty of impressive goals in the NHL (in earlier days of his NHL career though), to expect more against considerably weaker opposition sides like the ones he faced in spring.

 

[mrkolice]

slovenia might surprise and win in minsk, and qualify for the olympics again. sure, denmark is a huge paper favorite, but i do like our practical chances here.

it's been a long summer, all the teams will feel the rust and such conditions are perfect to attack as an underdog. a big plus could be the situation with our coach nik zupancic, also coach in renewed club jesenice, where a lot of mutual trainings are held. it's like a small family business.

forwards: there's enough depth to mix the top-9 lines a bit. the standard way is to keep the second line intact (ticar, jeglic sabolic = trio addio), that means kopitar and mursak will lead the 1st line, while urbas will take over the 3rd. different combos are possible as well, mursak can play on C as he often did with cska last season.

the defence is the biggest enigma, i expect huge minutes from kovacevic, but other than that i'm in the dark. goalies should be fine.

on monday 29th aug 18:00 cet a friendly match slovenia - italy will be held in bled, that should answer a lot of questions.

 

[Namejs]

I'll disagree, I've seen him score plenty of impressive goals in the NHL (in earlier days of his NHL career though), to expect more against considerably weaker opposition sides like the ones he faced in spring.

I didn't say he doesn't know how to score a goal, I said his offensive production is limited. He's no John Scott, but Darzins, Daugavins, etc., are clearly better than Girgensons offensively. 1 point in 3 games or so is what you can expect of him on average at the WCH level. Scoring a few highlight-reel goals in 3 years doesn't change that.

Also, his style of play is better suited to NA-sized rinks.

 

[kabidjan18]

I didn't say he doesn't know how to score a goal, I said his offensive production is limited. He's no John Scott, but Darzins, Daugavins, etc., are clearly better than Girgensons offensively. 1 point in 3 games or so is what you can expect of him on average at the WCH level. Scoring a few highlight-reel goals in 3 years doesn't change that.

Also, his style of play is better suited to NA-sized rinks.

Hey what's up! He's been top line since like sochi though. I swear Latvia took forever to release a roster we all had ours out like 3 weeks earlier.

 

[kabidjan18]

What I like about Austria's roster is that there aren't any surprises or definite marks of favoritism and I think that's what most people are liking about their team's rosters too, there are no B team players you send because it's the World Championships and not enough people care. No Bernhard Fechtig, Robert Lembacher, Benjamin Petrik, Stefan Geier, the list is endless.

As far as performance is concerned the usual. We'll see how much Haudum has improved otherwise I don't know if there's anyone new, just the right lineup for once not a joke lineup. All the best guys together, not a few best guys mixed in with a bunch of coach's favorites.

 

[Namejs]

Hey what's up! He's been top line since like sochi though. I swear Latvia took forever to release a roster we all had ours out like 3 weeks earlier.

Hey.

No, Girgensons has mostly played on the 2nd line with the national team. He played alongside Stals and Indrasis back in 2014 WCH and Kenins, Sirokovs and a bunch of other people this year. IIRC, he was dropped further down the pecking order at the end of the tournament.

In Sochi Girgs was paired up with Karsums and they both had to shut down opposing top lines. Yes, they had a lot of playing time, but they scored only a single goal during the entire tournament and this is how it looked like:

That's a typical Girgensons goal right there.

If you remember the game against Canada, the entire team was trying not to concede. The nature of the qualifying tournament in Riga is going to be totally different. We actually have to create offense, score goals and win games now.

 

[kabidjan18]

Hey.

No, Girgensons has mostly played on the 2nd line with the national team. He played alongside Stals and Indrasis back in 2014 WCH and Kenins, Sirokovs and a bunch of other people this year. IIRC, he was dropped further down the pecking order at the end of the tournament.

In Sochi Girgs was paired up with Karsums and they both had to shut down opposing top lines. Yes, they had a lot of playing time, but they scored only a single goal during the entire tournament and this is how it looked like:

That's a typical Girgensons goal right there.

If you remember the game against Canada, the entire team was trying not to concede. The nature of the qualifying tournament in Riga is going to be totally different. We actually have to create offense, score goals and win games now.

Mmh, yeah line 2 in Sochi was better at scoring.

I like Austria's chances in game 1, won't be easy but I could see it working out. Gotta try your best to flip the line script, so trying to match up a line with Brian Lebler and Thomas Raffl as much as possible and maybe Hundi against the Darzins line, and then deploy something with Grabner, Raffl, and Haudum on it against the Girgensons line or the Bukarts line.