WJC: Czech U20 team

[Goodman68]

That d next year could be lethal.

Galvas, Dvorak, jiricek, badinka, Port, fibigr koci.

Hrabal and milota

That is a great start!

Sale is back... Feldman and stancl. Metalrskiy and Perez. Zidlicky. Them toss in petr, benak, holinka and mix in a Curran and we should be good.

Time will tell. Lots of good young players coming up.

I'd like to be that optimistic too, but I'm not really excited about the offense, it's just an average group of players.
And Hrabal, after about five absolutely useless goals, he didn't inspire much confidence in me either. Once he catches like a god to almost literally execute us the next match..

 

[Swipes]

I'd like to be that optimistic too, but I'm not really excited about the offense, it's just an average group of players.
And Hrabal, after about five absolutely useless goals, he didn't inspire much confidence in me either. Once he catches like a god to almost literally execute us the next match..

He needs to work on his consistency, and his weaker glove side. I'm sure he will improve and be better next year.

 

[illone84]

Still a successful tournie for Czechia, no matter if they get bronze or not. Taking out Canada is never easy in a game of death. Either way, good luck in the bronze game!

 

[Czechboy]

He needs to work on his consistency, and his weaker glove side. I'm sure he will improve and be better next year.

Exactly.. I look forward to 19 year old hrabal. What a luxury to have. Hopefully this pisses him off and motivates him.

 

[Goodman68]

Exactly.. I look forward to 19 year old hrabal. What a luxury to have. Hopefully this pisses him off and motivates him.

I wouldn't even be surprised if, for example, Milota or someone else catches him in the end. I think we have luxury options in goal. In any case, the goalkeeper must be better than what Hrabal showed today. And if Hrabal is the far better one again, I have no problem with that.
And I agree that it was a good tournament overall. Bronze would be fantastic of course..

He needs to work on his consistency, and his weaker glove side. I'm sure he will improve and be better next year.

I wish..

 

[Swipes]

I wouldn't even be surprised if, for example, Milota or someone else catches him in the end. I think we have luxury options in goal. In any case, the goalkeeper must be better than what Hrabal showed today. And if Hrabal is the far better one again, I have no problem with that.
And I agree that it was a good tournament overall. Bronze would be fantastic of course..


I wish..

Let's hope. I'm sure he's aware of it.

Fingers crossed for bronze! Would be great to get a second medal in a row since forever.

 

[martygod12]

I honestly say that I expected dominance from Kulich and he "only" plays average in a solid team. He played better last year. I'm not sure if we'll be stronger next year. Both Šapovaliv and Kulich will be gone, from the year 05 no one stands out in attack, I don't see any extra strong group from 06 either, of course the defense looks very good. But the 2007 vintage could really be good..

Agreed I love the guy, but I cant help myself to feel dissapointed from his performance this year. Basically he scored only one somehow "important" goal against the Swiss, others was just Norway and then some assists.

Last year he was much more of an impact and of course scoring that goal in semifinals.

It was the whole top formation, Sapo too and it cost us a gold medal game imo, they just werent as dominant as they should have been in those important matches.

 

[martygod12]

I'd like to be that optimistic too, but I'm not really excited about the offense, it's just an average group of players.
And Hrabal, after about five absolutely useless goals, he didn't inspire much confidence in me either. Once he catches like a god to almost literally execute us the next match..

I dont know why not being optimistic. We have at least three really good eligible GK. Defense looks more then good, and offense maybe not as good as this year, but still Sale, Jecho, Stancl, Perez, Felcman ... plus guys like O.Kos or Curran looks really interesting too .. and dont forget the underagers Benak, Pekar or Novotny for example ... no I have really high hopes for the team next year, it looks really strong, at least on paper

 

[Goodman68]

Agreed I love the guy, but I cant help myself to feel dissapointed from his performance this year. Basically he scored only one somehow "important" goal against the Swiss, others was just Norway and then some assists.

Last year he was much more of an impact and of course scoring that goal in semifinals.

It was the whole top formation, Sapo too and it cost us a gold medal game imo, they just werent as dominant as they should have been in those important matches.

I feel that way too. I would almost say that players like Melovský or Becher showed more at the championship. Maybe it's just a disappointment because I expected better performances from them.. They have one more game to improve their reputation.

 

[martygod12]

I feel that way too. I would almost say that players like Melovský or Becher showed more at the championship. Maybe it's just a disappointment because I expected better performances from them.. They have one more game to improve their reputation.

Yeah the first line should have been lethal, but they were really invisible lot of times, especially in those tough games. Its a shame, but luckily other guys came through for them and we can still get the bronze!

 

[Goodman68]

I dont know why not being optimistic. We have at least three really good eligible GK. Defense looks more then good, and offense maybe not as good as this year, but still Sale, Jecho, Stancl, Perez, Felcman ... plus guys like O.Kos or Curran looks really interesting too .. and dont forget the underagers Benak, Pekar or Novotny for example ... no I have really high hopes for the team next year, it looks really strong, at least on paper

Benák, Pekař or Novotný will still be two years younger, I think that in two years, when this group will be 18 years old and there will still be Galvas, Jiříček, Fibigr, Badinka in defense... the team will be really strong.
Yes, Kos must definitely be in the team in a year, he is a player I really like.

 

[Czechboy]

That is another thing.. we look good two years from now too! I'm not saying gold after gold but we are looking good for next two years and hopefully a bronze tomorrow

 

[Czechboy]

One guess who led us in minutes today?






Galvas!

Hamada was second. Only two over 20 minutes.

 

[Wooren]

One guess who led us in minutes today?






Galvas!

Hamada was second. Only two over 20 minutes.

Good, he better get the most minutes tomorrow as well. Hamara on the hand... yikes.

None of this matters if Hrabal gives us yet another stinker though.

 

[Czechboy]

Good, he better get the most minutes tomorrow as well. Hamara on the hand... yikes.

None of this matters if Hrabal gives us yet another stinker though.

He is good every other game.. tomorrow is his day!lol.

 

[Czechboy]

Unrelated but wow

 

[Swipes]

That is another thing.. we look good two years from now too! I'm not saying gold after gold but we are looking good for next two years and hopefully a bronze tomorrow

I feel like we say that we are going to be stronger "next year/in two years" every year when we lose. It is true that overall we are trending upwards in terms of semi-finals appearances (3 in a row now) and finally a medal last year (let's see what happens tomorrow-bronze is very feasible). However, the gold medal still eludes us. I wonder how long we still need to wait until we get it. It's been 23 years already and I've been waiting since 2008

 

[Nowotny]

He needs to work on his consistency, and his weaker glove side. I'm sure he will improve and be better next year.

Inconsistency is a middle name of all young goalies

 

[Czechboy]

I feel like we say that we are going to be stronger "next year/in two years" every year when we lose. It is true that overall we are trending upwards in terms of semi-finals appearances (3 in a row now) and finally a medal last year (let's see what happens tomorrow-bronze is very feasible). However, the gold medal still eludes us. I wonder how long we still need to wait until we get it. It's been 23 years already and I've been waiting since 2008

By getting better I mean will make quarters, good chance of winning those and a few good guys get drafted.

The last two decades we have been cannon fodder. 1 or 2 good wingers and a drafted goalie.

As far as gold... I'm not sure we ever will again tbh. Our next two tourneys are very strong groups... 2 years from now we have milota with galvas and jiricek on top pair. Great start and that is when we have some forwards in the pipe.

I'm more pleased with us restocking the cupboards with promising players as we were slipping. I'd like it to be a big 5 again. We are close but need 3 more good NHL d. To me svozil, jiricek, hamara, Dvorak, galvas and alscher all have hope. Time will tell. This year our potential NHL d fell apart spectacularly. Kral and galvas back in Europe. Hajek at Spangler. Simek and zboril in ahl till they return to Europe. No way I'd believe none of them make it but here we are.lol

 

[czechcanadian]

I feel like we say that we are going to be stronger "next year/in two years" every year when we lose. It is true that overall we are trending upwards in terms of semi-finals appearances (3 in a row now) and finally a medal last year (let's see what happens tomorrow-bronze is very feasible). However, the gold medal still eludes us. I wonder how long we still need to wait until we get it. It's been 23 years already and I've been waiting since 2008

I’ve been waiting since 07! Lol
I definitely never predicted this team would be amazing this year. It was always going to be a bit of a “down” year if you could call it that.
Definitely ended differently than I expected in a good way obviously.
Bronze should be ours today.

 

[Goodman68]

This had the makings of a tragicomedy.

 

[Swipes]

I’ve been waiting since 07! Lol
I definitely never predicted this team would be amazing this year. It was always going to be a bit of a “down” year if you could call it that.
Definitely ended differently than I expected in a good way obviously.
Bronze should be ours today.

Yeah agreed. Well, I'm happy to know that I'm not the only one who was has been waiting that long. Makes me feel better haha!

 

[Goodman68]

Over the mountains and mines, he wobbled too much, but he reached the finish line..

 

[WarriorofTime]

4th, 2nd and 3rd last three tournaments. Only 6 skaters out of 20 are NHL Draft Picks, so definitely a team that is punching above its weight at the junior level right now. Very nice showings for a federation that had been down for a very long time. And notably, they beat USA (2022), Sweden (2023) and Canada (2024) in the knockout stage in each of those semifinal appearances, so it's not like they're just getting lucky draws and beating lesser countries. Only thing missing there is a Gold...

14 players that are playing in North America. I think the next goal will be to build up their own domestic pipeline and get more players to stay home, which is always better from a long-term sustainability standpoint (see USA, Sweden and Finland, which have junior rosters every year of primarily domestic players).

 

[24 others]

Looks like Kulich finally showed up